Youth susceptibility to tobacco use: Is it general or specific?

Importance: Susceptibility to tobacco use can help identify youth that are at risk for tobacco use. Objective: To estimate the extent of overlap in susceptibilities across various tobacco products, investigate correlates with susceptibilities, and examine whether the relationship linking susceptibility with the onset of use is product specific or is accounted for by a general susceptibility-onset relationship. Design: Prospective cohort study. Setting: Analysis of data from the longitudinal Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health study wave 4 (December 2016 to January 2018) and wave 4.5 youth surveys (December 2017 to November 2018). Participants: A nationally representative sample of non-institutionalized youth 12-17 years old who had never used a tobacco product at baseline assessment. Main variable of interest: Susceptibility to the use of each type of tobacco product assessed at wave 4. Main outcomes: Onset of use of various tobacco products defined as the first use occurring between waves 4 and 4.5 assessments. Results: Cigarettes and e-cigarettes were the most common (~25%), while snus was the least common (<5%), tobacco product to which youth were susceptible. There was a high degree of overlap in susceptibilities across tobacco products (65% of tobacco-susceptible youth were susceptible to more than one tobacco product). Tobacco-susceptible youth were more likely to have used cannabis or consumed alcohol in the past 30 days or to have tobacco-using peers. Susceptibility to use predicted the onset of use (incidence ratio = 3.2 to 12.9). Estimates for the product-specific path were null, except for e-cigarettes (β=0.08, 95% CI=0.04 to 0.13) and filtered cigars (β= -0.09, 95% CI= -0.13 to -0.05), after accounting for the general susceptibility-to-tobacco-onset relationship (β=0.50, 95% CI=0.42 to 0.58). Conclusions and Relevance: Youth susceptibility to tobacco use overlaps widely across different tobacco products and other risky behaviors. Public health efforts may benefit from a holistic approach to risk behavior prevention planning.

Emotion Regulation Strategy Usage Explains Links Between Institutional Caregiving and Elevated Internalizing Symptoms

Early adversity, including institutional orphanage care, is associated with the development of internalizing disorders. Previous research suggests that institutionalization can disrupt emotion regulation processes, which contribute to internalizing symptoms. However, no prior work has investigated how early orphanage care shapes emotion regulation strategy usage (e.g., cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression) and whether said strategy usage contributes to internalizing symptoms. The present study probed emotion regulation strategy usage and internalizing symptoms in a sample of 36 previously institutionalized and 58 comparison youth. As hypothesized, previously institutionalized youth exhibited higher rates of internalizing symptoms than comparison youth, and more frequent use of suppression partially accounted for the relationship between early institutional care and elevated internalizing symptoms. Contrary to our initial hypotheses, reappraisal use did not buffer previously institutionalized or comparison youth against internalizing symptoms. Our findings highlight the potential utility of targeting emotion regulation strategy usage in adversity-exposed youth in future intervention work.

Reversing the effects of early life stress during puberty

Post-institutionalized youth show evidence of pubertal recalibration of stress reactivity.

Staff Reports of Bullying and Intervention Strategies in Croatian Care and Correctional Institutions for Youth

This study compares staff reports of bullying among institutionalized youth with residents’ own self-reported prevalence of bullying and victimization collected in the previous study (the Self-Report Study on Bullying in Croatian Residential Care [SSBCRC]) and staff reports of reduction strategies are compared with evidence-based proposed policy solutions arising from residents’ reports. The study also compares reduction strategies used by staff with evidence-based proposed policy solutions arising from residents’ reports arising from the SSBCRC. A total of 140 staff from 20 Croatian youth facilities completed an anonymous questionnaire. The results revealed that staff estimates of the prevalence of bullying and victimization were significantly lower than resident reports. Staff were better aware of the prevalence of certain types of bullying, but they held stereotypical views of bullies and victims and had difficulties in recognizing the true times and places of bullying. Staff described their anti-bullying policies as being predominantly reactive, rather than proactive and evidence-based. It is concluded that more effort needs to be made to change the current anti-bullying policies used by staff.