SCT stems from a larger theory called social learning theory that has its roots in operant psychology

The modeling mechanism involves behavioral cues, then consumption that is then reinforced by norms and behaviors of members within the peer community . This sequence of events is referred to as a contingency. Contingencies employed by parents sometimes compete directly with contingencies in the social or peer network . The complex relationship between these competing contingencies is further compounded by the concept of MO discussed previously. At given times during adolescence peer contingencies may have enhanced reinforcing effects. Health behavior as a field is relatively new. Numerous theories and models have emerged during its short existence, each employing unique vocabulary to emphasize key features. Nevertheless, the most prominent health behavior theories and models have all demonstrated a propensity for highlighting such constructs as attitudes, intentions, and beliefs. This stems mostly from presumptions that internal constructs mediate behavior. Perhaps one of the most well-known health behavior theories is Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory.Both theories, SCT and operant psychology, profess that consequences such as rewards and punishment affect the likelihood that similar behaviors will occur again. One of the stark differences between these two theories is the locus of control. Operant psychology puts the locus of control in the environment and SCT focuses on internal intermediary causes for behavior, things like attitudes and emotions. The principal construct in SCT is self-efficacy. This construct is believed to portray one’s confidence for performing a given behavior, i.e., self-assessment about perceived abilities. This cognitive construct is usually measured via self-report. Pieters suggested that most theorists support the notion that people can access their internal states ,farm shelving and that there is a relationship between these internal states and behavior.

The prediction of behavior from attitudes has been studied extensively. Ajzen and Fishbein stated that attitudes predict and explain behavior. This belief led them to develop the Theory of Reasoned Action . The RA is an explanation of the relationship between attitudes, defined as behavioral intentions, and behaviors. A person’s behavior is a function of attitudes, intentions, and beliefs. This point of view is heavily supported in social psychology, but greatly contested by theorists in behavioral psychology . Lloyd contended that attitudes and behavior share, at best, a small correlation. He states there is little evidence of a relationship between reported attitudes and observable behavior. Harrison, Mullen and Green demonstrated almost no relationship between beliefs and behavior in value expectancy models; except for cross-sectional designs and only when important factors are not controlled. They found positive relationships between beliefs and health behaviors, but the relationship was relatively weak. Furthermore, Lloyd reported that attitudes are weak behavioral predictors. However, the dynamics of the relationship are enhanced when the order is reversed; when behaviors are considered as predictors of attitudes. Paniagua called the verbal-nonverbal relationship correspondence. Correspondences, he argues, can be developed so that the verbal correspond reliably with the non-verbal . Wilson, Rusch and Lee also reported an increase in correspondence between verbal-nonverbal behaviors. Given the difficulty of assessing attitudes, and the precarious correlation with behavior, other theories have emerged that remove the focus on intermediary constructs and place it on environmental variables and observable behavior. The most prominent among these is operant theory . In operant theory subjects operate on their environment and consequences result. Such contingencies alter the future probabilities of that same behavior occurring. Operant theory employs a parsimonious approach in exclusively focusing on observable variables.

An obvious advantage of observable variables is the ability to measure them while simultaneously measuring changes in behavior, thereby establishing temporal order. This eliminates capricious assumptions involving intervening variables so prevalent in other health behavior theories. The Behavior Ecological Model , a model that explains behavior in terms of antecedents and consequences is based on environmental determinants of behavior. It extends the logic of contingent relationships to cultural influences and population behavior. Antecedents gain their effectiveness to control behavior as they are tied to consequences. The BEM does not rule out mediating variables conceptually. However, it does ignore them due to inability to validate the concepts or their operational measures. The model also explicitly assumes that ignoring cognitive model variables does not compromise prediction or control of behavior. In actuality, such contingencies are not limited to just one individual. As a result, the BEM claims that antecedent, response, and consequence contingencies are in effect in populations and cultures. The value of the BEM is its application of behavioral principles to populations, including a focus on metacontingencies formed from social and cultural interactions sometimes omitted in traditional operant models. As it pertains to adolescent substance use, the BEM enhances prediction of the environment’s role in with features such as social norms and standards through behavioral cues. Some consequences are visible to external observers, yet others may occur within the individual e.g., drug high. Peer interactions are ideal venues for reinforcement to occur, often in the form of praise with others present. Peer praise will likely increase future use. Biologic responses that occur simultaneously may be synergistic and establish behavioral patterns that are difficult to discontinue, and once established, can persist absent peer praise. Density of modeling and peer reinforcement are important determinants of behavioral persistence.

