Biomedical subjects

H Landrine

Publications and source records attributed to H Landrine.

27 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

PubMed1992

Culture and health-related schemas: a review and proposal for interdisciplinary integration.

We present a comprehensive review of anthropological, sociological, and psychological theory and data on the structure, content, and function of health-related schemas. Health psychology's need to integrate specific variables and principles from the other disciplines is highlighted. Suggestions for future research are offered, and the importance of cultural factors in health beliefs is emphasized.

Anthropology↗

PubMed1987

On the politics of madness: a preliminary analysis of the relationship between social roles and psychotherapy.

This study presents a brief account of a theory that argues that diagnostic categories of madness and their prototypes are equivalent to the fulfillment of the roles and role stereotypes of the status groups that tend to receive the diagnoses most often. Two studies provided tentative support for the theory. The results of the first study revealed that clinicians attributed to the stereotypes of various status groups precisely those diagnoses that the groups tend to receive. The second study revealed that undergraduates who were given diagnostic prototypes from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd edition (1980) (DSM-III) and were asked to predict the status characteristics of the persons described therein correctly reproduced well known epidemiological data. These results imply an intimate relationship between social and psychiatric taxonomies, and thus raise questions about the meaning of madness in our society.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Asking age and identification may decrease minors' access to tobacco.

BACKGROUND: Many merchant education programs entail efforts to increase cashiers' requests for minors' age and/or identification (proving themselves old enough to purchase cigarettes) as a means of decreasing minors' access to tobacco. However, whether such questions are actually associated with decreased sales to minors has never been investigated. We present the first investigation of the role of such questions in sales of tobacco to minors. METHODS: Thirty-six minors, representing equal numbers of girls, boys, whites, blacks, and Latinos and of 10-, 14-, and 16-year-olds, each attempted to purchase cigarettes once in each of 72 stores, for a total of 2,567 purchase attempts. The frequency of asking the children their age and/or for identification (ID) was analyzed along with the role of these questions in subsequent sales. RESULTS: The data revealed that requesting age/ID was rare (occurring 17% of the time) despite the laws in California requiring clerks to do so. When age was asked, however, minors were refused cigarettes 95.8% of the time, and when ID was requested, they were refused cigarettes 99.0% of the time. Asking for ID may be more strongly associated with decreased sales than asking age. For example, for 16-year-olds, asking age decreased sales from 57.2% (when no questions were asked) to 8.5% of the time, and asking ID decreased sales to 2.4% of the time. CONCLUSIONS: These data provide empirical support for the widespread belief that the success of interventions with retailers can be improved by enhancing efforts to increase merchants' requests for children's ID.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The effects on children of participating in studies of minors' access to tobacco.

BACKGROUND: Ethical concerns about the effect on children of participating in studies of minors' access to tobacco are frequently raised by human subjects' committees but have not been assessed empirically. Data on the effects of such participation on the smoking-related behavior of minors are needed. METHOD: Forty-eight children were screened and selected in 1993 to participate in a study of minors' access to tobacco. All 48 attended tobacco-education workshops, none were smokers, and all denied an intention to smoke in the future. Thirty-six of them were (randomly) assigned to the experimental group who made 2,567 purchase attempts (PAs) between 1993 and 1994, and 11 were assigned to a control group who made no PAs. Two years after screening (1 year after completion of the study) all were sent a follow-up questionnaire assessing current intentions to smoke and other smoking-related behaviors. RESULTS: Minors who made PAs were significantly less likely than those who did not to indicate an intention to smoke in the future; only 12.5% of experimental vs 71.4% of control group minors intended to (or might) smoke in the future. Minors who made PAs also were significantly more likely than those who had not to discuss smoking with peers and to encourage peers and family to quit smoking or to avoid initiating smoking. In 2,567 PAs, minors were never physically threatened, touched, or harmed, and they were treated with verbal hostility in only 73 (2.8%) of their PAs. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that participating in a study of minors' access to tobacco does not increase smoking or intentions to smoke among the minors. Rather, such participation may be associated with low intentions to smoke and with increased tobacco-control efforts on the part of the minors. The effects of participating in such studies may be positive for the minors, their families, and their peers. Participating in such studies does not place minors at risk for physical harm, and their risk for verbal abuse is low.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Minors' access to single cigarettes in California.

