Mildred M Maldonado-Molina

University of Florida | UF

Objective: We examine the interplay of acculturation orientation, cultural stress, and hurricane trauma exposure with behavioral health among Puerto Rican crisis migrants who relocated to the US mainland after Hurricane Maria. Method: Participants were 319 adult (Mage = 39 years; 71% female; 90% arriving in 2017-2018) Hurricane Maria survivors s...

We validated the Negative Context of Reception scale among a sample of Hurricane Maria survivors on the US mainland.

Hurricane Maria (2017) caused great damage to Puerto Rico, undermining people’s quality of life and forcing thousands to migrate to the U.S. mainland. Identifying individuals at elevated risk of suffering mental health problems as a function of being exposed to hurricane and cultural stress is crucial to reducing the burden of such health outcomes....

The present article proposes an extension of the concept of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) to apply to crisis migration – where youth and families are fleeing armed conflicts, natural disasters, community violence, government repression, and other large-scale emergencies. We propose that adverse events occurring prior to, during, and followin...

PurposeRooted in a trans-territorial framework, the present study was designed to provide new evidence regarding the patterns of communication among Hurricane Maria survivors who migrated to the U.S. in the aftermath of the storm.MethodsA total of 319 Hurricane Maria survivor adults ages 18 and older were recruited into the Adelante Boricua study b...

Purpose: In September 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico. Houses were destroyed, millions of people lost power and access to clean water, and many roads were flooded and blocked. In the years following the storm, hundreds of thousands of people have left Puerto Rico and settled on the U.S. mainland. The purpose of this study is to examin...

Since 2015, the Venezuelan diaspora has poured forth from the Venezuelan sending context into an array of (mostly) middle-income receiving countries and into the United States (US) as well. For many Venezuelan migrants, post-migration reception has been mixed, and multiple studies suggest that mental health is an important challenge with discrimina...

On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 155 miles per hour and torrential rains that ravaged the United States territory. In the midst of the crisis, several hundred thousand Maria survivors boarded humanitarian flights and cruise ships, seeking refuge on the United State...

Crisis migration refers to displacement of large numbers of individuals and families from their home countries due to wars, dictatorial governments, and other critical hazards (e.g., hurricanes). Although crisis migration can adversely influence direct and indirect effects on the mental health of adults and their children collectively as families,...

Background In recent years, more than 5 million Venezuelans have left their once prosperous country, with several hundred thousand settling in the United States (US). At present, our understanding of the health risk behavior profiles of Venezuelan émigré youth, and their links with cultural stress, remains limited.Objectives Drawing from a sample o...

Background Since 2015, more than four million Venezuelans have fled their once prosperous nation, prompting an ever-intensifying refugee crisis. Recent research with Venezuelan parents suggests that many are exposed to elevated migration-related stress, experience behavioral health problems, and express profound concern for their children’s post-mi...

Objectives: CVS, the largest US pharmacy chain, discontinued selling tobacco products in 2014; meanwhile, Family Dollar and Dollar General, the two largest dollar store chains, began selling tobacco in 2012 and 2013, respectively. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the differential change in tobacco retailer density (TRD) by rurality through...

Purpose: To examine the longitudinal relationship between depression, delinquency, and trajectories of delinquency among Hispanic children and adolescents. Methods: Propensity score matching is used to match depressed and non-depressed youth and a combination of group-based trajectory and multinomial logistic regression techniques are used. Res...

Compared to non-Hispanic whites, Hispanic adolescents in the U.S. report higher rates of several mental, emotional, and behavioral problems such as substance use, sexual risk behaviors, and internalizing and externalizing problems. There is evidence of common pathways in the development of mental, emotional, and behavioral problems with certain sub...

Objectives: To investigate the effects of precursor chemical regulation aimed at reducing cocaine production on cocaine-related maternal and newborn hospital stays in the United States. Methods: We analyzed monthly counts of maternal and neonatal stays from January 2002 through December 2013 by using a quasi-experimental interrupted time series...

Objective: This research examines gender and racial/ethnic differences in substance use trajectories during early adolescence among American Indian and non-Native adolescents. Method: Substance use trajectories were evaluated among 684 adolescents (50% female, 51% American Indian) across five assessments over 9th and 10th grades. Youth were draw...

