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Biomedical subjects

J T Shope

Publications and source records attributed to J T Shope.

33 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Susceptibility to peer pressure as an explanatory variable for the differential effectiveness of an alcohol misuse prevention program in elementary schools.

A school-based alcohol misuse prevention program had differential effects on students' susceptibility to peer pressure, depending on prior experience with alcohol. These effects paralleled those on alcohol use and misuse, indicating program effects on use and misuse were mediated by reductions in the rate of increase on susceptibility to peer pressure. Experimental group students with prior unsupervised use of alcohol showed a significantly greater reduction than their controls in the rate of increase in susceptibility to peer pressure, alcohol use, and alcohol misuse. This difference was not found among students without prior unsupervised use of alcohol.

Adolescent↗

An elementary school-based alcohol misuse prevention program: a follow-up evaluation.

An alcohol misuse prevention study (AMPS) curriculum for fifth- and sixth-grade students was developed, implemented and evaluated with over 5,000 students. The AMPS program emphasized social pressures resistance training, focusing on the immediate effects of alcohol, risks of alcohol misuse and social pressures to misuse alcohol. Schools were randomly assigned to curriculum, curriculum plus booster or control groups with half of each group pretested and all posttested. Measures focused on susceptibility to peer pressure, internal health locus of control, understanding of the curriculum material, alcohol use and alcohol misuse. After 26 months, there was a significant treatment by occasion interaction on internal health locus of control (sixth grade). A significant treatment by occasion interaction effect was also found with respect to curriculum measures in both grades. There was no significant treatment by occasion interactions with respect to alcohol use or misuse when the groups as a whole were considered. When subgroup analyses based on type of prior drinking experience were conducted, however, significant program effects on alcohol misuse were found among sixth-grade students who had experienced unsupervised as well as supervised drinking prior to the prevention program.

Alcohol Drinking↗

Differential effectiveness of an elementary school-based alcohol misuse prevention program.

An elementary school social skills/peer pressure resistance curriculum for the prevention of alcohol misuse was developed, implemented, and evaluated. Schools were randomly assigned to curriculum and control groups, with half of each group pretested prior to intervention and all students posttested two months, 14 months, and 26 months following intervention. Students in grade five at the beginning of the study were randomly assigned to treatment, treatment plus booster, and control conditions. Students in grade six were randomly assigned to treatment and control conditions. Three way repeated measures analyses of covariance (treatment condition by type of prior drinking experience by occasion) were conducted for each grade level on indices of "frequency/quantity of alcohol use" and "total alcohol misuse." Results indicated the intervention was effective in reducing the rate of increase of alcohol use and misuse among grade six students who entered the study with prior unsupervised as well as supervised alcohol use. After corrections for intraclass correlations on the dependent variables, the significant finding regarding the alcohol misuse variable was maintained.

Alcoholism↗

Children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis at school. Functional problems, participation in physical education. The implementation of Public Law 94-142.

Parents of 135 children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) completed a mailed questionnaire about problems at school. Writing was the most frequently reported difficulty, with hand involvement causing more problems than decreased mobility. Compared to children with pauciarticular JRA, those with polyarticular or systemic JRA were significantly more likely to miss school, experience problems, participate less in physical education, have an Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) developed, and receive related services. Only 39 parents had heard of PL 94-142, and only 21 of those could define the federal law. Twenty children had an IEP within the previous two years. Possible deficiencies in the implementation of PL 94-142 were discovered. This study demonstrates that the treatment of children with JRA should include efforts to: 1) identify and remediate potential performance limitations before they become problematic at school; 2) communicate this information to parents and school personnel; 3) and improve parents' awareness and understanding of PL 94-142.

Activities of Daily Living↗

Pretest and treatment effects in an elementary school-based alcohol misuse prevention program.

