W Alex Mason
Biographic Data
| ID | 3801035 |
|---|---|
| NAME | W Alex Mason |
| GIVEN NAMES | W Alex |
| FAMILY NAME | Mason |
| SIGNATURE | MASON W A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Boys Town |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8132-8045 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 48 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 95 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 48 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1993 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
“Trying to Keep Things as Normal as Possible for the Kids”: Parenting Stress and Resilience within Wildfire Disasters
Despite the proliferation of disasters within our ongoing climate crisis, we know relatively little about the burdens and intersecting inequalities faced by parents in climate disasters and the diverse, creative ways parents promote resilience. Here, we present findings from interviews with Disaster Case Managers (DCMs, N = 13) in the West Coast of the United States after multiple massive wildfires, analyzed using grounded theory methods. Finding…
Secular Trends in Hazardous Alcohol and Cannabis Use from 2015 to 2024 in Diverse Subgroups of Youth Entering Residential Care
Background: Secular trends in adolescent alcohol and cannabis use in the general population have shown declines in both substances, but trends among high-risk youth placed in residential care are unclear. Understanding these differences could help address substance-related issues in this vulnerable population. Objectives: This study examines subgroup differences in the secular trends in hazardous alcohol and cannabis use and co-use among youth en…
A Psychometric Evaluation of the Trauma-Informed Programs and Practices for Schools (TIPPS) Survey
Evaluating bidirectional, longitudinal associations between adolescent executive control and eating behaviors
Examining longitudinal associations between early environmental deprivation and unpredictability and dietary quality and eating behaviors a decade later
Longitudinal Associations between Adolescent Electronic Cigarette Use and Eating Behaviors
Background: Despite emerging evidence that e-cigarette use and dietary behaviors, two high-impact health behaviors, may be linked, there exists a dearth of studies investigating this relationship. Methods: Data are drawn from two time points of a larger study, T1 (n = 217; mage = 14.78 years), and T2 (n = 228; mage = 16.43 years). This study examined the relationship between adolescent e-cigarette use at T1 and: problematic eating behaviors at T1…
Adolescent health behavior profiles and associations with mental health in a longitudinal study
To characterize adolescent health behavior profiles and associations with mental health, mixture models using data from two assessment points ( N = 201; Female = 53.7%, Time 1 m -age = 15.4 years; Time 2 m -age = 16.3 years) identified three distinct health behavior patterns. Profile 1 (27.9% of sample) had overall healthy behaviors (e.g. diet, physical activity, sleep), except nearly half tried e-cigarettes. Profile 2 (51.9%) had above average p…
Childhood executive control and adolescent substance use: Mediation via parent–child relationship quality
Associations between middle childhood executive control aspects and adolescent substance use and externalizing and internalizing problems
This study examines the degree to which two middle childhood executive control aspects, working memory and combined inhibitory control/flexible shifting, predict adolescent substance use and externalizing and internalizing problems. Participants were 301 children (ages 3-6 years; 48.2% male) recruited from a Midwestern city in the United States and followed into adolescence (ages 14-18 years). Working memory had a statistically significant unadju…
Exploring the Interaction Between Preschool Executive Control and Caregiver Emotion Socialization in Predicting Adolescent Weight Trajectories
Early executive control buffers risk for adolescent psychopathology during the Covid‐19 pandemic
Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic has had a global impact on youth mental health, and there is a critical need for research examining individual factors that contribute to increased psychopathology during the pandemic. The current study explored whether executive control (EC) abilities in early childhood interact with COVID‐related stress to attenuate risk for adolescent psychopathology during the first 6 months of the p…
Does preschool executive control mediate the impact of early environmental unpredictability and deprivation on the general factor of psychopathology a decade later
BACKGROUND: Although deprivation has been consistently shown to increase risk for psychopathology through impaired executive control, the unique effects of other dimensions of early adversity, such as unpredictability, on executive control development are poorly understood. The current study evaluated whether deprivation and/or unpredictability early in life have unique effects on the general factor of psychopathology through impaired preschool e…
Association of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus and Perinatal Maternal Depression with Early Childhood Behavioral Problems: An Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (Echo) Study
