Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Most Environmentally Sustainable Diet For Adolescents In Terms Of Land Use, Food Waste, And Greenhouse Gas Emissions., Lina Elsehelly

Papers, Posters, and Presentations

The current food system is directly responsible for much environmental damage including severe climate change, biodiversity loss, and land scarcity. This research aims to find some strategies to mitigate these damages through diet by specifically targeting adolescents because they are potential problem-solvers. This period is also when personality and habits are articulated. By focusing on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and food waste, a more environmentally sustainable diet can be formulated. The key findings of the research can be summarized by reducing ultra-processed foods, choosing sustainably produced food, generally reducing meat consumption from the current rate, substituting red and …

A Cross-National Comparison Of The Linkages Between Family Structure Histories And Early Adolescent Substance Use, Haley Stritzel, Michael Green, Robert Crosnoe

Student and Faculty Publications

Family structure can influence adolescent health with cascading implications into adulthood. Life course theory emphasizes how this phenomenon is dynamic across time, contextualized in policy systems, and grounded in processes of selection and socialization. This study used data from the U.S. (National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Child and Young Adults, n = 6,236) and U.K. (Millennium Cohort Study, n = 11,095) to examine associations between a single mother family structure between ages 0-14 and early adolescent substance use at age 14 across time and place, using inverse probability of treatment weighting to explore how results varied by selection into …

Exercise, Cognition, And Cannabis Use In Adolescents, Ileana Pacheco-Colón

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Heavy and/or chronic cannabis use has been associated with neurocognitive impairment and decline, often in domains such as memory and executive functioning. On the other hand, exercise has been linked to positive effects on brain and cognitive health across the lifespan, as well as to better substance use outcomes. Despite this, little is known about the ways in which exercise could help prevent or ameliorate adverse cannabis-related outcomes among adolescents.

Through three separate studies, the current dissertation examines interrelations among exercise, cognition, and cannabis use in children and adolescents in an effort to determine whether exercise can prevent or ameliorate …

Factors Affecting Pubertal Timing And Perceptions Of Birth Control, Ashley L. Gomm

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Menarche is the occurrence of a first menstrual period in the female adolescent. The age of menarche has been decreasing over the past 150 years. While some factors have been identified, like increased body mass index (BMI), such factors alone cannot account for the overall decrease in age.

Due to the decreased age of menarche and as additional uses for oral contraceptive pills (OCPs) have been identified, it is becoming clear that females no longer use “birth control” or “oral contraceptives” primarily to prevent pregnancy, but instead for a myriad other reasons including “menstrual suppression.” Menstrual suppression is …

The Effects Of Nicotine In The Neonatal Quinpirole Rodent Model Of Psychosis: Neural Plasticity Mechanisms And Nicotinic Receptor Changes, Daniel J. Peterson, W. Drew Gill, John M. Dose, Donald B. Hoover, James R. Pauly, Elizabeth D. Cummins, Katherine C. Burgess, Russell W. Brown

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Neonatal quinpirole (NQ) treatment to rats increases dopamine D2 receptor sensitivity persistent throughout the animal’s lifetime. In Experiment 1, we analyzed the role of α7 and α4β2 nicotinic receptors (nAChRs) in nicotine behavioral sensitization and on the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) response to nicotine in NQ- and neonatally saline (NS)-treated rats. In Experiment 2, we analyzed changes in α7 and α4β2 nAChR density in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and dorsal striatum in NQ and NS animals sensitized to nicotine. Male and female Sprague-Dawley rats were neonatally treated with quinpirole (1 mg/kg) or saline from postnatal days (P)1–21. Animals were given …

Asenapine Sensitization From Adolescence To Adulthood And Its Potential Molecular Basis, Qing Shu, Rongyin Qin, Yingzhu Chen, Gang Hu, Ming Li

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Asenapine is a new antipsychotic drug that induces a long-lasting behavioral sensitization in adult rats. The present study investigated the developmental impacts of adolescent asenapine treatment on drug sensitivity and on 3 proteins implicated in the action of antipsychotic drugs (i.e. Brainderived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), dopamine D₂ receptor, and ΔFosB) in adulthood. Male adolescent Sprague-Dawley rats (postnatal days, P 43-48) were first treated with asenapine (0.05, 0.10 or 0.20 mg/kg, sc) and tested in the conditioned avoidance or PCP (2.0 mg/kg, sc)-induced hyperlocomotion tasks for 5 days. After they became adults (∼P 76), asenapine sensitization was assessed in a …

