Biomedical subjects

D D Kloska

Publications and source records attributed to D D Kloska.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1997

The mediating influence of refusal skills in preventing adolescent alcohol misuse.

Alcohol is the most frequently used psycho-active substance during adolescence. Adolescents who misuse or overindulge in alcohol are at risk for serious social and psychological consequences. Several preventive approaches can help adolescents deal with peer pressure that contributes to alcohol use experimentation and escalation. One promising approach involves teaching adolescents skills to refuse offers of alcohol and other drugs. Few studies, however, have examined how this approach works; that is, the connection between the prevention effort, refusal skills, and drinking behavior. This paper investigates the relationships among the intervention, refusal skills, and alcohol misuse in the Alcohol Misuse Prevention Study, a randomized, pre/post experimental study. Based on data from sixth through tenth graders (average N per grade = approximately 400), regression analyses indicate that refusal skills are significant mediators of the effect of the intervention on alcohol misuse.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1994

Longitudinal evaluation of an enhanced alcohol misuse prevention study (AMPS) curriculum for grades six-eight.

For students progressing from sixth to eighth grade, an enhanced Alcohol Misuse Prevention Study (AMPS) curriculum that emphasized social pressure resistance training, peer support, and norm-setting was developed, implemented, and evaluated. Schools were randomly assigned within communities to curriculum or control groups. Students were pretested early in sixth grade before the intervention and posttested at the end of sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. Results indicated the curriculum was effective in increasing students' knowledge of curriculum material, and among the subgroup of students who had used alcohol unsupervised by adults before the pretest, in reducing the rate of increase of alcohol misuse. The findings result from a replication of the analytic approach used with the initial AMPS cohort data.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1992

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↗

PubMed1992

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↗

PubMed1990

Relationship between nicotine tolerance questionnaire scores and plasma cotinine.

The Fagerström Tolerance Questionnaire (TQ) is often used in both research and treatment contexts to evaluate nicotine tolerance and physiological dependence in cigarette smokers. Recently, however, questions about its validity and its usefulness in comparison to other easily collected measures have been raised. In the present study, 100 male subjects reporting for experimental sessions (Sample I) and 50 male and female subjects entering a smoking cessation clinic program (Sample II) were administered the TQ and determinations of plasma cotinine during ad libitum smoking were made. TQ scores were found to be correlated with cotinine levels in both samples, and several of the individual items proved to have statistically significant discriminatory value. Other schemes for determining degree of dependence were considered and found not to be superior to the TQ. Suggestions for further refining the TQ are reviewed.

Adult↗