This study examined the association of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), prenatal, and postnatal maternal depressive symptoms with externalizing, internalizing, and autism spectrum problems on the Preschool Child Behavior Checklist in 2379 children aged 4.12 ± 0.60 (48% female; 47% White, 32% Black, 15% Mixed Race, 4% Asian, <2% American Indian/Alaskan Native, <2% Native Hawaiian; 23% Hispanic). Data were collected from the NIH Environmental i…
Investigation of the bidirectional relations between adolescents' anger at their parents and symptoms of depression
Child Maltreatment, Youth Violence, Intimate Partner Violence, and Elder Mistreatment: A Review and Theoretical Analysis of Research on Violence Across the Life Course
This article reports the results of a scoping review of the literature on life-course patterns of violence that span the developmental periods of childhood, adolescence, and early and middle adulthood. We also assess the evidence on elder mistreatment and its relation to earlier forms of violence. Additionally, we draw on theories and empirical studies to help explain the transmission of violence over time and relational contexts and the factors …
Intergenerational Transmission of Effects of Women's Stressors During Pregnancy: Child Psychopathology and the Protective Role of Parenting
Findings from this large, sociodemographically diverse cohort suggest women's exposures to interpersonal violence and major stressful events-common for women during pregnancy-may prenatally program her child's executive functioning and externalizing problems. Women's capacity to provide high quality parenting can buffer this intergenerational risk. Implications for universal and targeted prevention and early intervention efforts to support women'…
Practice to Research and Back in a Social Service Agency: Trying to DO Better
Maternal Stressful Life Events during Pregnancy and Atopic Dermatitis in Children Aged Approximately 4–6 Years
The prevalence of atopic dermatitis (AD) in children has steadily increased over time, yet it remains largely unknown how maternal factors during pregnancy are associated with child AD. Few studies have specifically assessed the relationship between prenatal stress and child AD, with inconsistent findings. In this prospective cohort study following 426 mother-child dyads from pregnancy to middle childhood, women reported stressful life events (SL…
Evaluating social skills training for youth with trauma symptoms in residential programs
Problem-solving training could be further developed and tested to maximize the support youth with trauma symptoms receive in trauma-informed residential programs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)
Emotion Regulation Strategies as Mediators of the Relationship Between Internalizing Psychopathology and Sleep-Wake Problems During the Transition to Early Adolescence: A Longitudinal Study
Internalizing psychopathology, including depression and anxiety, has been associated with sleep-wake problems among youth. Although transdiagnostic theories of psychopathology posit that emotion dysregulation explains many of the symptoms associated with internalizing psychopathology, examination of regulatory mechanisms underlying this association is limited, particularly during the transition to early adolescence when risk for affective dysregu…
Associations between specific components of executive control and eating behaviors in adolescence: A study using objective and subjective measures
Parental Alcohol Use and the Alcohol Misuse of their Offspring in a Finnish Birth Cohort: Investigation of Developmental Timing
Executive Control in Early Childhood as an Antecedent of Adolescent Problem Behaviors: A Longitudinal Study with Performance-based Measures of Early Childhood Cognitive Processes
Youth Needs at Intake into Trauma‐Informed Group Homes and Response to Services: An Examination of Trauma Exposure, Symptoms, and Clinical Impression
Highlights Trauma symptoms were related to emotional problems & self‐injurious incidents. High and low trauma groups both showed decreases in behavioral incidents and psychopathology. Youth deemed by clinicians to have lower trauma had greater decrease in emotional problems. Trauma symptoms and exposure should both be assessed when determining services
Testing a Model of Universal Prevention Effects on Adolescent Relationships and Marijuana Use as Pathways to Young Adult Outcomes
Gender, Self-control, and Informal Social Control in Adolescence: A Test of Three Models of the Continuity of Delinquent Behavior
Three alternative theories of the continuity of delinquent behavior throughout childhood and into adolescence were evaluated with a series of nested structural equation models in a sample of 840 middle adolescents. Longitudinal analyses revealed that childhood behavior problems were related directly and indirectly (through age-graded social control variables) to adolescent delinquency among boys. Childhood behavior problems had unmediated effects…
Influence of a Family‐Focused Substance Use Preventive Intervention on Growth in Adolescent Depressive Symptoms
Preparing for the Drug Free Years (PDFY) is a preventive intervention that targets parenting behaviors, family interaction patterns, and adolescent substance use, factors that have been shown to predict depression among teenagers. Effects of PDFY on trajectories of self‐reported adolescent depressive symptoms from 6th through 12th grade were examined. Latent growth curve modeling was used to analyze data from 429 rural adolescents from schools as…
