Youth alcohol and other drug use in the United States and Australia: a cross-national comparison of three state-wide samples

Although youth drug and alcohol harm minimization policies in Australia are often contrasted with the abstinence and zero tolerance policies adopted in the United States, there has been little research directly comparing youth substance use behaviour in the two countries. Three state representative samples in Victoria, Australia (n = 7898) and in the US states of Oregon (n = 15 224) and Maine (n = 16 245) completed a common cross-sectional student survey. Rates of alcohol use (lifetime alcohol use, recent use in the past 30 days), alcohol use exceeding recommended consumption limits (binge drinking: five or more drinks in a session), other licit drug use (tobacco use), and norm-violating substance use (substance use at school, use in the past 30 days of marijuana or other illicit drug use) were compared for males and females at ages 12-17. Rates were lower (odds ratios 0.5-0.8) for youth in Maine and Oregon compared to Victoria for lifetime and recent alcohol use, binge drinking and daily cigarette smoking. However, rates of recent marijuana use and recent use of other illicit drugs were higher in Maine and Oregon, as were reports of being drunk or high at school. In contradiction of harm minimization objectives, Victoria, relative to the US states of Oregon and Maine, demonstrated higher rates of alcohol use exceeding recommended consumption limits and daily tobacco use. However, findings suggested that aspects of norm-violating substance use (substance use at school, marijuana use and other illicit drug use) were higher in the US states compared to Victoria.

A cross-national comparison of risk and protective factors for adolescent substance use : the United States and Australia

Purpose
To compare risk and protective factors that influence youth substance use in Australia and the United States. The two countries have different policy orientations toward substance use: Australia has adopted harm-reduction policies, and the United States has adopted abstinence-focused polices.

Methods
Cross-sectional survey data were collected from independent samples of adolescents in the states of Maine (N = 16,861; 53% female, 7% Non-white) and Oregon (N = 15,542; 51% female, 24% Non-white) in the United States and Victoria in Australia (N = 8442; 54% Female, 11% Non-white) in 1998 (Maine and Oregon) and 1999 (Victoria). Chi-square tests, t-tests, effect size comparisons, and logistic regression analyses that accounted for age and gender were used to investigate cross-national similarities and differences in: (a) rates of cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use; (b) levels of risk and protective factors; and (c) magnitudes of associations between risk and protective factors and substance use.

Results
More adolescents in Victoria reported using cigarettes and alcohol, whereas more of the U.S. adolescents reported using marijuana. Exposure to risk and protective factors was generally similar in the cross-national samples. However, adolescents in Maine and Oregon perceived handguns to be more readily available, reported more participation in religious activities, and were higher in sensation-seeking and social skills; and adolescents in Victoria had more favorable attitudes toward drug use and reported community norms and parental attitudes more favorable to drug use. Most of the risk and protective factors were strongly associated with substance use to a similar degree in Victoria, Maine, and Oregon. However, among adolescents in Maine and Oregon peer/individual risk and protective factors associated with social detachment were more strongly related to substance use, and among adolescents in Victoria, family protective factors were less strongly related to alcohol use.

Conclusions
Inter-country influences on youth substance use are generally similar despite different policy directions. Existing differences suggest that the abstinence policy context is associated with higher levels of illicit drug use and stronger relations between individual indicators of social detachment and substance use, whereas the harm reduction policy context is related to more cigarette and alcohol use, possibly from exposure to normative influences that are more tolerant of youth drug use.

A cross-national comparison of school drug policies in Washington State, United States, and Victoria, Australia

Using mail survey data collected from primary and secondary school administrators in Washington State, United States, and in Victoria, Australia, this study compared aspects of the school drug policy environment in the 2 states. Documented substance-use policies were prevalent in Washington and Victoria but less prevalent in primary schools, especially in Victoria. Victorian school policy-setting processes were significantly more likely to involve teachers, parents, and students than processes in Washington schools. Consistent with expectations based on their respective national drug policy frameworks, school drug policies in Washington schools were more oriented toward total abstinence and more frequently enforced with harsh punishment (such as expulsion or calling law enforcement), whereas policies in Victorian schools were more reflective of harm-minimization principles. Within both states, however, schools more regularly used harsh punishment and remediation consequences for alcohol and illicit-drug violations compared to tobacco policy violations, which were treated more leniently. (J Sch Health. 2005;75(4):134-140)

Personality disorders and physical comorbidities in adults from the United States: data from the national epidemiologic survey on alcohol and related conditions.

