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Movie violence associated with sex, alcohol and tobacco use

Nearly 90 percent of the top-grossing movies over a 25-year period show main characters acting violently, and in 77 percent of the movies those characters also engage in sex-, alcohol- or tobacco-related behavior, a new study has shown. The study published in Pediatrics, by researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center, found that more than half of the biggest PG-13 movies featured a main character acting violently and involved in either drinking, sexual behavior or smoking within a five-minute segment.

Nursing intervention helps mentally ill people with HIV

Having trained nurses follow up on medication use with mentally ill patients who are HIV positive was effective both at improving the patients’ quality of life and biological markers for the human immunodeficiency virus, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Pennsylvania. The study is thought to be the first to

Issue brief: Drug Prevention in Schools

Dan Romer, director of APPC’s Adolescent Health and Communication Institutes, reviews the evidence on ways to prevent drug abuse in middle and high school youth, focusing on mandatory random drug testing. Since the 1990s, interest has been growing in the use of such tests to deter drug use among teenagers. The review finds that mandatory

Research on the long-term effects of a media intervention on adolescent sexual behavior released in AJPH

Research conducted at APPC by Michael Hennessy, Ph.D., and Daniel Romer, Ph.D., among other project sites, was released in the January 2013 issue of the American Journal of Public Health. “Safer Sex Media Messages and Adolescent Sexual Behavior: 3-Year Follow-Up Results From Project iMPPACS” abstract: Objectives. We estimated the long-term (36-month) effects of Project iMPPACS, a

Use of effective coping strategies is associated with reduced suicidal ideation among both male and female youth

But males are more successful in reducing stress than females In a study recently published in Prevention Science, researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania found that youth who naturally use effective coping strategies to deal with interpersonal stressors (such as bullying) experience lower levels of perceived stress, feelings of