Concurrent and predictive relationships between peer harassment and problem behavior were examined for middle and high school students as well as gender differences in these relationships. Students recruited in fifth through seventh grades (n = 223) and their parents provided quarterly questionnaire data and were followed up into high school. As hypothesized, experiencing frequent peer harassment in middle school was associated with greater problem behavior concurrently and prospectively into high school. Students experiencing frequent harassment exhibited more aggressive and antisocial behavior and were more likely to associate with deviant peers and use cigarettes during middle school than those experiencing some or no harassment. In regression analyses, frequent verbal harassment predicted antisocial behavior, alcohol use, and deviant peer association in high school, and frequent physical harassment predicted later antisocial behavior, aggression, deviant peer association, and multiple problem behavior. Gender interactions were found for prediction of later aggressive and antisocial behavior.

The objective of this analysis was to identify variables that predict the initiation of smoking among adolescents, and the development of susceptibility to smoking, over a 2-year period. We assessed variables that might predict later smoking among nonsmoking students in grades 7 and 9 and assessed their smoking status 2 years later, when they were in grades 9 and 11, thus receiving data from 4,130 students at two time points. Initiation of weekly smoking over the 2 years was associated with having a parent, sibling, or close friend who smokes; low school grades; higher levels of deviant behavior; susceptibility to smoking; use of smokeless tobacco; and for 7th graders, perception of higher levels of normative smoking. Susceptibility, defined as not being able to rule out the idea of smoking a year after the survey, was identified as a strong predictor of smoking and a valuable intermediary measure. We also assessed factors associated with the prediction of susceptibility 2 years post-test. Susceptibility to smoking was associated with deviant behavior, low grades, lower parental monitoring, relaxed parental attitude toward youth smoking, ease of access to tobacco, and lower exposure to anti-tobacco messages. This study provides support for the idea that susceptibility to smoking could be a useful outcome variable for tobacco research, as an intermediary to the initiation of smoking. In addition, evidence indicates that theoretically manipulable variables, including access to tobacco and exposure to anti-tobacco information, have the potential to influence susceptibility to smoking over a time.

This study assessed the risk of smoking uptake over 2 years in adolescent boys (in grades 7 and 9) who had used smokeless tobacco (ST). We used logistic regression to determine whether the odds of adolescent boys taking up regular smoking over a period of 2 years were greater among initial nonsmokers who used ST, compared with nonusers of ST, after accounting for six well-established predictors of smoking. Initiation of weekly smoking 2 years after baseline was associated with ST use at baseline, even after including dichotomous measures of parent, sibling, or close friend smoking; low academic grades; 30-day alcohol use; and a scale measure of deviant behavior. With these other predictors included in the model, the odds ratio for the association of ST use with weekly smoking after 2 years was strong and significant (OR = 2.55, 95% CI 1.45-4.47, p<.001). The use of ST in the 7th and 9th grades is a significant risk factor for subsequent smoking even when controlling for other factors.

Teachers’ psychological wellbeing is important for teachers and students, but is highly stressful, particularly in special education. We examined the role of experiential avoidance (EA) in the wellbeing of 529 middle and elementary school teachers. EA involves the tendency to avoid thoughts, feelings, and other internal experiences even when doing so causes long-range consequences. Using a teacher-specific measure, we investigated its relationship to stress associated with student misbehavior and limited social support. We assessed EA’s relationship to burnout and depression, finding EA significantly and moderately correlated with depression and all scales of Maslach’s Burnout Inventory. Mediation analyses showed EA mediated the relationship between stress associated with student behavior and measures of wellbeing. We found 26.8% of teachers mildly, 8.9% moderately, and 2.8% moderately severely or severely depressed. This evidence concurs with studies showing the value of mindfulness-based interventions and points to the utility of implementing interventions aimed at decreasing EA in teachers.

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