Biomedical subjects

Helene Raskin White

Publications and source records attributed to Helene Raskin White.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Childhood victimization and illicit drug use in middle adulthood.

Using a prospective cohort design, the authors examined in this study whether childhood victimization increases the risk for illicit drug use and related problems in middle adulthood. Court-documented cases of childhood physical and sexual abuse and neglect and matched controls (N = 892) were first assessed as young adults (mean age = 29 years) during 1989-1995 and again in middle adulthood (mean age = 40 years) during 2000-2002. In middle adulthood, abused and neglected individuals were about 1.5 times more likely than controls to report using any illicit drug (in particular, marijuana) during the past year and reported use of a greater number of illicit drugs and more substance-use-related problems compared with controls. The current results reveal the long-term impact of childhood victimization on drug use in middle adulthood. These new results reinforce the need for targeted interventions with abused and neglected children, adolescents, and adults, and particularly for women.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Increases in alcohol and marijuana use during the transition out of high school into emerging adulthood: The effects of leaving home, going to college, and high school protective factors.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the effects of leaving home and going to college on changes in the frequency of alcohol use, heavy episodic drinking, and marijuana use shortly after leaving high school. We also examined how protective factors in late adolescence predict post-high school substance use and moderate the effects of leaving home and going to college. METHOD: Data came from subjects (N = 319; 53% male) interviewed at the end of 12th grade and again approximately 6 months later, as part of the Raising Healthy Children project. RESULTS: Leaving home and going to college were significantly related to increases in the frequency of alcohol use and heavy episodic drinking from high school to emerging adulthood but not to changes in marijuana use. Having fewer friends who used each substance protected against increases in the frequency of alcohol use, heavy episodic drinking, and marijuana use. Higher religiosity protected against increases in alcohol-and marijuana-use frequency. Higher parental monitoring protected against increases in heavy episodic drinking and moderated the effect of going to college on marijuana use. Lower sensation seeking lessened the effect of going to college on increases in alcohol use and heavy episodic drinking. CONCLUSIONS: To prevent increases in substance use in emerging adulthood, interventions should concentrate on strengthening prosocial involvement and parental monitoring during high school. In addition, youths with high sensation seeking might be targeted for added intervention.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

An examination of pathways from childhood victimization to violence: the role of early aggression and problematic alcohol use.

Using prospective data from a cohort design study involving documented cases of child abuse and neglect and a matched control group, we examine two potential pathways between childhood victimization and violent criminal behavior: early aggressive behavior and problematic drinking. Structural equation models, including controls for race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, parental alcoholism, and parental criminality, revealed different pathways for men and women. For men, child maltreatment has direct and indirect (through aggressive behavior and problematic alcohol use) paths to violence. For women, problematic alcohol use mediates the relationship between childhood victimization and violence, and, independent of child maltreatment, early aggression leads to alcohol problems, which lead to violence. Interventions for victims of childhood maltreatment need to recognize the role of early aggressive behavior and alcohol problems as risk factors for subsequent violence.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

The self and mental health: self-salience and the emergence of internalizing and externalizing problems.

How do schemas about self-salience--the importance of the self versus the collective in social relations--affect mental health? We propose that self-salience shapes the likelihood of experiencing internalizing or externalizing problems. Schemas that privilege others over the self increase the risk of internalizing symptoms, including depressive symptoms and anxiety, whereas those that privilege the self over others predispose individuals to externalizing behaviors of antisocial behavior and substance abuse. Furthermore, we propose that these schemas contribute to the gender differences that exist in these problems. We test these predictions with data from adolescents, the stage at which these problems and the gender differences in them arise. Results show that self-salience underlies both internalizing and externalizing problems. In addition, schemas about self-salience help explain the gender differences found in mental health problems.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2003

Does childhood victimization increase the risk of early death? A 25-year prospective study.

BACKGROUND: Abuse and neglect have been shown to influence the mental and physical health of children; however, few studies have examined whether childhood victimization leads to an increased risk of early death. PURPOSE: This paper compares mortality data and examines cause of death for a sample of 908 abused and/or neglected individuals and 667 matched controls who were followed up into young adulthood. METHODS: Using data from a prospective cohort design study, a large group of children with substantiated cases of abuse (physical and sexual) and/or neglect approximately 25 years ago were matched with a control group of children and both groups were followed up into adulthood. The National Death Index was searched twice and official death certificates were collected for most individuals who had died. RESULTS: Surprisingly, there were no significant differences in rates of mortality for the two groups (abuse and neglect = 3.5%, controls = 3.0%). Furthermore, victims of child abuse and neglect were not more likely to experience a violent death. CONCLUSIONS: Our results do not provide support for a heightened rate of early death in abused and neglected children followed up into young adulthood. Limitations of the study are discussed as well as potential reasons for these unexpected findings.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Diverse research on alcohol and aggression in humans: in memory of John A. Carpenter.