Behavioral cues necessarily precede behavior, and can therefore be regarded as antecedents. Their occurrence in the everyday built and social environment is almost continuous. The ability to attend to them as stated previously, is related to the consequences that follow the behavior being prompted. Antecedents tend to be of two varieties, grossly defined as distal or proximal. In truth these are two points on a continuum, but they represent the temporal relationship with the behavior and ensuing consequence. Peer antecedents reliably predict substance use behaviors, because they are conceptually very proximal . Distal antecedents by definition are more general. Alcohol advertisements exemplify such antecedents. During the latter part of the 1990s and into the first half of the current decade, there have been substantial reductions in the proportion of daily smokers among adolescents in the United States. But according to a recent survey, this trend is beginning to slow, and adolescent rates of experimentation, which may lead to daily smoking, remain over 50% . When comparing rates by race/ethnicity, highest rates were observed among Hispanic adolescents , followed by non-Hispanic Whites and African Americans . The same pattern holds true for alcohol experimentation: highest rates among Hispanic adolescents , followed by non-Hispanic Whites and African Americans . A number of risk and protective factors related to alcohol and tobacco use among adolescents have been identified in the literature. Adapting from a landmark publication by Hawkins, Catalano and Miller ,hemp drying racks many risk factors fall into a class of interpersonal environmental influences in three domains: family influences, school influences, and peer influences, with an additional dimension encumbering demographic related characteristics. Evidence of these domains from the literature is first presented, followed by a description of how constructs in these domains were measured for this study.The BEM that guides the present study suggests several mechanisms by which the above-listed domains may influence adolescent risk behaviors. The model, which draws heavily upon learning theory suggests that powerful influences of behavior are found in the environment. Environments change within an individual’s lifetime , and the importance of any one specific domain or environment may change at different developmental stages. For example, the transition from preteen to adolescence is characterized by increasing independence , probably enhancing the influence of the peer social network. Based on an extensive review of the literature, few studies, including those that identify risk factors for alcohol and tobacco use, have used theory to guide testing of multivariate models. In addition,few studies are specific to Latino adolescents . The purpose of this study is to use theory to identify factors that influence Latino adolescents’ risks for alcohol and tobacco use. Advancements to this end may inform future interventions to curb rates of risk behavior earlier in adolescence, especially among Latino adolescents. The sample of 252 Latino adolescents in this study were high school students ages 13 to 19. They were attending school in south San Diego County, tested positive for LTBI, and volunteered to participate in a medication adherence trial for LTBI treatment. The San Diego State University Institutional Review Board approved the study. Adolescents were ineligible to participate in the study if they had definite plans to relocate from the area within 12 months and/or to receive LTBI treatment in Mexico.

After consenting, bilingual interviewers interviewed participants and completed baseline self-reported interviews. Age, gender, foreign-born status, acculturation level, and receiving an allowance were selected to represent demographic characteristics. Foreign-born status was ascertained by asking their country of birth; respondents born outside of the United States were coded as foreign-born. Acculturation was measured using the Bidimensional Acculturation Scale for Hispanics . The acculturation scale consists of 24 questions regarding language use , linguistic proficiency , and electronic media use . Each question had four possible responses: very poorly, poorly, well, or very well. The questions are separated into 2 domains, Hispanic and non-Hispanic , with 12 items in each. For each cultural domain, an average of the 12 items is calculated, obtaining a mean range of scores between 1 and 4. Scores on both domains were used to determine the level of acculturation. Acculturation categories are computed using a 2.5 cutoff score to indicate low or high level of adherence to each cultural domain. Individuals scoring higher than 2.5 in both domains are considered bicultural .The purpose of this study was to explore theoretical correlates of alcohol and tobacco use. The sequential regression approach allowed for a conservative estimate of each block’s association with the dependent variable. In the final model, parental consistency was protective and decreased relative risk of alcohol use by 18%. In terms of increasing risk, skipping school in the last 12 months and friend’s use of alcohol were both associated with an almost threefold increased risk for reported use of alcohol. Representation of significant variables from three different blocks, including the parenting block, school block, and the peer block suggest the many different areas in which alcohol use may be affected. Four variables were significant in the final model; three of them part of the peer block. The peer block clearly emerged as being most important among the correlates of tobacco use, in contrast to the multi-dimensional correlates of alcohol use. The presence of a peer model of alcohol use doubles an adolescent’s likelihood of using tobacco, and a peer model of tobacco use resulted in a threefold increase in likelihood. As a protective factor, having more close friends accounts for a 39.5% decrease in the likelihood of tobacco use. The positive association with age indicates that risk for tobacco use increases with age, an observation supported in the literature. Thus, the most precarious situation for a teenager at risk for tobacco use would include a small social network , late adolescence, and friends that use alcohol and tobacco. Parental consistency represented parents’ consistent use of contingencies and was only related to alcohol use. The observed relationship between parental consistency and alcohol use is supported by previous research and underscores the important influence that parents can have in preventing alcohol use. The finding that parental consistency was only related to alcohol use and not tobacco is very interesting and may highlight some inherent differences in the nature of tobacco use versus alcohol use. A variant of this finding has been demonstrated previously, but never with an exclusively Latino sample. Replicating this unique effect across ethnic groups provides confirmation of this construct selected for this analysis for theoretical reasons. Peer influence comprised the final block, and was considered to be theoretically most proximal to the outcomes of interest, alcohol and tobacco use . This was confirmed and is consistent with previous reports . Comparing peer correlates for alcohol and tobacco reveals interesting findings. It appears tobacco use may fall under greater peer control based on the number of significant correlates in their respective peer blocks. As demonstrated here and in numerous published reports, peer modeling of alcohol and tobacco use is related to adolescent use of both substances. It is plausible that similar associations exist for parent modeling of substance use.

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