Gender Moderation of the Intergenerational Transmission and Stability of Depressive Symptoms from Early Adolescence to Early Adulthood
Child and Parent Report of Parenting as Predictors of Substance Use and Suspensions From School
This study examined how child and parent reports of parenting were related to early adolescent substance use and school suspensions. Data were from two time points six months apart on 321 families with an eighth grade student attending one of five schools in the Pacific Northwest. Child- and parent-report measures of family management practices were moderately correlated ( r = .29). Child report, but not parent report, of more positive family man…
A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of Religiosity on Adolescent Alcohol Use and Alcohol-Related Problems
The relationship between religiosity and alcohol use among a sample of middle-adolescent boys and girls was examined using two-wave (with a 1-year interval) prospective longitudinal data. A primary aim was to determine the extent to which religion differentially predicts three outcomes: (a) the decision to use alcohol, (b) the choice among users of how much and how often to drink, and (c) the experience of alcohol-related problems. Regression ana…
Antisocial Propensity, Adolescent School Outcomes, and the Risk of Criminal Conviction
Data from the 1986 N orthern F inland B irth C ohort S tudy ( n = 4,645) were used to examine the influence of mid‐adolescent (age 15) school outcomes on late‐adolescent (ages 17–19) risk of criminal conviction. Consistent with social‐developmental theories of offending, we found that poor academic performance and reduced school attachment increase the risk of criminal conviction independently of pre‐existing differences in antisocial propensity …
Self-Esteem and Delinquency Revisited (Again): A Test of Kaplan's Self-Derogation Theory of Delinquency Using Latent Growth Curve Modeling
Depressed Mood During Early to Middle Adolescence: A Bi-national Longitudinal Study of the Unique Impact of Family Conflict
Pubertal Development and Sexual Intercourse Among Adolescent Girls: An Examination of Direct, Mediated, and Spurious Pathways
There are strong reasons to assume that early onset of puberty accelerates coital debut among adolescent girls. Although many studies support this assumption, evidence regarding the putative causal processes is limited and inconclusive. In this research, longitudinal data from the 1986 Northern Finland Birth Cohort Study ( N = 2,596) were used to address three theoretical explanations: (a) a direct effect premised on biological processes, (b) a m…
Effects of Timing of Adversity on Adolescent and Young Adult Adjustment
Effects of Timing of Adversity on Adolescent and Young Adult Adjustment Abstract Exposure to adversity during childhood and adolescence predicts adjustment across development. Further, adolescent adjustment problems persist into young adulthood. This study examined relations of contextual adversity with concurrent adolescent adjustment and prospective mental health and health outcomes in young adulthood. A longitudinal sample (N = 808) was follow…
Associations between specific components of executive control and eating behaviors in adolescence: A study using objective and subjective measures
Longitudinal Pathways from Cumulative Contextual Risk at Birth to School Functioning in Adolescence: Analysis of Mediation Effects and Gender Moderation
Longitudinal Associations of Alcohol Involvement with Subjective Well-Being in Adolescence and Prediction to Alcohol Problems in Early Adulthood
Youth Needs at Intake into Trauma‐Informed Group Homes and Response to Services: An Examination of Trauma Exposure, Symptoms, and Clinical Impression
Highlights Trauma symptoms were related to emotional problems & self‐injurious incidents. High and low trauma groups both showed decreases in behavioral incidents and psychopathology. Youth deemed by clinicians to have lower trauma had greater decrease in emotional problems. Trauma symptoms and exposure should both be assessed when determining services
Turning a Big Ship: Unleashing the Power of Prevention Within Treatment Settings
We offer a practitioner’s perspective on “Unleashing the Power of Prevention,” the guiding paper of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare’s Grand Challenge to Ensure Healthy Development for All Youth. We present an innovative strategy aimed at reducing behavioral health problems in young people by helping treatment providers in social work and other human service settings to redirect a portion of their existing intervention effor…
Antisocial and human capital pathways to socioeconomic exclusion: A 42-year prospective study
Nordic welfare states have been very successful at reducing poverty and inequality among their citizens. However, the presence of a strong social safety net in these countries has not solved the problem of socioeconomic exclusion, manifesting in such outcomes as chronic unemployment and welfare dependency. In an effort to understand this phenomenon, the current study builds on the assumption that psychological risk factors emerge as important det…
Parent training to reduce problem behaviors over the transition to high school: Tests of indirect effects through improved emotion regulation skills
Internalizing Symptoms: Effects of a Preventive Intervention on Developmental Pathways from Early Adolescence to Young Adulthood
