Parenting the Mobile Internet in Italian Households: Parents' and Children's Discourses

Drawing on the rich literature on parental mediation of children's use of digital and mobile media, this paper discusses the findings of an explorative study conducted in Italy, aimed at understanding how families appropriate smartphones in relation to the household's moral economy, their domestication of ICTs and the parenting style adhered to by parents. The aim of the paper is threefold: understand (1) how are social legitimations for or against children's use of smartphones constructed; (2) how do parents make sense of their mediation of children's mobile internet use drawing on different interpretative repertoires; and (3) how children negotiate, resist or evade parental justifications by producing alternative narratives.     

Parental and Peer Influences on the Risk of Adolescent Drug Use

Using a probability sample of 4,230 adolescents from grades 7–12, we used negative binomial regression to estimate the effects of peer and six family variables on the risk of adolescent drug use. Peer drug use had relatively strong effects of adolescent drug use. Parental drug attitudes, sibling drug use, and adult drug use had significant direct effects net of peer influences. In addition, they had significant indirect effects that were mediated by peer drug use. The influences of parental monitoring, attachment to mother, and attachment to father were statistically significant but relatively small. The findings applied to alcohol, binge drinking, cigarettes, marijuana, and other illicit drugs. Editors' Strategic Implications: The authors interpret their findings as being more consistent with social learning than social control theory. This research, although cross-sectional and limited to adolescents' self-reports, contributes to a growing literature on the direct and indirect influences of parents on their teens' substance use rates. It speaks to the need for school- and community-based prevention efforts to focus on families as well as peers.     

Alcohol Use Among Adolescent Mothers: Heterogeneity in Growth Curves,Predictors, and Outcomes of Alcohol Use Over Time

This paper examines patterns of alcohol use over a 10-year period in a sample of adolescent mothers and includes both predictors and outcomes of young mothers' alcohol use patterns over time. This study used mixture modeling to identify latent trajectory classes based on alcohol consumption over 10 years. Results indicate that there is significant heterogeneity in alcohol use trajectories of adolescent mothers during the transition from adolescence to adulthood as well as significant predictors and outcomes that vary by latent class trajectory. Specifically, measures of the consumption of alcohol by both quantity and frequency yielded multiple latent trajectory classes. Alcohol quantity measures yielded a two-class model with higher and lower quantity users. Age at first drink significantly differentiated between the two classes indicating that the younger the respondent was, the more likely she belonged to the higher quantity user class. In addition, members of the higher quantity class had significantly more negative outcomes in adulthood. The second measure of alcohol consumption, alcohol frequency, yielded a four-class solution consisting of low-level users, early decliners, late decliners, and increasers. As with alcohol quantity, age at first drink significantly differentiated between classes, as did age at first birth, in the expected direction. Similarly, two classes with the greatest growth and patterns of use over time, late decliners and increasers, had significantly worse outcomes in adulthood. The results suggest that identifying underlying heterogeneity in alcohol use can be informative with regard to both predictors and outcomes for young women who were adolescent mothers. Results suggest that there are possible higher order factors that can account for the results of this study.     

The Effects of Parental Mediation of Sexual Content on the Sexual Knowledge,Attitudes, and Behaviors of Adolescents in the US

This study explored the effects of parental mediation of sexual television content on adolescents' sexual knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory communication class (N = 180) recalled the mediation behaviors their parents used when they were in high school as well as reported their past and current sexual behaviors, attitudes, and knowledge. The results revealed that coviewing of sexual content serves as an endorsement of the material for adolescents, restrictive mediation is best in moderate amounts, and that active mediation is most effective when it is paired with an open, conversational delivery style. Overall this study highlights the importance of the role of context, style, and nuance when studying the effects of parental mediation on adolescents' outcomes. The implications of this work for encouraging positive parent–child relationships and comfortable, healthy exchanges about sex are discussed.     