Forty-nine schools (N = 5,680 fifth and sixth grade students) were assigned to pretest/treatment, pretest/no treatment, no pretest/treatment, and no pretest/no treatment conditions in the context of an alcohol misuse prevention study. At the first posttest, five months after the pretest and two months after the intervention, the effects of the pretest and of the intervention were examined. The analyses showed that failure to correct for the design effect due to clustering within schools resulted in the overestimation of the significance of treatment and pretest effects. After correction for the design effect, a significant treatment effect in the hypothesized direction was found with respect to students' awareness of the content of the curriculum. As hypothesized, significant treatment effects on the alcohol use and misuse measures had not yet developed but are expected to occur at subsequent posttest occasions. Significant pretest effects were found for indices measuring trouble with peers resulting from students' alcohol use, students' internal health locus of control, and their perceptions of adults as a locus of control for their health. Two of the three pretest effects were in the direction that would be hypothesized if the pretest were providing the same impetus as the intervention. Implications of these findings for school-based substance abuse prevention programs are discussed.

Child↗

A covariance structure model test of antecedents of adolescent alcohol misuse and a prevention effort.

As part of an alcohol misuse prevention evaluation, questionnaires were administered to 4,157 junior high school students to determine levels of alcohol misuse, exposure to peer use and misuse of alcohol, susceptibility to peer pressure, internal health locus of control, and self-esteem. A conceptual model of the antecedents of adolescent alcohol misuse and the effectiveness of a prevention effort was tested using covariance structure modeling techniques. The factor loadings for the model were all moderate to high, indicating that the observed variables served well as measurement instruments for the latent variables. The hypothesized structural relationships among the latent variables of alcohol misuse, exposure to peer use and misuse of alcohol, susceptibility to peer pressure, internal health locus of control, and self-esteem were supported by the data. The full model explained 45 percent of the variance in alcohol misuse in the analysis based on the total sample. The direct effect of the intervention on alcohol misuse was small but significant in the hypothesized direction. The direct effects of the intervention on susceptibility to peer pressure and internal health locus of control were not significant. The model was tested separately for groups of students who had high versus low scores on susceptibility to peer pressure in order to test the interaction between susceptibility to peer pressure and exposure to peer use and misuse of alcohol. The percentage of variance accounted for in alcohol misuse did not increase upon testing the model separately for students who had high versus low scores on susceptibility to peer pressure. Observed differences in the significance of the parameter estimates between the high and low susceptibility to peer pressure groups suggest that different approaches to the design and evaluation of substance abuse prevention programs may be necessary for different subgroups of students.

Alcoholism↗

Compliance in children and adults: review of studies.

Adherence to prescribed medication, or patient compliance, was studied over a period of several years in 3 populations with seizure disorders: 2 pediatric (n = 90, n = 211), and 1 adult population (n = 177). Compliance was assessed in several different ways: self-reports and serum levels analyzed for the level/dose ratio as well as the coefficient of variation for each patient. Correlates studied included Health Belief Model variables as well as internal locus of control, social support, knowledge about seizures and other variables. The assessed extent of compliance ranged from 54% to 82% in the various groups. Overall, compliance was related to motivation, value of illness threat reduction, and probability that compliant behavior will reduce the threat. Also related to compliance were some measures of the following types of variables: demographic, structural, attitudinal, provider/patient interaction, social support, experience with the regimen, internal control, and knowledge. A group discussion intervention designed to enhance compliance was implemented and evaluated effectively in the pediatric seizure population. In the adult population, compliance and seizure control both increased over a 2 year follow-up period, but were not significantly related.

Adolescent↗

Susceptibility to peer pressure, self-esteem, and health locus of control as correlates of adolescent substance abuse.