There is a paucity of research examining the relationship between personality disorders (PDs) and chronic physical comorbidities. Consequently, we investigated associations between individual PDs and PD Clusters, and various common disease groups [cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, arthritis and gastrointestinal disease (GI)] in a nationally representative survey of adults from the United States.

Hispanics in the United States

Includes bibliography

Organic food market in the United States: Market access opportunities for Latin American and Caribbean producers

Includes bibliography

The historical relationship between energy-consumption and gross national product in the United States

Includes bibliography

Patterns of alcohol and illicit substance use in the United States and Mexico. Substantive and methodologic issues in the cross-national analysis of alcohol and drug use data

This research examines prevalence of alcohol and illicit substance use in the United States and Mexico and associated socio-demographic characteristics. The sources of data for this study are public domain data from the U.S. National Household Survey of Drug Abuse, 1988 (n = 8814), and the Mexican National Survey of Addictions, 1988 (n = 12,579). In addition, this study discusses methodologic issues in cross-cultural and cross-national comparison of behavioral and epidemiologic data from population-based samples. The extent to which patterns of substance abuse vary among subgroups of the U.S. and Mexican populations is assessed, as well as the comparability and equivalence of measures of alcohol and drug use in these national samples.^ The prevalence of alcohol use was somewhat similar in the two countries for all three measures of use: lifetime, past year and past year heavy use, (85.0%, 68.1%, 39.6% and 72.6%, 47.7% and 45.8% for the U.S. and Mexico respectively). The use of illegal substances varied widely between countries, with U.S. respondents reporting significantly higher levels of use than their Mexican counterparts. For example, reported use of any illicit substance in lifetime and past year was 34.2%, 11.6 for the U.S., and 3.3% and 0.6% for Mexico. Despite these differences in prevalence, two demographic characteristics, gender and age, were important correlates of use in both countries. Men in both countries were more likely to report use of alcohol and illicit substances than women. Generally speaking, a greater proportion of respondents in both countries 18 years of age or older reported use of alcohol for all three measures than younger respondents; and a greater proportion of respondents between the ages of 18 and 34 years reported use of illicit substances during lifetime and past year than any other age group.^ Additional substantive research investigating population-based samples and at-risk subgroups is needed to understand the underlying mechanisms of these associations. Further development of cross-culturally meaningful survey methods is warranted to validate comparisons of substance use across countries and societies. ^

Episodic Stream Acidification Caused by Atmospheric Deposition of Sea Salts at Acadia National Park, Maine, United States

Major episodic acidifications were observed on several occasions in first-order brooks at Acadia National Park, Mount Desert Island, Maine. Short-term declines of up to 2 pH units and 130-mu-eq L-1 acid-neutralizing capacity were caused by HCl from soil solutions, rather than by H2SO4 or HNO3 from precipitation, because (1) SO4 concentrations were constant or decreased during the pH depression, (2) Cl concentrations were greatest at the time of lowest pH, and (3) Na:Cl ratios decreased from values much greater than those in precipitation (a result of chemical weathering), to values equal to or less than those in precipitation. Dilution, increases in NO3 concentrations, or increased export or organic acidity from soils were insufficient to cause the observed decreases in pH. These data represent surface water acidifications due primarily to an ion exchange "salt effect" of Na+ for H+ in soil solution, and secondarily to dilution, neither of which is a consequence of acidic deposition. The requisite conditions for a major episodic salt effect acidification include acidic soils, and either an especially salt-laden wet precipitation event, or a period of accumulation of marine salts from dry deposition, followed by wet inputs.