Digital Commons Network^™

An Educational Intervention For Pediatric Primary Health Care Providers To Increase Their Knowledge, Attitudes, And Behaviors Related To E-Cigarette Usage And Screening Among Adolescents: A Quality Improvement Project, Eliana Martinez

Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing Student Projects

Background: Health care providers can play an important role in preventing adolescent risk behaviors. Many primary care providers are not informed about e-cigarettes, the health consequences with use, nor how to screen for electronic cigarette use in adolescents.

Purpose: This DNP Project will assess health care providers’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to the use of e-cigarettes in the adolescent population and appropriate screening tools prior to and following a related educational intervention.

Design: A pre- and posttest study design.

Sample: Ten participants (n = 2 nurse practitioners, n = 3 physicians, n = 2 registered nurses, and n = …

Associations Between Adolescent Cannabis Use Trajectories And Anxiety, Jacqueline C. Duperrouzel

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the effects of cannabis use is critical for reducing adverse behavioral, social, and academic outcomes, particularly among adolescent users who are most at risk for cannabis related problems. Although support from both the animal and human literatures suggests the relationship between cannabis and anxiety may be associated with levels of use, much is still unknown. Thus, examining relationships between the most common mental health issue in adolescence and one of the most commonly used drugs is of great public health significance and impact. Prior longitudinal studies assessing effects of cannabis use on anxiety have not evaluated different patterns of …

Elaborating The Causes And Consequences Of Unstructured Socializing With Peers: A Consideration Of Mediating, Reciprocal, And Nonlinear Effects, Robert Archer

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An abundance of research provides evidence that unstructured socializing with peers (USWP) is positively associated with a wide variety of delinquent acts. What remains less clear is the degree with which proximate and more distal variables affect this association, the reciprocal nature of theoretically important variables implicated in the relationship between USWP and deviance, and whether these mechanisms are nonlinear. This lack of clarity represents significant voids in the research examining USWP and deviancy and gives rise to the purpose of the present work.

While a number of approaches have been used to nest research examining USWP, the routine activity …

Attentional Processes In Anxiety: Examining Threat-Related Attention Bias And Attentional Control In Anxious Youth, Raquel Melendez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Attention bias modification treatment (ABMT) is a computer-administered intervention informed by theoretical models implicating the role of attentional processes in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety. Attention bias modification treatment presents an innovative, cost-effective approach to meeting demand for treatment of anxiety disorders; however data are limited regarding long-term outcomes and related predictors of ABMT treatment outcomes in youth. Therefore, the present study examined long-term outcomes of ABMT as a standalone or adjunctive treatment in 74 youth referred to an anxiety disorders clinic. Three groups of youth (ages 9 to 22) were identified and assessed approximately one to six years …

Risk And Protective Factors Associated With The Adult Achievement Of Substance-Using Adolescents: Findings From The National Longitudinal Study Of Adolescent To Adult Health, Dana G. Farrell

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The literature has well-documented the deleterious effect of alcohol and other drug (AOD) use on adolescent development and future outcomes. Despite these devastating results, some adolescents are able to attain high achievement as adults, despite their earlier AOD use. Secondary quantitative analyses were conducted on nationally-representative data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Longitudinal data, collected at Wave I (1994-1995), and Wave IV (2007-2008), were analyzed from a sample of 4,266 American high school students between the ages of 13-19 years. The majority of high school students in the sample self-reported AOD use (n=2,833, 66.4%), compared …

Predictors Of Adolescent Sexual Intentions And Behavior: Attitudes, Parenting, And Neighborhood Risk, Anne S. Frankel

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study was a cross-sectional examination of data collected during an HIV risk reduction intervention in south Florida. The purpose of the study was to explore the relationships between neighborhood stress, parenting, attitudes, and adolescent sexual intentions and behavior. The Theory of Planned Behavior was used as a model to guide variable selection and propose an interaction pathway between predictors and outcomes.

Potential predictor variables measured for adolescents ages 13-18 (n=196) included communication about sex, parent-family connectedness, parental presence, parent-adolescent activity participation, attitudes about sex and condom use, neighborhood disorder, and exposure to violence. Outcomes were behavioral intentions and …

The Longitudinal Influence Of Physical Activity On Adolescent Alcohol Use, Beverly A. Ruffin

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to explore the influence of physical activity on depressive symptomatology and adolescent alcohol use during an underexplored transition from middle school to high school. The study initiative is supported by the fact that research has shown a unique and simultaneous decrease in physical activity (CDC, 2010), increase in depressive symptomatology (SAMHSA, 2010) and increase in alcohol use (USDHHS, 2011) during middle adolescence. A risk and resilience framework was used in efforts to conceptualize how these variables may be inter-related.

Data from waves I and II of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add …