As part of a school-based alcohol misuse prevention study, questionnaires were administered to 2,589 fifth and sixth grade students to determine levels of use of alcohol, marijuana, and cigarettes, intentions to use these substances, and problems resulting from alcohol misuse. The questionnaire also included 45 items concerning susceptibility to peer pressure, self-esteem, and health locus of control. These 45 items were factor analyzed separately for two groups formed by random assignment. Six factors were identified which were both internally consistent and replicable, and indices were constructed. The indices measuring susceptibility to peer pressure, self-esteem, and internal health locus of control were significantly and negatively correlated with most of the substance use, misuse, and intention items, and an external health locus of control index was not significantly related to most of the substance use, misuse, and intention items. The "Susceptibility to Peer Pressure" index correlated more highly with the adolescent substance use, misuse, and intention items than the self-esteem or the health locus of control indices, and it had the highest alpha coefficient. Implications for the design of school-based substance abuse prevention programs are discussed.

Adolescent↗

Validity of adolescents' self-reports of alcohol use and misuse using a bogus pipeline procedure.

Past research, particularly in the area of adolescent smoking behavior, has suggested that more valid self-reports of socially undesirable behavior can be obtained when a bogus pipeline procedure is implemented. "Bogus pipeline" refers to a methodology in which subjects are informed that their self-reports can and will be objectively verified by the researcher through a procedure such as a biochemical test. In actuality, no verification takes place. Recent studies using this methodology have produced mixed results. In the current study, a bogus pipeline procedure designed to increase the validity of adolescents' self-reports of alcohol use and misuse was devised and evaluated as part of the pilot work for an alcohol misuse prevention study in southeastern Michigan schools. A total of 291 students in grades seven through nine were tested in the pilot study. Of these, 173 experienced the bogus pipeline approach in which saliva samples were collected, while 118 served as controls. The differences between the two conditions were examined with respect to nine variables concerning alcohol use and misuse. An overall frequency of use index and an overall misuse index were also examined. Two-way analyses of variance (treatment by grade level and treatment by gender) were conducted. The F values for a main effect of treatment ranged from .00 to 1.27 for the 11 variables. None of these was significant at the prespecified alpha level of .20. In addition, there was no interaction of the treatment procedure with either grade level or gender. In the context of a school-based study in which confidentiality was assured, adolescents' self-reports of alcohol use and misuse were not significantly affected by a bogus pipeline procedure.

Adolescent↗

Elementary school-based prevention of adolescent alcohol misuse.

The literature on the prevention of alcohol misuse and other substance abuse shows that most prevention program efforts to date have not been successful. Some possible reasons for this lack of success are discussed, and a recent, promising approach to the problem is outlined. An example of that approach, the Alcohol Misuse Prevention Study (AMPS), is described and early findings are presented. Conceptual and methodological issues considered in the design, implementation and evaluation of AMPS are discussed as examples of the planning which must go into a well-designed alcohol misuse prevention program. Issues now being raised in the evaluation of AMPS are presented with their implications for future prevention programs.

Alcoholism↗

Intervention to improve compliance with pediatric anticonvulsant therapy.

Daily anticonvulsant drug therapy is the major treatment of seizure disorders. Compliance with the prescribed therapy is essential but not always achieved. Among 201 pediatric seizure clinic patients taking phenobarbital and phenytoin, 70 (35%) were judged noncompliant on at least one medication. The mothers of these patients were randomly assigned to experimental or control groups. An educational intervention in the form of a mothers' group discussion led by the clinic social worker was tested. On follow-up, medication compliance in the intervention group was judged significantly greater than that of the control group.

Adolescent↗

Environmental correlates of adolescent substance use and misuse: implications for prevention programs.

The research in the areas of peer, family and community environmental effects on adolescent substance use and misuse clearly and consistently shows that peer substance use behavior is the primary predictor of adolescent alcohol use. Peer norms, however, are more important in the prediction of adolescent alcohol misuse. Parental norms and monitoring are secondary to the peer variables, but still of significance in the prediction of adolescent alcohol use and misuse. The intrapersonal construct of susceptibility to peer pressure is as important as the peer and parent variables in the prediction of both alcohol use and misuse in adolescence.

Adolescent↗