S. James (Jim) Sherman, Ph.D. - US grants

The current proposal is for a follow-up of subjects originally studied in a cohort-sequential investigation of adolescent cigarette smoking. Cohorts of 6th-12th graders (total N=8681) were originally followed between 1980-1983 with the goal of prospectively predicting adolescent smoking initiation from several categories of social psychological factors. At follow-up, these subjects will range from 10th graders to young adults (mid 20s). The proposed follow-up extends our original work by linking adolescent and adult cigarette smoking. Continuities and discontinuities between adolescent and adult tobacco use will be determined. In addition, we will examine the utility of our social psychological factors in predicting adult smoking for adolescents who are and are not regular smokers. Moreover, using our cohort-sequential design, we will track changes in smokling attitudes, beliefs, and perceived environments that occur with increasing age and with cultural-historical change. We will determine whether the high school milieu has become more "antismoking" over the seven year period (1980-1987). Finally, we will answer a methodological question by determining the accuracy of retrospective reports of smoking behavior. Taken together, the original data base along with the proposed follow-up form a comprehensive picture of the natural history of smoking from the beginning of the period of risk (pre-adolescence) to the end of the period of risk (young adulthood). The data have important implications for the design of antismoking campaigns by identifying high risk target audiences and the factors that are important to long term smoking outcomes.

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cigarette smoking remains the single largest preventable cause of premature death and disability in the United States, and designing more effective antismoking campaigns requires an empirical understanding of the natural history of smoking and its determinants. The proposed research extends our ongoing cohortsequential study of smoking from adolescence into early midlife (ages 34-43). Cohorts of 6th-12th graders (N=8,521) were followed annually between 1980-1983 to prospectively predict adolescent smoking transitions with social psychological models. Follow-ups were conducted in 1987-1988, 1993-1994, and 1999-2002 (seven measurement waves with 71% -73% retention of the total sample at each wave), and a parent-child study of intergenerational transmission (N=556 families) was initiated in the last project period. The proposed studies combine an 8th measurement of our total sample using a mailed survey with short-term (18-month) longitudinal studies of targeted subgroups using web-based and mailed survey methods. [unreadable] [unreadable] There are three sets of aims. First, we will embed smoking in its developmental context by studying multiple trajectories of smoking and smoking-related beliefs from adolescence to early midlife, and by relating smoking to the unique hallmarks of early midlife as a developmental period. Second, we will apply innovative theory and methods from cognitive social psychology to examine the role of implicit attitudes toward smoking and attitudinal ambivalence in prospectively predicting smoking initiation, cessation, and relapse. Third, we will extend our work on the intergenerational transmission of smoking to examine the role of parental smoking- specific socialization in prospectively predicting smoking onset. We will also identify predictors of this socialization, with particular interest in the role of parental smoking as it interacts with implicit attitudes and attitudinal ambivalence. The results will be important for tailoring smoking cessation messages aimed at midlife adults, and for improving family-based smoking prevention programs that aim to modify smoking-specific parenting. [unreadable] [unreadable]

DESCRIPTION (Applicant's Abstract): This application is a request for a Senior Scientist Award. The proposed research involves further development and expansion of 2 major projects in which the PI has been involved for many years (since 1979 on one, and since 1985 on the other). The first project is a longitudinal study of cigarette smoking. This is the longest and most comprehensive study of changes in smoking status that has been conducted. The current proposal carries this work forward and has several specific aims. The first set of studies will assess developmental trends in health-relevant cognitions and will assess the contributions of adult role acquisition and perceived control. Second, the natural history of smoking will be described within a developmental perspective, as both antecedents and consequences of smoking transitions are assessed. Third, we are now able to look at a second generation of participants and to investigate parental socialization of smoking and the intergenerational transmission of smoking. Finally, we shall adopt implicit measures of attitudes toward smoking and observe their role in smoking behavior and in parental socialization practices. The second project concerns the cognitive processes underlying the perceptions of individuals and groups. A conceptualization is provided, and differences between individuals and groups, as well as between different types of groups, are proposed. Central importance is given to the concept of entitativity, the perception that a number of individuals are joined together as a social unit. Differences in perceived entitativity are postulated to underlie differences in how information about group targets is processed. The specific studies will examine the antecedents and consequences of entitativity, and will explore the role of entitativity in stereotyping and ingroup/outgroup differentiation. Included in the methdological approaches will be laboratory studies, natural setting research, longitudinal studies, and a test of a comprehensive model of the mediating role of entitativity in the perception of different types of groups.

The principal investigator will attend the fifth meeting of the European Social Cognition Network in Padova, Italy, September 4-7, 2003. The meeting is sponsored by the European Science Foundation, and a special invitation was extended to this U.S.-based researcher. The primary objective of the trip will be to foster greater international interaction in the development and promulgation of social cognition research and to facilitate integration of the rapid progress being made by American and European scholars who study social-cognitive processes. The PI will make a featured presentation at the meeting and will interact in formal and informal ways with many of the approximately 80 attendees at the meeting. A special goal will be to offer constructive feedback and encouragement to young scientists in attendance at the meeting.

