Ashley H. Clawson

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences | UAMS · College of Public Health

There is limited literature examining the longitudinal stability of depressive symptoms for individuals with asthma, or how religiosity/spirituality relates to depressive symptoms across time. The present study aimed to identify the stability of and the longitudinal associations between depressive symptoms and R/S across multiple developmental peri...

Background: College students experience increased responsibility for healthcare transition. They are at increased risk for depressive symptoms and cannabis use (CU), potentially modifiable predictors of successful healthcare transition. This study investigated how depressive symptoms and CU related to transition readiness, and if CU moderated the a...

Objective: Individuals with asthma experience increased depressive symptoms, which is associated with deleterious health outcomes. No studies have examined depressive symptom trajectories among individuals with asthma despite increased risk. This study expanded prior literature by identifying the following: (1) depressive symptoms trajectories for...

This study identified contributing factors for tobacco-related inequities among parents (N = 331) during COVID-19. Compared to non-Hispanic White parents, Asian, Black, and multiracial parents experienced greater discrimination. Parents with a nicotine use history experienced greater discrimination and substance use coping relative to tobacco absta...

Objective: American Indian peoples (AIs) have high smoking rates and cardiovascular risk factor burden. The present study aimed to (a) investigate latent smoking classes across adolescence and adulthood, (b) investigate adolescent predictors of smoking classes, and (c) assess how smoking class is related to adult cardiovascular risk in a sample of...

Introduction Adolescents and young adults (AYA) with a chronic medical condition (CMC) attending college must learn to manage their own healthcare (i.e., transition readiness). Maturity has been linked to positive outcomes in AYAs. Research has established a positive relationship between transition readiness and quality of life. The current study a...

Objectives: This study investigated whether select social determinants of health and worries about COVID-19 resource losses mediated the relations between four parent groups: [1) non-Hispanic White (NHW) parents of children with asthma; 2) Black, Indigenous, or other Persons of Color (BIPOC) parents of healthy children; 3) BIPOC parents of childre...

Introduction Pediatric brain tumor survivors (PBTS) are at risk for both neurocognitive impairments and psychological difficulties, yet these two domains have historically been discretely examined, with assessment of psychosocial outcomes rarely included in studies of cognitive outcomes. Taking a person‐centered approach, the current study aimed to...

Objective: This cross-sectional study quantified differences in 1) social determinants of health (SDOH) and perceived changes in SDOH during COVID-19 and 2) COVID-19 psychosocial impacts across four groups: 1) non-Hispanic White (NHW) parents of children with asthma, 2) Black, Indigenous, or other People of Color (BIPOC) parents of healthy children...

Objective: This study identifies trajectories of parent depressive symptoms after having a child born with genital atypia due to a disorder/difference of sex development (DSD) or congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) and across the first year postgenitoplasty (for parents who opted for surgery) or postbaseline (for parents who elected against surge...

Objective: To better understand mechanisms influencing health in African Americans (AAs), the aims of this study were (a) to identify longitudinal cigarette smoking classes among AAs across adolescence and into young adulthood; (b) to identify risk factors for smoking and how cardiometabolic health in adulthood differs by smoking class; and (c) to...

There is a paucity of data on nicotine and cannabis use among young adults (YAs) with asthma. This study aimed to do the following among YAs with asthma: (1) describe YAs’ active and passive exposure to nicotine and cannabis; (2) identify latent classes of active use of nicotine and cannabis; and (3) explore predictors of class membership (i.e., de...

Asthma is the most prevalent chronic medical condition among youth. Youth with asthma have higher rates of anxiety, depression, behavioral difficulties, and similar or higher rates of engaging in deleterious health behaviors (e.g., tobacco and marijuana use) compared to youth without asthma. Further, some families struggle with managing their child...

Objective: This study examined psychosocial distress and substance use in young adults with asthma (A), obesity (O), comorbid asthma and obesity (AO), or neither (controls). Participants: Eight hundred eighty-one young adults were included in the A, O, AO, or control group. Methods: ANCOVA and logistic regression analyses were performed to compare...

Objective The current study examined associations between child executive functions and parenting capacities in long‐term survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Methods Participants included 188 parent‐child dyads; children were at least 8 years of age, 5 years postdiagnosis of ALL, and previously treated with chemotherapy only...

Objective: This convergent mixed methods study examined how information sources influence college students' beliefs and knowledge about vaping. Participants: College students either completed a survey (n = 522; January-April, 2016) or were interviewed (n = 33; 2015-2016). Methods: College students completed an online survey asking 'where' students...

Objective: To examine the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and their relationship with psychological distress among adolescents/young adults (AYAs) with and without pediatric chronic medical conditions (CMC). Methods: A matched sample of AYAs with and without a CMC (n = 484, Mage = 19.48, 77.7% female) completed online measures of...

