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Although consensual sending of sexts between adolescents is considered developmentally appropriate, it may also entail a range of negative consequences. Current sexting research lacks a comprehensive theoretical framework identifying a range of risk and protective factors underpinning adolescent consensual sending of sexts across individual, interpersonal, and distal levels. Further, there is a lack of systematic evaluation of how the importance of these factors may vary across adolescent age. This study investigated the utility of the Social Development Model to predict a range of risk and protective factors across individual, family, peer, school, and community-level factors. The sample included 1302 teenagers from Victoria, Australia (M age  = 14.54, SD = 1.14, 50.8% girls). Results indicated that 146 (11.7%) participants sent a sext (76 boys and 70 girls). Logistic regression analyses revealed that the Social Development Model accounted for 45.8% of variance in sexting, with greater likelihood of sending sexts being associated with older age, prior sexual activity, school sector, physical activity, lifetime substance use, greater depressive symptoms, sensation seeking, and perceived substance availability in the community. Multigroup analyses revealed that lifetime substance use was associated with a greater likelihood of sending sexts among younger teens. Among older adolescents, adaptive coping was associated with reduced engagement in sexting, while higher parental overcontrol and family conflict increased the odds of sending sexts. Overall, sexting is associated with a range of modifiable factors potentially amenable to intervention., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Internationally, youth crime is a significant social problem. Violent youth crime has been rising over the past decade in the state of Victoria, Australia. Communities That Care (CTC) is a coalition training process designed to prevent youth crime. There has been limited evaluation outside the USA. Using a non-experimental design, this study employed official state crime statistics to evaluate the impact on crime as the five-phase CTC process was implemented between 2010 and 2019 across communities in Victoria. The standard five-phase CTC implementation cycle was supplemented with universal programs to reduce sales and supply of alcohol to underage youth (under 18 years). Growth models evaluated community trends in youth crime (all, person, property and deception and other), comparing communities that implemented CTC at phase 4 or greater with communities that had not implemented CTC. In accord with the hypotheses, the study found significant reductions in crimes associated with CTC over the period between 2010 and 2019. A 2% annual reduction in risk was observed for crimes against persons for all age groups (IRR = 0.98, 95% CI [0.96, 0.998]). A 5% annual reduction was observed for crimes of property and deception for adolescents aged between 10 and 17 years (IRR = 0.95, 95% CI [0.90, 0.99]). These findings support CTC as an intervention for preventing youth crime at a population level. Future studies should evaluate intervention mechanisms and economic benefits., (© 2021. Crown.)

Adolescent and young adult health, development, and behavior lay a foundation for future population health. Increasing rates of young adult homelessness mean there is a need for research which generates evidence to support a stronger focus on population-level prevention. Using longitudinal data from a population-based sample of young adults participating in the cross-nationally matched International Youth Development Study, we examined adolescent antecedents of young adult homelessness in Washington State in the USA and in Victoria, Australia. Participants were surveyed using a modified version of the Communities That Care youth survey. Analyses of prospective, longitudinal data from 1945 participants, recruited as state-representative secondary school samples at grade 7 (average age 13, 2002) and longitudinally compared at young adulthood (average age 25, 2014), showed that young adults in Washington State reported higher rates of past year homelessness (5.24%) compared to those in Victoria (3.25%). Path modeling showed less positive family management strategies at age 13 uniquely increased risk for age 25 homelessness. This effect remained after accounting for age 15 antecedents in peer-group, school, and community environments. Friends' drug use, school suspension, academic failure, and low neighborhood attachment at age 15 mediated the association between less positive family management strategies at age 13 and age 25 homelessness. Despite observing some cross-national differences in levels of family, peer-group, school, and community antecedents, we found that these factors equally increased risk for age 25 homelessness in both states, suggesting similar cross-national influences for young adult homelessness. The findings indicate cross-nationally common adolescent antecedents for young adult homelessness that could be targeted by prevention strategies across international settings., (© 2021. Society for Prevention Research.)

Objective: To test the premise that youth alcohol harm minimization policies (compared with abstinence policies) reduce later drinking and harmful consequences of alcohol use in young adulthood, we compared associations among adolescent alcohol use, young adult alcohol consumption, and alcohol-related harms in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, United States., Method: Data came from the International Youth Development Study, a longitudinal, cross-national study of the development of substance use. State-representative samples of seventh-grade (age 13) students in Victoria (n = 984, 53% female, 90% White) and Washington (n = 961, 54% female, 73% White) were surveyed in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2014 (age 25). Participants self-reported alcohol initiation by age 15 and age 25 alcohol consumption (per the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test). Path modeling tested associations among age 15 alcohol use, age 25 consumption, and alcohol-related harms at age 25; multiple group modeling tested the equivalence of parameter estimates across states., Results: Age 25 alcohol consumption was lower in Washington versus Victoria and was associated with poor physical and mental health, partner conflict, substance use, criminal behavior, and violence exposure in both states equally. Living in Washington predicted lower levels of multiple alcohol-related harms at age 25 indirectly via lower age 25 alcohol consumption., Conclusions: Young adults growing up in Victoria reported greater alcohol consumption in young adulthood, which was associated to the same degree with the harms measured regardless of alcohol policy context. Findings support state-level policies that promote alcohol abstinence in adolescence and reduced consumption in young adulthood.