Parental Mediation of Television Viewing in the Context of Changing Parent-Child Relationships in Belgium: A latent growth curve analysis in early and middle adolescence

The present study analyzed long-term trends in parental mediation of adolescent television viewing and how this mediation related to changes in teenagers' attachment to their parents. A Belgian panel of early adolescents (n = 883) and of middle adolescents (n = 651) rated three times in three consecutive years how often their parents used restrictive mediation, instructive mediation, and social co-viewing to control their television viewing. The results showed that parental mediation is common during adolescence, even for twelfth graders. However, the latent growth curve analyses indicated that the use of each parental mediation strategy tends to decline throughout adolescence. In addition, parallel process latent growth curve models showed that the decreasing occurrence of instructive mediation and co-viewing is related to parental separation. In contrast, the declining incidence of restrictive mediation during adolescence is not related to parental separation.     

Adolescent Childbearing,Poverty, and Siblings: Taking New Direction From the New Literature*

This article critically appraises the sibling‐comparison method by pointing to the following limitations: (1) it assumes within‐family homogeneity; (2) it neglects naturally occurring heterogeneity across siblings; (3) it overlooks the unique effects of a teen's childbearing for her family and siblings; (4) it underappreciates the selectivity of sisters of teenage mothers who delay childbearing; and, (5) it ignores differences in outcomes by sisters' birth order and age spacing. Directions for future research stemming from this new literature are discussed.     

School Climate and Adolescent Drug Use: Mediating Effects of Violence Victimization in the Urban High School Context

This study tested the mediating effects of violence victimization in the relationship between school climate and adolescent drug use. The hypothesized path model fit data collected from a probability sample of urban high school students (N=586) participating in an evaluation of a violence prevention program funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Findings indicated that the lack of enforcement of school rules and the presence of unsafe places in and around the school influenced adolescent drug use directly and indirectly through their effects on violence victimization. Editors’ Strategic Implications: This research confirms the importance of the environment as a contributor to violence victimization. Violence victimization is obviously of concern in its own right, but in addition, these data indicate that it also contributes to adolescent drug use. School administrators should be aware that unsafe places in schools and the failure to enforce school rules may affect such victimization and drug use. Portions of this paper were presented at the Eighth Annual Conference of the Society for Social Work and Research, New Orleans, LA, January 17, 2004 and the Society for Community Research and Action – 10th Biennial Conference, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, June 9–12, 2005.     

Relationships Between Alcohol-related Informal Social Control, Parental Monitoring and Adolescent Problem Behaviors Among Racially Diverse Urban Youth

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the relationships between alcohol-related informal social control and parental monitoring on alcohol use, behavior and intentions; violent behavior; and delinquent behavior in a racially diverse population of young urban adolescents. Baseline surveys were administered to 6th grade male and female students in 61 urban Chicago schools as part of Project Northland Chicago, a group randomized trial for the prevention/reduction of substance use. A subset of their parents (n = 3,034) was also surveyed regarding alcohol use, violence, and delinquency and related issues. Structural equation modeling was used to assess relationships between alcohol-related informal social control (as measured by parental perceptions of neighborhood action regarding youth drinking) and parental monitoring (as reported by parents), and three adolescent outcomes (alcohol use, behaviors and intentions; violent behavior; and delinquent behavior; as reported by teens). Associations between alcohol-related informal social control and parental monitoring were positive and significant (P < .001). Direct paths from parental monitoring to all three adolescent outcomes were negative and statistically significant (alcohol use, behaviors and intentions, P < .001; violent behavior, P < .001; and delinquent behavior, P < .001). Alcohol-related informal social control was not significantly associated with adolescent outcomes. Efforts to engage parents to be more active in monitoring adolescents’ activities may be related to lower levels of underage drinking, violence and delinquency among both female and male urban youth. Neighborhood norms and action against teenage drinking may be too distal to adolescent outcomes to be directly associated.     

Computer Modeling of Diabetes and Its Transparency: A Report on the Eighth Mount Hood Challenge

Objectives

The Eighth Mount Hood Challenge (held in St. Gallen, Switzerland, in September 2016) evaluated the transparency of model input documentation from two published health economics studies and developed guidelines for improving transparency in the reporting of input data underlying model-based economic analyses in diabetes.

