Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

M A Pentz

Publications and source records attributed to M A Pentz.

30 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

A multicommunity trial for primary prevention of adolescent drug abuse. Effects on drug use prevalence.

The entire early adolescent population of the 15 communities that constitute the Kansas City (Kansas and Missouri) metropolitan area has participated in a community-based program for prevention of drug abuse since September 1984. The Kansas City area is the first of two major metropolitan sites being evaluated in the Midwestern Prevention Project, a longitudinal trial for primary prevention of cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use in adolescents. The project includes mass media programming, a school-based educational program for youths, parent education and organization, community organization, and health policy components that are introduced sequentially into communities during a 6-year period. Effects of the program are determined through annual assessments of adolescent drug use in schools that are assigned to immediate intervention or delayed intervention control conditions. In the first 2 years of the project, 22,500 sixth- and seventh-grade adolescents received the school-based educational program component, with parental involvement in homework and mass media coverage. Analyses of 42 schools indicate that the prevalence rates of use for all three drugs are significantly lower at 1-year follow-up in the intervention condition relative to the delayed intervention condition, with or without controlling for race, grade, socioeconomic status, and urbanicity (17% vs 24% for cigarette smoking, 11% vs 16% for alcohol use, and 7% vs 10% for marijuana use in the last month), and the net increase in drug use prevalence among intervention schools is half that of delayed intervention schools.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

The television, school, and family project. V. The impact of curriculum delivery format on program acceptance.

Social psychological interventions have been successful in preventing drug and tobacco use in adolescents, but target audience involvement has not been well documented. Examination of program acceptance is necessary to avoid ambiguity when interpreting findings within and across studies. This report presents results from a program acceptance study of a seventh-grade smoking/drug-use prevention and cessation field trial. The research design is an assessment of two experimentally manipulated variations in program delivery on the program acceptance of all provider and target groups involved. Experimental manipulations included classroom and mass broadcast television demonstrations of social resistance skills against pressures to smoke and use drugs. Three aspects of target audience program acceptance were assessed: participation, satisfaction, and perceived program efficacy. Respondents included the target audience (seventh-grade students and parents), instructors, classroom observers, and school administrative staff. Strong main effects of television delivery on student and parent participation were observed. The findings suggest the usefulness of student homework assignment to view television segments with parents at home as a strategy to achieve family involvement in school-based programs. Both television and classroom delivery separately demonstrated significant positive effects on overall program acceptance with moderate interactive effects on perceived program efficacy. While classroom teacher/observers and school administrators reported strong preferences for the experimental (social resistance) classroom curriculum, acceptance of experimental and comparison (information-based) curricula by the student/parent target audience was equivalent.

Curriculum↗
PubMed1989

Longitudinal effects of the midwestern prevention project on regular and experimental smoking in adolescents.

The purpose of this study was to compare longitudinal smoking prevention program effects estimated on a population-based cohort sample of sixth- and seventh-grade students (average n per year = 4,664) using different schools as units of analysis (middle/junior high school as the school of origin or high school as the endpoint school of intervention). Fifty schools in 15 school districts were demographically matched and assigned to either a school and community-based program for prevention of cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use, or a health education as usual control group. Smoking was measured by questionnaires administered to the students. An expired air (CO) measure of smoking was also administered to increase accuracy of self-reports. Program effects were estimated with regression analyses, controlling for school-level socioeconomic status, racial/ethnic make-up, urbanicity, and grade. Using school of origin as the unit of analysis, program effects showed 1 year net reductions of -8, -6, and -5% in prevalence rates of smoking in the last month, last week, and last 24 hr; 2-year program effects showed similar net reductions of -6, -5, and -3% (P's less than 0.10-0.001). Analyses with endpoint school as the unit showed slightly weaker effects at the 2-year follow-up, the year during which 64% of students had moved to a junior high or high school. The findings are discussed in terms of the potential contamination of experimental groups in longitudinal studies from school consolidations, family mobility, and feeder patterns to high schools, and the different smoking environments represented by middle, junior high, and high schools.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Primary prevention of chronic diseases in adolescence: effects of the Midwestern Prevention Project on tobacco use.