The world youth population is the largest ever and the levels of problem behavior will influence future global health. Recognition of these issues raises questions as to whether adolescent development knowledge can be internationally applied. To date, most research examining adolescent problem behavior has been completed in the United States (USA) and there has been neglected analysis of health inequalities. The aim of the present study was to compare the structure and predictors of problem behavior in representative samples from the USA, Australia, India, and the Netherlands. Two timepoints of longitudinal data were analyzed from the International Youth Development Study that originally recruited state-representative student cohorts in 2002 in Washington State, USA (analytic sample N = 1942) and Victoria, Australia (N = 1957). Similar aged samples were recruited in Mumbai, India, in 2010 (N = 3.923) and the Netherlands in 2008 (N = 682). Surveys were matched and follow-up occurred over 1-year (average baseline ages 12 to 13). CFA identified a latent problem behavior construct comprised of substance use and antisocial behavior indicators. There were cross-national differences in the indicators for this construct. Factor loadings and items were similar between Australia and the USA; however, different items loaded on the construct for the Indian and Netherlands sample. SEM identified that problem behavior at time 2 was predicted by time 1 behavior, with cross-national differences evident. Low parent education was predictive in the USA and India. The number of risk factors present was predictive of problem behavior in all four nations. The findings suggest that evaluated preventative strategies to reduce adolescent problem behavior may have international applications. The analysis of cross-nationally matched longitudinal data appears feasible for identifying prevalence and predictor differences that may signify policy and cultural contexts, to be considered in adapting prevention programs.

Homelessness is associated with a range of negative health and behavioral outcomes, yet life-course pathways to homelessness from adolescence to early adulthood are not well-documented. This study asks to what extent do early-mid adolescent risk and protective factors predict young adult homelessness, and whether the predictive nature of these factors is similar in Victoria, Australia, and Washington State in the USA. As part of the International Youth Development Study, adolescents were recruited as state representative secondary school samples at grade 7 (age 13, 2002) and longitudinally compared at average age 25. Higher rates of past year homelessness were reported by Washington State (5.24%), compared to Victorian young adults (3.25%). Although some cross-state differences in levels of adolescent demographic, individual, family, peer group, school, and community predictors were found, cross-state comparisons showed these factors were equally predictive of young adult homelessness in both states. In univariate analyses, most adolescent risk and protective factors were significant predictors. Unique multivariate adolescent predictors associated with young adult homelessness included school suspension (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.76) and academic failure (AOR = 1.94). No significant unique protective effects were found. Prevention and intervention efforts that support adolescents' academic engagement may help in addressing young adult homelessness. The similar cross-state profile of adolescent predictors suggests that programs seeking to support academic engagement may influence risk for homelessness into young adulthood in both states. The similarity in life-course pathways to homelessness suggests that the USA and Australia can profitably translate prevention and intervention efforts to reduce homelessness while continuing to identify modifiable predictors.

