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Biomedical subjects

G J Huba

Publications and source records attributed to G J Huba.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1986

Life change events among adolescents. An empirical consideration of some methodological issues.

Recent critiques in the stress literature have identified several methodological shortcomings, including ignoring control over event occurrence, the confounding of life event and outcome measures, the lack of consistent and reliable measures, and few cross-validational studies. Each of these problems is addressed empirically by examining two independent samples of adolescents. A 39-item life event measure, developed previously in one sample of 1018 adolescents, was administered to a second sample of 376 teenagers. Second-order factors of six stress scales were clustered into controllable and uncontrollable events, both of which were related to psychological distress. Poor health was significantly related to an uncontaminated factor of uncontrollable events. Means and covariances of the seven stress factors were compared between the derivation sample and an age-matched subset of the cross-validation sample. Correlates of the scales with drug use and personality revealed interpretable associations within the cross-validation sample and were quite similar to those in the original sample. Finally, few sex differences were evident, whereas scores on controllable events scales increased with age.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Simplified formula and table for the unusualness of combinations of subtest scores on the Shipley Institute of Living Scale.

This article addresses the issue of how one might judge the statistical uniqueness of a pair of subtest scores, taking into account the correlation between both scales. A simple formula to test the bivariate uniqueness of pairs of profile scores is presented and illustrated, using the Shipley Institute of Living Scale. The formula allows one to test the hypothesis that a particular combination of scores on the Shipley Vocabulary and Abstraction scales is unusual compared to the normative data.

Concept Formation↗
PubMed1982

On the usefulness of latent variable causal modeling in testing theories of naturally occurring events (including adolescent drug use): a rejoinder to Martin.

This paper considers the arguments raised by Martin (1982) against the methodologies used by Huba, Wingard, and Bentler (1981) and their subsequent conclusions. Several of Martin's criticisms are the result of a misreading of our paper and selective citations, whereas other criticisms were discussed in the original paper and resolved through alternate forms of data analysis. Further analyses are presented to address issues raised by Martin. Martin's arguments against latent variable models are refuted.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

A comparison of two latent variable causal models for adolescent drug use.

The competing simplex (involvement) and common factor models for youthful drug use are statistically compared using causal modeling with latent variables methods in a sample of 1,634 young adolescents. Latent variables of alcohol, marijuana, and other illicit drug use were confirmed and causally interconnected in a set of states. The confirmatory factor and the simplex stage models were found to be acceptable representations of the observed data according to both statistical and psychometric criteria. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for theories of emerging lifestyles including drug use, methodology, and policy about psychoactive substances.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Intentions to use drugs among adolescents: a longitudinal analysis.

Data on the actual and intended use of psychoactive substances were used to predict substance use 1 year later for 1,177 adolescents. A confirmatory methodology tested whether the information contained in intentions to use drugs provided a sufficient increment over behavioral data in predicting future drug use. While the increment was statistically significant, the strength of the additional information was minimal. The results are interpreted as showing that little variance in adolescent substance use can be attributed to long-term cognitively purposeful behavior unique from previous drug-taking experience.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

Reasons for drug and alcohol use by college students.

Interest in examining more precisely the relationship between specific motives for drug and alcohol use and personality prompted the undertaking of this study. By means of a series of canonical correlation analyses, patterns of self-attributed reasons for drug and alcohol use were interrelated to a battery of individual difference variables drawn from the domains of personality needs, daydreaming and mental style, optimal level of stimulation, and locus of control. The findings indicate that drug and alcohol use are linked to individual differences in a more complex way than is typically studied.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Prediction of college drug use from personality and inner experience.

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which subjects comprising substance use criterion groups (nonusers, alcohol only users, marijuana only users, polydrug users) could be differentiated on the basis of theoretically relevant personality and inner experience constructs. The test battery included variable from the domains of needs, daydreaming and mental style, optimal level of stimulation, and locus of control. Separate stepwise discriminant analyses were computed for males and females in order to predict drug-use pattern. The analyses were replicated, and the best set of predictor variables was used to predict classifications in different samples. The results indicate that it is possible to differentiate among the criterion groups in a statistically reliable manner on the basis of well-conceived assessment instruments with an accuracy of 60 to 65%. The consistency of the obtained discriminant results across four different samples suggests that rather than seeking some superordinate personality trait to differentiate substance users from nonusers, a general cluster of variables which may be described under the rubric "hang loose ethic" will best separate the groups.

Exploratory Behavior↗
PubMed1976

The use of autocorrelation analysis in the longitudinal study of mood patterns in depressed patients.

The statistical method of autocorrelation, commonly used in econometrics and engineering, was applied to the daily mood scores of ten depressive hospital in-patients. The analyses made possible the quantification of two aspects of the longitudinal course of individual patients' psychopathology, the degree of day-to-day stability and the degree of periodicity in mood. Quantification of the degree of day-to-day mood stability yielded wide variations between patients and suggested that patients might be usefully categorized in terms of this characteristic. Mood stability during periods of severe depression was found to be less pronounced than during periods of relatively moderate depression. Furthermore, the existence of 'mini-cycles', cyclical fluctuations in mood of one to two weeks' duration occurring during the course of depressive episodes, was demonstrated in three cases.

Adult↗