These objectives have clear intellectual merit, as they pertain to the integration, consolidation, and stimulation of high-quality research on a wide variety of issues in social cognition, a field that is central to social psychology more generally.

The broader impact of the proposed activity will likely be considerable and will surely extend beyond the meeting itself. Particularly with respect to the goals of enhancing international contact and interaction and encouraging the development of young scholars, conferences such as this one can have a major impact on scientific progress.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The study of epidemic and social contagion processes is crucial for the understanding, prediction, and prevention of many phenomena affecting public health, such as infectious disease, alcohol use, and smoking habits. Improving epidemic and social contagion research is therefore important to the goals of the NIDA, NIAID and NIGMS institutes. Research progress in this area is difficult because the datasets and processes unfold over multiple temporal and spatial scales, requiring applied mathematical and computational approaches that can cope with non-linear complex phenomena. This requires an integrated research approach where the many layers - from the single individual to the global society - are analyzed at once. Such an approach calls for qualitatively new technology that supports the easy exchange, combination, and application of data analysis capabilities, methodologies, and visualization tools developed in very different areas of research. This project proposes the design, implementation, deployment, and maintenance of a computational infrastructure for epidemic research called the Epidemics Cyber infrastructure (EpiC). EpiC is a qualitatively new type of cyber infrastructure -- an "empty shell" that supports the easy plug-and-play of datasets, algorithms, and visualization components in customized EpiC Tools. The proposed EpiC infrastructure is also unique in the utilization of a "scholarly marketplace" for sharing commonly used datasets, algorithms, and visualization components - the "fillings" of the EpiC Tools. The marketplace might be best compared with popular file and content sharing community sites like Flickr (http://flickr.com/), YouTube (http://youtube.com/), or Wikipedia (http://wikipedia.org/). However, instead of sharing images, movies, or encyclopedia entries, scholars will use EpiC to share datasets, algorithms, and any other items relevant to the study of epidemics. The overarching goals of EpiC are the improvement and facilitation of multi-scale analysis of social data integrated into dynamic systems modeling, agent-based modeling, and other simulation techniques for epidemic processes;the direct transfer of knowledge and results from fields of specialist research to the wider interdisciplinary scientific community;and the development of a cyber infrastructure technology that is open, usable, extensible, and sustainable. This project proposes the design, implementation, deployment, and maintenance of a computational infrastructure for epidemic research called Epidemics Cyber infrastructure (EpiC) for the improvement and facilitation of the multi-scale analysis of social data and their integration in systems dynamic modeling, agent-based modeling, and other simulation techniques for epidemic processes. EpiC is a qualitatively new type of cyber infrastructure -- an "empty shell" that supports the easy plug-and-play of datasets, algorithms, and visualization components in customized EpiC Tools. The proposed EpiC infrastructure is also unique in the utilization of a "scholarly marketplace" to share commonly used datasets, algorithms, and visualization components - the "fillings" of the EpiC Tools.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cigarette smoking remains the single largest preventable cause of premature death and disability in the United States, and effective antismoking campaigns require an empirical understanding of the natural history of smoking and its determinants. The proposed research extends our cohort-sequential study of smoking and its intergenerational transmission and integrates this study with an experimental, translational application to family-based smoking prevention and midlife cessation. Cohorts of 6th-12th graders (N=8,521) were followed annually between 1980-1983 to prospectively predict adolescent smoking transitions with social psychological models. Four additional follow-ups were conducted in 1987-1988;1993-1994;1999-2000, and 2005-2006 (for a total of eight measurement waves with more than 70% retention of the total sample at each wave). Web-based studies of implicit attitudes toward smoking and their role in smoking transitions and the intergenerational transmission of smoking were initiated in the last project period. The proposed studies combine a 9th measurement of our total sample using a mailed survey with short-term longitudinal, studies of targeted subgroups using web-based methods. We embed smoking in a developmental context by relating smoking trajectories to the unique hallmarks of midlife development, and by relating midlife conditions to parents'socialization of smoking in the next generation. We then employ these data in a translational application to family-based smoking prevention and midlife cessation. Using web-based, experimental, short-term longitudinal studies of targeted subgroups, we will test the effects of approach-avoidance practice and an anti-smoking PSA on an unobtrusive measure of engagement with intervention information. We will test whether the effects of our interventions are mediated by changes in implicit attitudes, and we will identify the component automatic and controlled processes of implicit attitudes that are responsible for these effects (and that are predictive of later smoking outcomes). The results will be important for improving engagement in family-based smoking prevention programs, tailoring smoking cessation messages aimed at midlife adults, and understanding the intergenerational transmission of smoking. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Because cigarette smoking is the single largest preventable cause of premature death and disability in the US, creating effective prevention and cessation interventions is an important public health goal. The data from the proposed studies will provide a method for improving parents'and adolescents'engagement with family-based smoking prevention, inform the design of antismoking messages aimed at midlife adults, and provide a method for testing the effects of antismoking media messages.