Pubertal Timing and Substance Use: The Effects of Gender, Parental Monitoring and Deviant Peers

PURPOSE: Early pubertal timing is associated with early initiation of cigarettes and alcohol; we evaluated parental monitoring and affiliation with deviant peers in a moderated, mediational model of this relationship for both genders. METHODS: We tested a prospective model explaining the process through which pubertal timing is related to early use of cigarettes and alcohol for 360 fourth and fifth graders, following them for 4 years. RESULTS: We found a relation between early pubertal maturation and trying cigarettes and alcohol without parents' knowledge for both boys and girls. In addition, for both genders, parental monitoring moderated the association between pubertal timing and trying alcohol, but not trying cigarettes. Affiliation with deviant peers mediated the effect of pubertal timing on both alcohol and cigarette initiation for girls only. CONCLUSIONS: Although pathways to substance use differ by gender, both early maturing girls and boys should be regarded as high-risk populations for initiation of substances, and intervention programs may be more effective if they are targeted accordingly.     

A Multilevel Analysis of State and Regional Disparities in Childhood and Adolescent Obesity in the United States

This study examines state- and regional disparities in obesity prevalence among 46,707 US children and adolescents aged 10–17 years before and after adjusting for individual socioeconomic and behavioral characteristics and area deprivation measures. The 2003 National Survey of Children’s Health was used to calculate obesity prevalence in nine geographic regions and in the 50 states and the District of Columbia (DC). Logistic regression was used to estimate odds of obesity and adjusted prevalence. OLS regression was used to determine the amount of variance explained by income inequality, poverty, and violent crime rates. The prevalence of childhood obesity varied substantially across geographic areas, with the Southcentral regions of the US having the highest prevalence (≥18%) and the Mountain region the lowest prevalence (11.4%). Children in West Virginia, Kentucky, Texas, Tennessee, and North Carolina (adjusted prevalence >18.3%) had over twice the odds of being obese than their Utah counterparts (adjusted prevalence = 10.4%). Geographic disparities in obesity were similar for male and female children. Individual characteristics such as race/ethnicity, household socioeconomic status, neighborhood social capital, television viewing, recreational computer use, and physical activity accounted for 55% of the state and 25% of the regional disparities in obesity. Area poverty rates accounted for an additional 18% of the state variance in adjusted obesity prevalence. Although individual and area level socioeconomic factors are important predictors, substantial geographic disparities in childhood and adolescent obesity remain. Prevention efforts targeting individual risk factors as well as contextual social and environmental factors may reduce geographic disparities in childhood and adolescent obesity.     

Peer Influence,Internet use and Cyberbullying: A Comparison of Different Context Effects among German Adolescents

The influence of social reference groups such as family members, classmates and friends on adolescents' attitudes and behavior has been acknowledged in research for many decades. With the increasing use of online media, cyberbullying has become a major issue in adolescence research. In this paper, we compare various forms of peer influence on cyberbullying behavior among high school students in Germany. Specifically, the impact of close friends and more distant peers in the school class on perpetrator and victim roles is compared. The results indicate that the class context is highly relevant for cyberbullying. For both processes—perpetration and victimization—the number of cyberbullies within a school class plays an important role in predicting individual behavior. Looking at individual risk factors, the results show that cyberbullying is strongly related to the use of social networking sites, and the risk of victimization increases with the time spent online.     

Parental incarceration and gender-based risks for increased body mass index: evidence from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health in the United States

Although recent studies suggest that 13% of young adults, including at least one-fourth of African Americans, experience parental incarceration, little research has examined links between parental incarceration and physical health. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (1994-2008) and gender-based theories of stress, the authors examined whether parental incarceration is associated with increased body mass index among women but not men. Panel analysis spanning adolescence and adulthood, controlling for stressful life events, internalizing behaviors, and a range of individual, familial, and neighborhood characteristics, reveals that body mass index for women who have experienced parental incarceration is 0.49 units (P < 0.004) higher than that for women whose parents have never been incarcerated. This association is not evident among men. Similarly, in change score models between waves II and IV, women experiencing parental incarceration have a 0.92-unit increase in body mass index (P < 0.026) relative to women who did not have a parent undergo incarceration. In supplemental analysis examining if gender differences in incarceration stress response (externalizing vs. internalizing) explain these findings, the authors found that obesity status moderates the relation between depression and parental incarceration. Results suggest a stress internalization process that, for the first time, links parental incarceration with obesity among women.     