This article reports six-month, one-year, and two-year effects of a longitudinal multicomponent community program directed toward delaying the onset of cigarette smoking in adolescence. Results are based on a longitudinal panel of sixth and seventh grade students from eight schools in the Kansas City Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (n = 1,122). In the fall of 1984, schools were assigned to either a program group, which received school, booster, parent, and mass media program components, or a control group that received regular health education programming in school and mass media exposure. By six months, there was a significant effect of the program on recent smoking, with the prevalence of smokers in the program group increasing more slowly than in the control group. At two years, 19% of students in the program group reported smoking in the last month versus 29% of students in the control group; and 12% versus 19%, respectively, reported smoking in the last week. The lifetime prevalence rate showed a marginal program effect at two years, with 57% of students in the program group having smoked once or more compared with 65% in the control group. The program was also effective across different levels of cigarette use ranging from no current use to use of one pack or more per day at two years.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Estimating intervention effects in longitudinal studies.

Longitudinal studies aimed at assessing the impact of interventions on disease risk factors often confront several statistical problems. These problems include 1) dependent variables measured by ordered categories, 2) numerous potentially relevant patterns of transition between outcome levels, 3) mixed units of analysis (e.g., assignment by social unit while theorizing in terms of individuals), 4) incomplete randomization, and 5) correlated estimates for successive occasions of longitudinal measurement. Longitudinal data on use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana among adolescents (n = 1,244, complete data) from the Midwestern Prevention Project are used to demonstrate solutions to each of these problems: 1) a proportional odds regression model, 2) conditional logistic models of transitions with interactions between baseline level and intervention effect, 3) a logistic model estimated with linear regression methods on measures aggregated by social unit, 4) conditional and unconditional models of effect magnitude, and 5) a repeated measures logistic regression technique. Panel data fit to the various models yielded the following conclusions concerning intervention effects in the Midwestern Prevention Project: reduction in the prevalence of cigarette users in treatment schools compared with control schools (8% vs. 18% smoked in the last week at one year follow-up), mixed evidence of an effect on marijuana use, and no evidence of an effect on alcohol use.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

The power of policy: the relationship of smoking policy to adolescent smoking.

This study examined the effects of smoking policy on 4,807 adolescents in 23 schools over a two-county area in California. Amounts and prevalence rates of adolescent smoking were measured with a self-report survey and a biochemical measure; school smoking policy was measured with two independent surveys of school staff. Policy effects were evaluated with multiple and logistic regression analyses controlling for school-level socioeconomic status and environmental support for teaching and administration. Of the 23 schools, 100 percent had a formal written and regularly enforced policy component restricting student smoking on school grounds, 94 percent restricted students leaving school grounds, 65 percent restricted smoking near school grounds, and 57 percent had a smoking prevention education plan. Schools with policies having all four versus less than four components, high versus low emphasis on prevention, and a low versus high emphasis on cessation reported lower amounts of smoking in the last week and in the last 24 hours. Punitive consequences of policy violation had no effect. Results were compared to school staff observations of adolescent smoking, and school archival records of student smoking violations in the last year. Results suggest that school smoking policy is associated with decreased amounts of smoking in adolescents.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

A comprehensive community approach to adolescent drug abuse prevention: effects on cardiovascular disease risk behaviors.

This paper reports the effects of a multi-community drug prevention trial on the use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana in early adolescents and their parents, effects on parent prevention practices, and the relationship of family health behaviors to adolescent cigarette and alcohol use. Annual self-report surveys were administered to a population-based sample of 6/7th grade students from all schools in a 15 community area (n = 5008). Students were also administered an expired air (CO) measure of cigarette smoking to increase the accuracy of self-reported smoking and drug use. A sub-sample of parents were also surveyed at one year follow-up (n = 620). Logistic regression analyses of student data indicated that program groups were increasing in monthly drug use prevalence rates at an average of half the rates of control groups at one year follow-up (3.4 vs 14.5% for cigarette use, 4.2 vs 9.6% for alcohol use (greater than 1 drink), 3.5 vs 7.6% for marijuana use); effects were similar for weekly use rates, and have been maintained at two year follow-up. Analyses of parent data at one year follow-up indicated that the odds of program group parents rating drug prevention practices and personal involvement in prevention programs as extremely important, discussing prevention with their children, and exercising regularly were higher compared to control group parents; and perceived child use of cigarettes and marijuana, and self-use of alcohol in the last week was lower (odds ratios averaged across prevention ratings for each substance = 1.85, 1.72, 1.37, 1.53; for use items .34, .73, .59; P less than .10-- .002).