Transmembrane Domain Nrg1 Mutant Mice Show Altered Susceptibility To The Neurobehavioural Actions Of Repeated Thc Exposure In Adolescence, Leonora E. Long, Rose Chesworth, Xu-Feng Huang, Iain S. Mcgregor, Jonathon C. Arnold, Tim Karl

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Heavy cannabis abuse increases the risk of developing schizophrenia. Adolescents appear particularly vulnerable to the development of psychosis-like symptoms after cannabis use. To test whether the schizophrenia candidate gene neuregulin 1 (NRG1) modulates the effects of cannabinoids in adolescence, we tested male adolescent heterozygous transmembrane domain Nrg1 mutant (Nrg1 TM HET) mice and wild type-like littermates (WT) for their neurobehavioural response to repeated Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, 10 mg/kg i.p. for 21 d starting on post-natal day 31). During treatment and 48 h after treatment withdrawal, we assessed several behavioural parameters relevant to schizophrenia. After behavioural testing we measured autoradiographic …

Comorbid Externalising Behaviour In Ad/Hd: Evidence For A Distinct Pathological Entity In Adolescence, Sharnel Perera, David Crewther, Rodney Croft, Hannah Keage, Daniel Hermens, C Richard Clark

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

While the profiling of subtypes of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) have been the subject of considerable scrutiny, both psychometrically and psychophysiologically, little attention has been paid to the effect of diagnoses comorbid with AD/HD on such profiles. This is despite the greater than 80% prevalence of comorbidity under the DSM-IV-TR diagnostic definitions. Here we investigate the event related potential (ERP) and psychometric profiles of Controls, AD/HD, and comorbid AD/HD (particularly AD/HD+ODD/CD) groups on six neurocognitive tasks thought to probe the constructs of selective and sustained attention, response inhibition and executive function. Data from 29 parameters extracted from a child …

Influence Of High Glycemic Index And Glycemic Load Diets On Blood Pressure During Adolescence, Bamini Gopinath, Victoria M. Flood, Elena Rochtchina, Louise A. Baur, Wayne Smith, Paul Mitchell

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

We aimed to prospectively examine the association between the glycemic index and glycemic load of foods consumed and the dietary intakes of carbohydrates, sugars, fiber, and principal carbohydrate-containing food groups (eg, breads, cereals, and sugary drinks) with changes in blood pressure during adolescence. A total of 858 students aged 12 years at baseline (422 girls and 436 boys) were examined from 2004-2005 to 2009-2011. Dietary data were assessed from validated semiquantitative food frequency questionnaires. Blood pressure was measured using a standard protocol. In girls, after adjusting for age, ethnicity, parental education, parental history of hypertension, baseline height, baseline blood pressure, …

In Search Of The Neurobiological Substrates For Social Playfulness In Mammalian Brains, Stephen M. Siviy, Jaak Panksepp

Psychology Faculty Publications

Play behavior is a fundamental and intrinsic neurobehavioral process in the mammalian brain. Using rough-and-tumble play in the juvenile rat as a model system to study mammalian playfulness, some of the relevant neurobiological substrates for this behavior have been identified, and in this review this progress. A primary-process executive circuit for play in the rat that includes thalamic intralaminar nuclei, frontal cortex and striatum can be gleaned from these data. Other neural areas that may interact with this putative circuit include amygdala, ventral hypothalamus, periaqueductal gray (PAG), and deep tectum, as well as ascending dopamine systems which participate in all …

Effects Of Chlordiazepoxide On Predator Odor-Induced Reductions Of Playfulness In Juvenile Rats, Stephen M. Siviy, Courtney L. Steets, Lauren M. Debrouse

Psychology Faculty Publications

The extent to which a non-sedative dose of chlordiazepoxide (CDP) is able to modify the behavioral responses toward a predator odor was assessed in juvenile rats. Play behavior was suppressed and defensive behaviors were enhanced in the presence of a collar previously worn by a cat, when tested 24 hours later in the same context as that where the exposure occurred, and when tested in a context different than that in which the exposure occurred for up to 3 hours after exposure. CDP had no effect on the ability of cat odor to suppress play when rats were tested in …