Adolescent fathers in the United States: their initial living arrangements, marital experience and educational outcomes

Data from a nationally representative longitudinal survey show that seven percent of young males aged 20-27 in 1984 had fathered a child while they were teenagers, more than three-quarters of them nonmaritally. One-third of those who were responsible for a nonmarital conception married within 12 months of conception, and half of all of the young men lived with their child shortly after the child's birth. Overall, young black men were more likely to have been responsible for a nonmarital first birth than were males of other racial backgrounds, and only 15 percent of black teenagers lived with their first child, compared with 48 percent of Hispanics, 58 percent of disadvantaged whites and 77 percent of nondisadvantaged whites. Multivariate analyses indicated that only black or Hispanic youths and those who fathered a child at age 16 or younger were significantly less likely to have lived with their first child; those who were raised Catholic were more likely to have done so. Further analyses revealed that living in a rural area, being relatively older at the child's birth, having been raised Catholic and having lived with both parents at age 14 were associated with an above average probability that white teenage fathers would live with their child, at least initially. However, none of the variables in the model were significant for blacks. Teenage fathers, regardless of their marital status at conception or age at first birth, were much more likely to have been high school dropouts than were other male teenagers. Those with a maritally conceived child had a particularly high drop-out rate--almost 62 percent. Among teenage fathers responsible for a nonmaritally conceived first birth that occurred before they received their diploma or GED certificate or received their diploma or GED certificate or they left school for the last time, those living with their partner shortly after the child's birth were less likely to have completed high school by 1984 than were those not living with their child. However, a multivariate analysis revealed that a teenage father's living with his child shortly after birth was not significantly related to his completion of high school, while being black was positively associated.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)     

ASHA self-study continuing education: rates of student-reported antisocial behavior, school suspensions, and arrests in Victoria, Australia, and Washington State, United States

BACKGROUND: Few methodologically rigorous international comparisons of student-reported antisocial behavior have been conducted. This paper examines whether there are differences in the frequency of both antisocial behavior and societal responses to antisocial behavior in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, United States. These 2 states were chosen due to their similarities on sociodemographic characteristics and their differences in policy frameworks around problem behavior including antisocial behavior and substance use. METHODS: State representative samples of students (N = 5769) in school grades 5, 7, and 9 in Victoria and Washington State completed a modified version of the Communities That Care self-report survey of behavior and societal responses to behavior. Chi-square analyses compared frequencies of antisocial behavior, school suspensions, and police arrests in the 2 states. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted for each outcome measure to examine the effect of state, controlling for sample design, clustering of students within schools, age, socioeconomic status, and urbanicity. RESULTS: Few state differences in student-reported antisocial behavior were found, although frequencies varied across behavior type and grade level. Differences in societal responses were observed across grade levels with grade 5 Washington students reporting higher rates of school suspension. Older Washington students reported more arrests. CONCLUSIONS: Rates of student antisocial behavior appear similar in these 2 states in Australia and the United States. However, youth in the United States relative to Australia may experience greater societal consequences for problem behavior. Further research is required to examine the impact of these consequences on subsequent behavior.     

Children and Digital Wellbeing in Australia: Online regulation,conduct and competence

This article contributes to the study of children and the internet by reporting on findings from an ethnographic study of children's online use, experience and regulation in Melbourne, Australia. As part of a social inclusion study of technology use, we worked with children and their families in the contexts of everyday and home internet use. This article begins by identifying age-related gaps in the literature on children's online risks, and then moves on to a discussion of the research findings relating to children's online mediation, conduct and competence. By developing a concept of digital wellbeing the article argues that rather than focus only on risk protection measures, it is important to equip children with the knowledge and skills to be active, ethical and critical participants online.     

社会力量参与公立互联网医院建设激励与约束机制研究

社会力量具备相应的经济基础和技术条件,对于公立互联网医院体系建设具有积极的促进作用。但是实践中仍然存在商业模式不完善、监管制度不健全等问题。基于经济学契约理论要义,提出在坚持激励与约束机制并举、平衡公私益关系的前提下,通过完善医保政策、构建互联网医疗服务价格分类管理机制来促进社会力量向医疗服务公益性目标回归,并通过构建完善的监督体制来约束部分社会力量的盲目逐利性行为。