Creating and Sustaining Effective Partnerships to Advance Research on Youth With Serious Emotional and Behavioral Disorders
A key barrier to conducting research involving children and families is the difficulty of creating partnerships among researchers, treatment agencies, and schools. This article describes several key factors that were essential to establishing an effective research collaboration between practitioners and university-based researchers, including a mutual respect for the unique needs of research and practice; a strategy for joint decision making; a p…
Level of Interaction and Reciprocal Influence in Supportive and Critical Male Discussion Groups
The consequences of varying the amount of interaction, and the supportive or critical nature of information exchanged among group members, upon reciprocal influence in a small-group, discrepancy-resolution task was investigated. One hundred ninety-nine American male college students in 47 groups of three to five members provided agreement ratings for 25 statements of current social interest, to identify a topic of disagreement. The groups were al…
Self-Esteem and Delinquency Revisited (Again): A Test of Kaplan's Self-Derogation Theory of Delinquency Using Latent Growth Curve Modeling
A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of Religiosity on Adolescent Alcohol Use and Alcohol-Related Problems
The relationship between religiosity and alcohol use among a sample of middle-adolescent boys and girls was examined using two-wave (with a 1-year interval) prospective longitudinal data. A primary aim was to determine the extent to which religion differentially predicts three outcomes: (a) the decision to use alcohol, (b) the choice among users of how much and how often to drink, and (c) the experience of alcohol-related problems. Regression ana…
Gender, Self-control, and Informal Social Control in Adolescence: A Test of Three Models of the Continuity of Delinquent Behavior
Three alternative theories of the continuity of delinquent behavior throughout childhood and into adolescence were evaluated with a series of nested structural equation models in a sample of 840 middle adolescents. Longitudinal analyses revealed that childhood behavior problems were related directly and indirectly (through age-graded social control variables) to adolescent delinquency among boys. Childhood behavior problems had unmediated effects…
Influence of a Family‐Focused Substance Use Preventive Intervention on Growth in Adolescent Depressive Symptoms
Preparing for the Drug Free Years (PDFY) is a preventive intervention that targets parenting behaviors, family interaction patterns, and adolescent substance use, factors that have been shown to predict depression among teenagers. Effects of PDFY on trajectories of self‐reported adolescent depressive symptoms from 6th through 12th grade were examined. Latent growth curve modeling was used to analyze data from 429 rural adolescents from schools as…
Creating and Sustaining Effective Partnerships to Advance Research on Youth With Serious Emotional and Behavioral Disorders
A key barrier to conducting research involving children and families is the difficulty of creating partnerships among researchers, treatment agencies, and schools. This article describes several key factors that were essential to establishing an effective research collaboration between practitioners and university-based researchers, including a mutual respect for the unique needs of research and practice; a strategy for joint decision making; a p…
Antisocial Propensity, Adolescent School Outcomes, and the Risk of Criminal Conviction
Data from the 1986 N orthern F inland B irth C ohort S tudy ( n = 4,645) were used to examine the influence of mid‐adolescent (age 15) school outcomes on late‐adolescent (ages 17–19) risk of criminal conviction. Consistent with social‐developmental theories of offending, we found that poor academic performance and reduced school attachment increase the risk of criminal conviction independently of pre‐existing differences in antisocial propensity …
Longitudinal Associations of Alcohol Involvement with Subjective Well-Being in Adolescence and Prediction to Alcohol Problems in Early Adulthood
Effects of Timing of Adversity on Adolescent and Young Adult Adjustment
Effects of Timing of Adversity on Adolescent and Young Adult Adjustment Abstract Exposure to adversity during childhood and adolescence predicts adjustment across development. Further, adolescent adjustment problems persist into young adulthood. This study examined relations of contextual adversity with concurrent adolescent adjustment and prospective mental health and health outcomes in young adulthood. A longitudinal sample (N = 808) was follow…
Internalizing Symptoms: Effects of a Preventive Intervention on Developmental Pathways from Early Adolescence to Young Adulthood
Predictors and responses to the growth in physical violence during adolescence: A comparison of students in Washington state and Victoria, Australia
This study investigates patterns in violence over 3 time points in early- to mid-adolescence in 2 statewide representative samples of youth, one in Washington State, USA, and the other in Victoria, Australia. Comparable data collection methods in both states were used to cross-nationally compare patterns of violence, risk factors, and responses to violence (school suspensions and arrests) in 2 policy contexts. Risk factors include early use of al…