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Community organization and school liaisons: how to get programs started.

This paper briefly reviews four intervention models, Rothman's community organization, Green's system-centered education, Rogers' innovation-decision process, and Watzlawick's planned change, for their applicability to help initiate community-based programs for drug abuse prevention and health promotion in youth. An expanded model is described, including preprogram assessment of the target population, community, and drug use problem, and continuous evaluation of program process and product. School liaisons are emphasized as a key factor in early adoption and demonstration of a community-based program for youth. The expanded model, including school liaisons, is applied to a comprehensive community drug abuse prevention project being implemented in the Greater Kansas City area. The model--and the project--suggest methods for organizing communities for long-term drug prevention, initially at the level of school and school district, and later to the family, mass media, and community organizations in a proximal-to-distal sequence of programming.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Balancing program and research integrity in community drug abuse prevention: project STAR approach.

This paper focuses on the process of community-based drug prevention programming using an ongoing, multiple community project (Project STAR) as an illustration. Particular attention is paid to problems and strategies for balancing program and research integrity over the long-term. Specific strategies are discussed for obtaining and sustaining support for the program, quality control throughout program delivery, and accommodation of both research and program objectives.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Prevention of adolescent substance abuse through social skill development.

The purpose of this chapter is to evaluate the capability of social skills training approaches for preventing adolescent substance abuse and to suggest directions for future research in this area. Social skills and training are defined from the perspective of social learning theory. Training approaches are then reviewed for their effect on drug use and drug use-related behaviors. The results indicate that social skills training reduces substance use and related behaviors such as aggression, withdrawal, truancy, and stealing in adolescents. Outcome was enhanced by the inclusion of modeling in a training program and the use of normal (versus problem or disordered) adolescents. In addition, discriminant analyses indicated that the more positive outcomes were discriminable by a focus on prevention, experimental rigor, and training comprehensiveness, that is, inclusion of multiple techniques and skills. Follow-up results showed that training effects were maintained, and that they could be generalized to several areas of everyday adolescent functioning. The findings suggest that social skills training is an effective means for substance abuse prevention in adolescents, and that it may have an advantage over more direct prevention methods in terms of long-term generalization capabilities. Finally, several issues are raised for their potential impact on social skills training as a strategy for substance abuse prevention in adolescents. These issues encompass conceptual, methodological, and evaluative domains: development of a taxonomy of person-situation specificity characteristics to increase the validity and reliability of assessment and training procedures; assessment of the relative contribution of individual differences in adolescents to training outcome; identification of qualitative developmental shifts in social skills as adolescents progress through grade, school, and family transitions; and comparison of the maintenance and generalization effects, over time, of social skills training with more direct abuse prevention methods. Guidelines are offered for addressing these issues, as well as directions for the role of social skills training research in future drug abuse prevention efforts.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Youth beliefs and knowledge about the risks of drinking while pregnant.

Because no published studies of young persons' knowledge and awareness of fetal alcohol syndrome are available, the awareness and beliefs about drinking while pregnant in several large samples of young persons ages 13-20 are examined. Approximately 81 percent of the entire sample that completed questionnaires in school surveys believe that drinking alcohol while pregnant can definitely harm the fetus, although males and younger persons are less likely to believe in this risk. A substantial proportion of respondents believe that occasional heavy use is not harmful and suggest a safe level of drinking that is higher than the Surgeon General's abstinence recommendations. Only 72 percent have heard of fetal alcohol syndrome, and more than one-third incorrectly report that it describes a baby born addicted to alcohol, that the syndrome can be inherited, and that it can be cured. As in prior studies of adults, beliefs about drinking while pregnant are inconsistent with the Surgeon General's recommendations. Implications for increasing the awareness of the risk of drinking while pregnant are discussed.

Adolescent↗