OBJECTIVE: As the cost of a pack of cigarettes continues to increase, minors may resort to purchasing single cigarettes ("loosies"), but no clear data on their rate of access to singles are available. This study examined the availability of singles to minors by gender, age, and ethnicity. DESIGN: In a factorial experiment, 36 minors of different sexes, ages, and ethnic groups each attempted to purchase a single cigarette once in half of a group of 72 randomly selected stores in middle-class California communities, for a total of 1,271 single cigarette purchase attempts. RESULTS: Minors were able to purchase singles 7.9% of the time, with this access rate being significantly higher (16.2%) for older (16-year-old) minors. Minors were typically charged 15 cents for the single, and singles were sold by 28 of the 72 (38.9%) stores. CONCLUSIONS: Minors have considerable access to single cigarettes in middle-class, California communities, despite California laws banning their sale. Minors' rate of access to singles in poorer communities and in states that lack legislation against selling them is probably significantly higher. Because singles facilitate cigarette purchases by minors who lack money, any legislation that increases the cost of a pack of cigarettes must also explicitly ban the sale of singles.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

An instrument for assessing the quality of tobacco-control policies: the ACT-L scale.

BACKGROUND: Efforts to prevent and decrease tobacco use and tobacco-related disease include improving the quality of tobacco-control laws to make them more stringent in controlling tobacco advertising, youth access, and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). However, because there are no instruments to empirically evaluate the quality of such laws, it has been difficult to demonstrate that their quality is associated with decreased youth access or tobacco-related morbidity. We present the first instrument for empirically assessing the quality of tobacco-control policies. METHODS: Recommendations for the content of an ideal, comprehensive tobacco-control policy were used as the 55 items in the Assessment of the Comprehensiveness of Tobacco Laws Scale (ACT-L Scale). Raters evaluated 71 tobacco-control laws with the scale; 70 of these were actual California laws and 1 was a model law from Americans for Non-smokers' Rights (ANR). RESULTS: Interrater (r = 0.64-0.89) and internal-consistency (r = 0.63-0.88) reliability of the scale and subscales were high, and validity was established by demonstrating that the ANR model law received a significantly higher total score (mean = 18.75) than all actual laws (mean = 2.04). California tobacco-control laws were poor in all areas (youth access, ETS, tobacco advertising). CONCLUSIONS: The ACT-L scale can be used to compare and evaluate the quality of tobacco-control laws, highlight areas in which further policy efforts are needed, quantify improvement in such policies, and empirically demonstrate the positive health impact of high-quality tobacco-control laws.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Racial discrimination and cigarette smoking among Blacks: findings from two studies.

We present the first studies to explore the relationship between racial discrimination and cigarette smoking among Blacks. One hundred fifty-three (Study 1) and 300 (Study 2) Black adults completed a survey on their experiences with discrimination and their smoking. Logistic regressions revealed that racial discrimination was the best predictor of smoking among Blacks in both studies, and was a better predictor than status variables. Smoking prevalence rates for Blacks who experience frequent vs infrequent discrimination were 26.7% and 6.4%, respectively; and for those who experience racial discrimination as extremely vs mildly stressful, rates were 42.2% and 20.8%, respectively. We conclude that the stress of racial discrimination may play an important role in smoking among Blacks and, therefore, warrants further investigation.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Introduction: the state of research on black women in health psychology and behavioral medicine.

In this article we briefly review data on the poor state of Black women's health and then analyze the nature of research on their health in health psychology and behavioral medicine. We demonstrate that health psychology and behavioral medicine not only exclude Black women as participants in empirical studies, but also fail to thoroughly investigate the problems that are most prevalent among and accountable for the poor health of Black women. We conclude that this special issue devoted to Black women's health is crucial and long overdue.

Black or African American↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Conclusions: the future of research on black women's health.

The preponderance of studies on Black women's health cited in the eight articles of this special issue were published in medical and public health journals, rather than in health psychology journals. Health psychology stands conspicuously apart from other health disciplines in this neglect and exclusion of Blacks and Black women. On the other hand, although there are many studies of Black women's health published in medical and public health journals, these studies have neglected a variety of important cultural and social-contextual variables, and often are methodologically inadequate. Hence, we conclude that studies on Black women's health that examine neglected variables and employ rigorous methods are needed in health psychology, behavioral medicine, and the other health disciplines as well. Specific variables and hypotheses that might be addressed in such future research are highlighted.

Black or African American↗