This study identified latent classes of adolescent smoking and examined race, gender, and physician communication (PC) as predictors of class membership. Data were drawn from five waves of a large (N = 3,049), diverse (82.9% African American) study. Several latent classes were identified: nonsmoker, quitter, early-onset escalating smoking, early-on...

Objective: Caregivers of pediatric cancer patients are at risk for posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). Previous literature has identified caregiver illness uncertainty as a predictor of PTSS, yet little is known about the mechanism by which illness uncertainty may affect PTSS. Rumination, or perseverations about the cause and consequences of an...

Formative research is needed to develop effective interventions that eliminate secondhand smoke exposure (SHSe) and prevent tobacco use (TU) among children with asthma. This online study included 300 parents who smoke and had a child with asthma (ages 10–14) and evaluated their perceptions about prototypes of parent-directed and child-directed feed...

This study examines the longitudinal relationships between child smoking and secondhand smoke exposure (SHSe). Participants were 222 parent–child dyads. The parents smoked, had a child with (48%) or without asthma, and were enrolled in a smoking/health intervention. Parent-reported child SHSe was measured at baseline and 4, 6, and 12-month follow-u...

Objective The Ecological Model was used to examine the social and environmental influences of the college environment on e-cigarette use (vaping) among college students. Participants Undergraduate college student e-cigarette users (vapers) across three large college campuses in the southwest US from Jan 2015- Aug 2016. Methods Thirty-three intervie...

Background Depressive symptoms are elevated in parents of asthmatic children compared with parents of healthy children. The role of depression in smoking cessation and pediatric asthma outcomes in this population is unclear. Purpose To prospectively examine the effect of parent depression on smoking cessation and child asthma outcomes. Methods Se...

Objective: This study examined, among parents who smoke and have children with asthma, perceptions about child secondhand smoke exposure (SHSe), child tobacco use initiation, and parent willingness to participate in child-focused tobacco interventions. Methods: Participants were 300 caregivers who smoked and had a child with asthma (ages 10–14). Pa...

Parents of children with asthma have higher rates of depression than parents of healthy children. Given that those who are depressed are more likely to smoke and have difficulty quitting, and that secondhand smoke (SHS) triggers asthma exacerbations, we examined the effect of parental depression on smoking cessation and child asthma outcomes. This...

Objective: Caregiver depressed mood and stress are associated with increased child asthma functional morbidity (AFM) and secondhand smoke exposure (SHSe), whereas social support (SS) reduces risk. This study extends previous literature by examining (1) longitudinal patterns of pediatric AFM and SHSe and (2) how caregiver stress, depressed mood, an...

Purpose: The Clinical Practice Guidelines instruct physicians to ask their patients about smoking and to advise against tobacco use. Physicians are urged especially to attend to racial minorities and teens because of these groups' increased susceptibility to smoking. Research on race and physician advice against smoking has produced contradictory...

Research has demonstrated that parents who smoke are often inadvertent sources of their children's first cigarettes. Teaching parents to restrict their tobacco may give pediatricians another method for helping parents who are not ready to quit smoking. This purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of a program training pediatricians t...

Introduction Adolescents with cancer are susceptible to the health consequences associated with secondhand smoke exposure (SHSE) and tobacco use. The present study compared tobacco use, exposure, and risk factors between patients and population peers. Method Self-reported data on tobacco use, SHSE, and tobacco-related risk factors were drawn from...

Objective: This study examined the relationships between parental posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), child PTSS, and parent-child concordance for child PTSS. Method: Participants were children with cancer (n = 199), and healthy children (n = 108) and their parents. Children self-reported on PTSS and parents completed measures of child and par...

Objective: Cigarette smokers have higher levels of alcohol consumption than nonsmokers and poorer response to alcohol treatment. It is possible that the greater severity of alcohol problems observed in smokers reflects a greater susceptibility to alcohol-related reinforcement. The present study used a behavioral economic purchase task to investiga...

BACKGROUND: Cancer survivors experience treatment-related complications that can be exacerbated by tobacco use. This study reports the prevalence of smokeless (ST) and dual tobacco (DT) use, compares these rates to the US population, and examines tobacco risk factors among males surviving childhood cancer. METHODS: Data from the Childhood Cancer Su...

Physician advice increases quit rates 1% to 3% above unassisted quit rates among adults, an increase sufficient to be ranked as a high-priority, evidence-based preventive service. However, there is little research on the potential impact of physician advice on adolescent smoking. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between reca...

A significant proportion of adults surviving childhood cancer are smokers. Although these estimated rates of smoking are slightly lower than those in the US population, they remain alarmingly high for this high-risk group. The purpose of this study was to examine the predictive validity of adolescent self-reported smoking intentions for later smoki...