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This study examined the associations of substance use, psychological distress, and mental health services receipt with the structure and content of adolescent school‐based networks. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we found that substance use was associated with receiving more, but making fewer, peer nominations. It also was associated with less favorable network characteristics, such as low GPA. Services receipt was associated with receiving and making fewer nominations, less favorable network characteristics, and a lower likelihood of reciprocated best friendships. Psychological distress had fewer significant associations. All associations were modest in magnitude. Our results suggest the importance of considering multiple indicators of socioemotional problems and multiple dimensions of social networks in research on adolescent peer relations.

In recent years, scholars from a variety of disciplines have turned to the potential psychosocial determinants of health in pursuit of an explanation for socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities. This review discusses the literature on psychosocial factors and mental and physical health, focusing on the roles of subjective status, self/identity, and perceived discrimination. We argue that current research may have obscured important social psychological considerations and that it is an opportune time to reconsider the social psychology of disparities. A social psychology of disparities could provide a bridge between those who encourage research on health's "upstream" causes and those who encourage research on "downstream" mechanisms precisely because social psychology is concerned with the vast "meso" level of analysis that many allude to but few explicitly traverse. We point to the importance of person-environment interactions, contingencies, reciprocality, and meaning. Although psychosocial factors might not explain disparities in the manner much psychosocial research would seem to suggest, psychosocial factors are important causes in their own right and, when considered in a more sophisticated social psychological light, may help to refine disparities theory and research.

Alienation, defined as a rejection of soc instit's & processes, plays an important role in sociol'al res & theory. A measure of the degree of alienation is examined re MM exposure, interest in sensational content, & gratifications obtained from the media. 2 hyp's are suggested: (1) the alienated person will spend more time using the MM in order to compensate for a lack of satisfaction with more personal COMM; (2) within a given medium, the alienated person will select content that agrees with his image of a hostile & unpredictable world, such as news of accidents & violence & glamorous personages. He will be little interested in gov'al news or any content that depends on empathy with abstract instit's. These hyp's were tested in personal interviews with 180 adults from Madison, Wise. The interviewing method is explained & the results, presented in 4 tables, show little evidence of a positive r between alienation & time spent using the MM, & indicate that alienation is associated with lower interest in 'nonsensational' headlines, but the hypothesis of a positive association of alienation & interest in `sensational' headlines was not supported. The data also indicate that the more alienated the R, the less likely he was to think informational reasons applied to him, & the more likely was his acceptance of vicarious reasons as gratifications connected with his newspaper reading. Both alienation & educ were found to be clear, though not strong, predictors of gratifications attributed to reading newspapers. M. Maxfield.

This volume provides the first comprehensive overview of social psychological research on inequality for a graduate student and professional audience. Drawing on all of the major theoretical traditions in sociological social psychology, its chapters demonstrate the relevance of social psychological processes to this central sociological concern. Each chapter in the volume has a distinct substantive focus, but the chapters will also share common emphases on: ? The unique contributions of sociological social psychology ? The historical roots of social psychological concepts and theories in classic sociological writings ? The complementary and conflicting insights that derive from different social psychological traditions in sociology. This Handbook is of interest to graduate students preparing for careers in social psychology or in inequality, professional sociologists and university/college libraries.

"While mental health figured prominently in the writings of classical sociologists, contemporary sociologists often view research on mental health as peripheral to the ""real work"" of the discipline. The essays in this volume reassert the centrality of research in mental health to sociology. First, they articulate the contributions that mental health research has made and can make to resolving key theoretical and empirical debates in important areas of sociological study. Second, they draw from mainstream theories and concepts to reconsider the potential of sociology to provide answers to critical questions regarding the social origins of and social responses to mental illness. As reflected in the title, the sociological study of mental health provides a reflection of the central processes that characterize our society."

The multifaceted nature of harmful substance use and gambling requires interdisciplinary analysis to assess the underlying causes. iWhat Determines Harm from Addictive Substances and Behaviours'r draws together evidence from twelve disciplines including anthropology, genetics, neurobiology, and public policy. Using a developmental approach, the book presents evidence on the factors that influence the development of harmful substance use and gambling.