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The aim of this study was to examine the associations between outcome expectancies and ecstasy use in a sample of visitors of raves. The type of expectancies that people endorse were explored, as well as the differences between users and nonusers in expected outcomes of ecstasy use, and the associations between expectancies and quantity of ecstasy use within the group of users. Questionnaires were administered to 844 young visitors of 7 parties in the Netherlands, of which 543 reported to be users. Drug use on these parties was high: 65% reporting ecstasy use. Factor analyses showed 7 factors: negative consequences, enhancement, euphoria, sexiness, dancing, communication and self-insight. These factors strongly discriminated between users and nonusers. In particular those who scored high on self-insight and low on negative effects were most likely to use ecstasy. The expected outcomes of ecstasy are related to ecstasy use and patterns of use providing information for health education directed on long-term negative and positive effects of ecstasy use. Longitudinal research on random samples of visitors of raves is warranted.

An important challenge to enhancing community access to mental health interventions in marginalised, transcultural settings is the development of culturally relevant screening measures. Cross-cultural adaptation (CCA) and translation methods offer guidelines for the adaption of existing screening measures for use across cultures with the aim of preserving semantic and construct equivalence as well as validity. Yet, the application of CCA methods has been inconsistent and validation strategies have focused predominantly on expert review and quantitative validity testing. Additionally, potentially important context-specific interpretations of measure items have been lost in translation-heavy approaches. The missing link in the CCA of existing measures may be the addition of culturally sensitive, community-based evaluative methods. This paper presents a report of the application of a seven-step CCA method developed by the first author to address the issue of cultural relevance in the translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the Spence Child Anxiety Scale (SCAS) an anxiety measure for use in a specific South African community context. The findings emphasise the surprising context-specific interpretations of items in measures applied transculturally, which support the case for qualitative, community-based validation of translated, CCA screening measures used to explore the effectiveness of mental health interventions across cultural contexts.

During adolescence, teenagers try a range of risk behaviors including smoking, drinking, and the use of soft drugs. Because substance use contributes to an unhealthy lifestyle of teenagers on the short term and can lead to serious health problems on the longer term, prevention in this target group is important. This chapter provides an overview of the determinants of substance use on the one hand, and primary and secondary prevention opportunities on the other hand, especially in the school context. At the end, future directions and recommendations for school, youth, and family are discussed.

The present study examined the role of parents in smoking relapse among adolescents who embarked on a serious attempt to quit. Participants were 135 adolescents aged 15–20 years who smoked daily and participated in an ecological momentary assessment study. Daily questions about their quitting experiences were administered during 4 weeks. Longitudinal logistic regression analyses were applied to test whether parental smoking, expected parental support, parental norms about cessation, and smoking cessation-specific parenting at baseline predicted the first lapse into smoking as well as mild and heavy relapse during the 4-week period, and abstinence at follow-up 2 months later. Neither parental smoking nor hardly any of the parenting variables explained successful smoking cessation among adolescents, except for expected parental support. Although parents have been found to be influential in the development of adolescent smoking, our findings suggest that parents' influence is limited when it concerns actual smoking cessation and relapse.

In recent years research on parenting has changed stance from one where parents shape child outcomes to an interactive perspective. However this shift is only now transferring to adolescents, with research exploring how the roles that adolescents and parents play in their interactions can lead to problem behaviour. Part of the Hot Topics in Developmental Research series, this book presents the new perspective

This paper has two aims: (1) to replicate the four-dimensional structure of the Drinking Motive Questionnaire Revised (DMQ-R) in a national representative sample from Switzerland, and (2) to validate the relevance of distinguishing drinking motives by inspecting the relations with expected consequences, alcohol use, and alcohol-related and other problems. Confirmatory factor analysis and linear structural equation models were estimated based on answers of 5,617 8th to 10th graders (mean 15.1 years; SD = 0.95). The results confirm the four-dimensional factor structure in general and among subpopulations defined by gender, age, and linguistic region. It could also be confirmed that enhancement motives followed by coping motives were strongly related to alcohol use and heavy drinking, whereas conformity motives were negatively related. Coping motives were related to problems independent of whether they were assessed as alcohol-related or not, while enhancement motives were associated solely with alcohol-related problems. In sum, the results demonstrate the robustness of the DMQ-R and its usefulness for assessing drinking motives among European adolescents from different cultural backgrounds.

This study examined whether personality traits and peer drinking affect alcohol consumption in young adults. Data were analyzed from a study that was conducted in a 'bar laboratory' in which ad-lib drinking of peer groups was observed. The findings indicate that extroversion is moderately associated with self-reported daily drinking, while low emotional stability is modestly associated with alcohol-related problems. With regard to drinking in the observational drinking setting, personality is not associated with young adults' actual alcohol consumption. Further, peer drinking levels were strongly related to young adults' drinking. Besides, agreeableness interacted with the effects of peer drinking on young adults' drinking in such a way that agreeable individuals adapted their actual alcohol consumption more easily than others when socializing in a high- or a low-drinking peer group. We concluded that drinking in a peer context, irrespective of personality, played a major role in forming young adults' drinking. However, personality (i.e. agreeableness) definitely played a role to the extent of the individuals' adaptation to peer drinking norms.

<i>Background:</i>It has frequently been suggested that adolescents are more likely to start smoking when they hold favorable social images or prototypes of smoking peers. Although empirical evidence supports the role of smoker prototypes in predicting smoking, little is known about the relative contribution of smoker prototypes, in comparison to more well-established social cognitive factors. Therefore, the present study investigated the relative impact of smoker prototypes, in comparison to factors of the theory of planned behavior, in predicting smoking among adolescents. <i>Methods:</i> A three-wave prospective study was conducted among 612 Dutch 8th grade students (aged 12–13 years). Questionnaires were administered and adolescents were followed during one year. <i>Results:</i> The results indicate that smoker prototypes are predictive of adolescent smoking behavior. Adolescents who believe that smoking peers are sociable more frequently engage in smoking behavior. Moreover, adolescents who hold the image that smoking peers are rebellious are less inclined to engage in smoking. These prototype factors predict a significant proportion of variance in smoking status, over and above the components of the theory of planned behavior. <i>Conclusion:</i> The findings of the present study are interesting because they suggest that intervening on the level of smoker prototypes may contribute to the effectiveness of current programs aiming at the prevention of adolescents' smoking behavior.

The influence of parents on their offsprings' peer relations is not limited to childhood but continues throughout the adolescent years. Little is, however, known about which mechanisms link adolescent functioning in family and peer systems. This study focuses on social skills as
a mediator between characteristics of the parent-child relationship and peer relations. Data from a cross-sectional study among 508 12–18-year olds were used for analyses. Findings showed that adolescents' social skills mediated the effects of some parental practices, such as responsiveness,
autonomy, cohesion, as well as parental attachment on the degree of peer activity, the attachment to peers and perceived social support from peers to some extent. Nonetheless, direct parental influence on peer relations remained apparent after controlling for the effects of social skills.
No effects of gender and age were found. The overall picture is that social skills of adolescents as well as parenting factors, parental attachment and family climate are associated with the quality and intensity of peer relations.

In recent years, dating and romantic partners have been recognized as important peer relations within adolescence and research in this area is just emerging. Peer groups and peer pressure are more well established areas of research into adolescence, with recent studies focusing on peer groups and anti-social behaviour