Objective: A major challenge for health psychologists is to ensure the implementation of evidence-based interventions to improve population health. To reduce high rates of adolescent alcohol use and related health problems, trials of the Communities That Care (CTC) prevention process were implemented in Australia beginning in 2001. The process assists communities to strategically plan and monitor implementation of evidence-based preventative interventions. This article reports an evaluation of the effects in the first four Australian communities that completed the process., Method: Trends were examined based on self-report surveys completed by 41,328 adolescents (average age 13.5 years, 51.7% female) across 109 municipal localities between 1999 and 2015. Multilevel modeling compared the 5 localities where the 4 coalitions completed the CTC process with the remaining 104 localities for trends in adolescent reports of lifetime alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis use and past year antisocial behavior., Results: Relative to Australian trends, adolescents in CTC localities reported significantly steeper annual reductions in any lifetime alcohol (Adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 0.94, 95% confidence intervals [CI] = [0.93, 0.95]), tobacco (AOR = 0.97, CI [0.96, 0.99]), cannabis use (AOR = 0.96, CI [0.93, 0.98]) and antisocial behavior (unstandardized regression coefficient [B] = -0.001, CI [-0.002, 0.000])., Conclusion: Implementation of the CTC process in Australia was associated with more rapid community reductions in adolescent health behavior problems. Supporting community coalitions to adopt evidence-based interventions appears a feasible means for health psychologists to improve the health of large adolescent populations and prevent related chronic health problems in later life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Background: This cluster randomised control trial is designed to evaluate whether the Communities That Care intervention (CTC) is effective in reducing the proportion of secondary school age adolescents who use alcohol before the Australian legal purchasing age of 18 years. Secondary outcomes are other substance use and antisocial behaviours. Long term economic benefits of reduced alcohol use by adolescents for the community will also be assessed., Methods: Fourteen communities and 14 other non-contiguous communities will be matched on socioeconomic status (SES), location, and size. One of each pair will be randomly allocated to the intervention in three Australian states (Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia). A longitudinal survey will recruit grade 8 and 10 students (M = 15 years old, N = 3500) in 2017 and conduct follow-up surveys in 2019 and 2021 (M = 19 years old). Municipal youth populations will also be monitored for trends in alcohol-harms using hospital and police administrative data., Discussion: Community-led interventions that systematically and strategically implement evidence-based programs have been shown to be effective in producing population-level behaviour change, including reduced alcohol and drug use. We expect that the study will be associated with significant effects on alcohol use amongst adolescents because interventions adopted within communities will be based on evidence-based practices and target specific problems identified from surveys conducted within each community., Trial Registration: The trial was retrospectively registered in September, 2017 ( ACTRN12616001276448 ), as communities were selected prior to trial registration; however, participants were recruited after registration. Findings will be disseminated in peer-review journals and community fora.

Introduction and Aims: There is a need to explain reported trends of reduced alcohol and drug (substance) use in school-aged children in Australia. This study used student survey data collected in the states of Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland to examine trends in substance use and associated influencing factors., Design and Methods: Youth self-reports were examined from 11 cross-sectional surveys completed by 41 328 adolescents (average age 13.5 years, 52.5% female) across 109 Australian communities between 1999 and 2015. Multi-level modelling was used to identify trends in adolescent reports of lifetime alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use, adjusted for age, gender, social disadvantage and minority status. Trends in influencing factors were also examined that included: individual attitudes, and family, school and community environments. Multivariate analyses estimated the main contributors to alcohol use trends., Results: Alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use all fell significantly from 1999 to 2015. Higher levels of use were observed in Victoria compared to Western Australia or Queensland. Multivariate analyses identified reductions in favourable parent attitudes and lower availability of substances as direct contributors to reducing alcohol use trends. Indicators of school and family adjustment did not show similar trend reductions., Discussion and Conclusions: Reductions in adolescent alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use from 1999 to 2015 were associated with similar reductions in parent favourable attitudes and availability of substances. It is plausible that a reduced tendency for parents and other adults to supply adolescent alcohol are implicated in the reductions in adolescent alcohol use observed across Australia., (© 2018 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.)

This study investigated whether the number of alcohol outlets per 10,000 population in a given area (density) influenced parental supply of alcohol to adolescents; differences in Australian born and acculturating parents were also examined. A state-representative student survey in Victoria identified that the majority of adolescents (55%) reported that they had used alcohol in the past 12months; 34 % of those who had consumed alcohol reported that it had been supplied by their parents. Multilevel modelling identified that there were no overall effects of density, however there were different effects based on parent country of birth and type of license. Specifically, each unit increase in the density of takeaway liquor stores increased the likelihood by 2.03 that children with both Australian-born parents would be supplied alcohol. Adolescents with both migrant parents on the other hand, had a 1.36 increased risk of being supplied alcohol as the density of outlets requiring at-venue consumption increased. The findings of this study suggest that in Australia, alcohol outlet density is associated with parental supply of alcohol to children, with this effect moderated by the cultural background of the parent and type of outlet density. Future research should investigate the association between the density of alcohol outlets and public approval of parents supplying alcohol to adolescents., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To assess whether the density of alcohol sales outlets in specific geographic communities is associated with adolescent alcohol consumption., Method: A cross-sectional representative sample of secondary school students from Victoria, Australia (N=10,143), aged between 12 and 17 years, self-reported on alcohol use in the last 30 days in 2009. The density of alcohol outlets per local community area was merged with this information., Results: After controlling for risk factors, multilevel modelling (MLM) revealed a statistical interaction between age and density on alcohol consumption. While older adolescents had higher alcohol consumption, increases in the density of alcohol outlets were only significantly associated with increased risk of alcohol consumption for adolescents between the ages of 12 and 14., Conclusion: Increased alcohol availability was associated with an increased risk of alcohol consumption specifically for early adolescents (12 and 14 years). Potential mechanisms as to how density is associated with direct and indirect alcohol availability, such as through parents or older siblings, need to be explored in future research., (© 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)