This article summarizes the proceedings of a symposium, chaired and co-organized by Helene Raskin White and co-organized by Peter R. Giancola, that was presented at the 2002 RSA Meeting in San Francisco. The goal of this symposium was to integrate findings from methodologically divergent studies on the topic of alcohol-related aggression in humans. The investigators focused on isolating mediators and moderators of the alcohol-aggression relationship. Peter R. Giancola presented laboratory data demonstrating how alcohol's acute effects on aggression are moderated by individual difference and contextual factors. Mitchell E. Berman presented laboratory data on alcohol's acute effects on self-induced aggression. Helene Raskin White reviewed prospective data on how alcohol affects the intergenerational transmission of family violence. Stephen Chermack reviewed data on the impact of a family history of alcoholism and a family history of violence on the development of childhood behavioral problems and adult problems with drugs, alcohol, and violence. Finally, Kenneth E. Leonard presented data on personal and contextual factors influencing alcohol-related barroom violence.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Developmental trajectories of cigarette use from early adolescence into young adulthood.

This study identified developmental trajectories of cigarette smoking from early adolescence into young adulthood, and delineated whether risk factors derived from a social learning-problem behavior framework could differentiate among trajectories. Participants (N=374) were interviewed five times from age 12 until age 30/31. Using growth mixture modeling, three trajectory groups were identified--heavy/regular, occasional/maturing out, and non/experimental smokers. Being a female, having higher disinhibition, receiving lower grades, and more frequent use of alcohol or drugs significantly increased the probability of belonging to a smoking trajectory group compared with being a nonsmoker. Higher disinhibition and receiving lower grades also differentiated regular smokers from the rest of the sample. None of the risk factors distinguished occasional from regular smokers. When models were tested separately by sex, disinhibition, other drug use, and school grades were associated with smoking for both sexes. On the other hand, environmental factors, including socioeconomic status, parent smoking and friend smoking, were related to smoking for females but not for males. Sex differences in developmental trajectories and in smoking behavior among regular smokers were notable. Future research should examine transitions and turning points from adolescence to adulthood that may affect cessation and escalation differently for males and females.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Problem drinking and intimate partner violence.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the role of problem drinking in intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration and victimization for men and women. We assessed (1) whether the relationship between problem drinking and IPV was spurious and (2) if relationship dissatisfaction and partner drinking mediated the effects of problem drinking on IPV. METHOD: Five waves of longitudinal data from a nonclinical sample (N = 725; 400 women), aged 12 through 31 years, were analyzed to determine the effects of problem drinking on IPV after controlling for eight common risk factors. Regression analyses were conducted to determine whether relationship dissatisfaction and partner drinking patterns mediated the effects of problem drinking on IPV after controlling for these same risk factors. RESULTS: With controls, problem drinking significantly predicted perpetration and victimization for men and women. Partner drinking was not related to perpetration or victimization for men. For women, partner drinking was strongly related to perpetration and victimization. It fully mediated the effects of problem drinking on perpetration, but did not mediate these effects on victimization. Relationship dissatisfaction fully mediated the effects of problem drinking on male and female perpetration and partially mediated the effects on male victimization. Relationship dissatisfaction did not mediate the effects of problem drinking on female victimization. CONCLUSIONS: The relationship between problem drinking and IPV was not spurious for men or women. Heavier drinking by partners put women at greater risk for perpetration and victimization and mediated the effects of their own problem drinking on perpetration. Programs that prevent and treat problem drinking among young men should have a beneficial impact on reducing IPV.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Trajectories of gender role orientations in adolescence and early adulthood: a prospective study of the mental health effects of masculinity and femininity.

Adolescence is the segment of the life course when gender differences in mental health emerge and gender becomes a more salient factor shaping orientations toward oneself and views of one's place in the social world. This study uses mixture modeling, to identify trajectories of masculinity and femininity between ages 12 and 25, and OLS regression, to examine the effects of those trajectories on mental health in young adulthood (measured as depressive symptoms and alcohol problems at age 25). Four waves of prospective data from the Rutgers Health and Human Development Project are used; respondents (n = 447) are age 12 at Wave 1 (1979-81), 15 at Wave 2 (1982-84), 18 at Wave 3 (1985-87), and 25 at Wave 4 (1992-94). Results indicate that having relatively high and increasing levels of masculinity over adolescence decreases depressive symptoms in early adulthood for both males and females. Reflecting the privileging of males over females, the findings suggest that masculinity, but not femininity, is a central axis on which advantages and disadvantages across some dimensions of mental health accumulate over adolescence.

Adolescent↗