Predictors of Participation in Parenting Workshops for Improving Adolescent Behavioral and Mental Health: Results From the Common Sense Parenting Trial
Adherence and Dosage Contributions to Parenting Program Quality
Findings suggest that ensuring a high degree of adherence can contribute to quality program delivery. However, more exploration is needed to better understand the ways in which adherence and dosage of DEI elements affect program quality
Child and Parent Report of Parenting as Predictors of Substance Use and Suspensions From School
This study examined how child and parent reports of parenting were related to early adolescent substance use and school suspensions. Data were from two time points six months apart on 321 families with an eighth grade student attending one of five schools in the Pacific Northwest. Child- and parent-report measures of family management practices were moderately correlated ( r = .29). Child report, but not parent report, of more positive family man…
Pubertal Development and Sexual Intercourse Among Adolescent Girls: An Examination of Direct, Mediated, and Spurious Pathways
There are strong reasons to assume that early onset of puberty accelerates coital debut among adolescent girls. Although many studies support this assumption, evidence regarding the putative causal processes is limited and inconclusive. In this research, longitudinal data from the 1986 Northern Finland Birth Cohort Study ( N = 2,596) were used to address three theoretical explanations: (a) a direct effect premised on biological processes, (b) a m…
Parent training to reduce problem behaviors over the transition to high school: Tests of indirect effects through improved emotion regulation skills
Depressed Mood During Early to Middle Adolescence: A Bi-national Longitudinal Study of the Unique Impact of Family Conflict
Mediating and moderating effects of social support in the study of child abuse and adult physical and mental health
A number of cross-sectional and a few longitudinal studies have shown a developmental relationship between child abuse and adult physical and mental health. Published findings also suggest that social support can lessen the risk of adverse outcomes for some abused children. However, few studies have investigated whether social support mediates or moderates the relationship between child abuse and adult physical and mental health. Structural equat…
Gender Moderation of the Intergenerational Transmission and Stability of Depressive Symptoms from Early Adolescence to Early Adulthood
Longitudinal Pathways from Cumulative Contextual Risk at Birth to School Functioning in Adolescence: Analysis of Mediation Effects and Gender Moderation
Antisocial and human capital pathways to socioeconomic exclusion: A 42-year prospective study
Nordic welfare states have been very successful at reducing poverty and inequality among their citizens. However, the presence of a strong social safety net in these countries has not solved the problem of socioeconomic exclusion, manifesting in such outcomes as chronic unemployment and welfare dependency. In an effort to understand this phenomenon, the current study builds on the assumption that psychological risk factors emerge as important det…
Turning a Big Ship: Unleashing the Power of Prevention Within Treatment Settings
We offer a practitioner’s perspective on “Unleashing the Power of Prevention,” the guiding paper of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare’s Grand Challenge to Ensure Healthy Development for All Youth. We present an innovative strategy aimed at reducing behavioral health problems in young people by helping treatment providers in social work and other human service settings to redirect a portion of their existing intervention effor…
Direct and indirect effects of child abuse and environmental stress: A lifecourse perspective on adversity and depressive symptoms
There is a great deal of evidence about the mental health implications of physical child abuse and environmental stressors, or hardships that people experience at the household and neighborhood level (e.g., neighborhood violence; economic hardship, substance abuse, or conflict among family members). Yet, studies often focus on either abuse or environmental stress, not both, or examine abuse and environmental stressors as a combined set of experie…
Youth Needs at Intake into Trauma‐Informed Group Homes and Response to Services: An Examination of Trauma Exposure, Symptoms, and Clinical Impression
Highlights Trauma symptoms were related to emotional problems & self‐injurious incidents. High and low trauma groups both showed decreases in behavioral incidents and psychopathology. Youth deemed by clinicians to have lower trauma had greater decrease in emotional problems. Trauma symptoms and exposure should both be assessed when determining services
Testing a Model of Universal Prevention Effects on Adolescent Relationships and Marijuana Use as Pathways to Young Adult Outcomes
Psychology (43 works) · Developmental psychology (33 works) · Medicine (33 works) · Clinical Psychology (30 works) · Psychiatry (27 works) · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development (26 works) · Clinical Psychology (19 works) · Longitudinal study (15 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (11 works) · Health psychology (11 works)