To understand the mortality patterns among drug users and potential risk factors, we evaluated drug-related deaths reported to the Florida Medical Examiners Commission from 2001 to 2013, by substances, demographics, and manner of death. The annual drug-related fatalities increased by 57% from 2001 to 2013 (total n = 100,882); 51.8% were accidental,...

Purpose While there exists much literature devoted to identifying risk and protective factors for violence, Hispanic research in this area is still in its infancy. Methods The current study provides the most comprehensive study to date on this topic by utilizing data from 1138 Puerto Rican youth who were participants in the Bronx, NY sample of the...

Despite advances in prevention science and practices in recent decades, the U.S. continues to struggle with significant alcohol-related risks and consequences among youth, especially among vulnerable rural and American Indian youth. The Prevention Trial in the Cherokee Nation is a partnership between prevention scientists and Cherokee Nation Behavi...

Women veterans are a fast-growing segment of the veteran population, yet they face many barriers to medical care. The objective of this study was to examine factors that put women veterans at risk for a financial barrier to medical care. We conducted repeated cross-sectional analyses of data from the 2003, 2004, 2009, and 2010 Behavioral Risk Facto...

The influence of partner context (e.g., drinking alcohol in the 2 hours prior to sex, ≥3 years age discordant, met in public) on adolescent boys' and girls' condom use is unclear. Among an urban cohort of primarily (86%) minority 17-18-year-olds who reported having sex (n = 1,469), we assessed the association between condom use and partner characte...

Background: Mortality due to excessive alcohol consumption is known to vary substantially by US state. The importance of characterizing the spatial variation in alcohol-related (AR) mortality at the county-level for epidemiological research and public health program planning has been recognized for decades. Yet, there has been limited research on s...

National guidelines for alcohol screening and brief interventions advise practitioners to consider age, drinking frequency, and context to identify at-risk youth. The purpose of this study was to identify the contextual risk and protective factors in high school-aged adolescents associated with future driving after drinking (Drinking Under the Infl...

Hispanic adolescents are disproportionately affected by externalizing disorders, substance use and HIV infection. Despite these health inequities, few interventions have been found to be efficacious for this population, and even fewer studies have examined whether the effects of such interventions vary as a function of ecodevelopmental and intraper...

To increase understanding of the association between sexual partner meeting venue types (school, through friends or family, organized groups, public places, or on the street) and sexual risk taking among urban youths. Data were from 17- to 18-year-old youths who reported having had sex (n = 1,656) by the time they participated in the 2008-2009 foll...

Longitudinal offending research has grown substantially in the last two decades. Despite this increased scholarly attention, longitudinal investigations of the effects of offending on physical health have not kept pace. Acknowledging the intersections of criminology, criminal justice, and public health, this study examines the relationship between...

Purpose: To understand the etiology of violence among ethnically diverse men using a nationally representative and longitudinal sample of youth. Methods: Participants included 4,322 adolescent men observed from ages 13 to 32 years from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). We estimated trajectories of violence and us...

Objectives: We examined perceived frequency and intensity of racial/ethnic discrimination and associations with high-risk behaviors/conditions among adolescents. Design: With surveys from 2490 racial/ethnic minority adolescents primarily with low socioeconomic status, we used regression analysis to examine associations between racial/ethnic disc...

To estimate trajectories of aggression among African Americans and Hispanics using a longitudinal sample of urban adolescents, and test multiple domains of risk factors to differentiate profiles of aggression. Participants included 3,038 adolescents followed from sixth to eighth grade. Trajectories of aggression were estimated for African Americans...

To estimate trajectories of violence using a longitudinal sample of adolescents, considering the effects of multiple domains of influences as differentiators between profiles of violent behavior. A nationally representative sample of 9,421 adolescents ages 15-26. Trajectories were estimated, and multinomial regression procedures were used to evalua...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) research often focuses on either the victims of IPV or the perpetrators of IPV. Recent studies have documented the existence of a group of victim-perpetrators, for example, they perpetrate IPV and are also the victims of IPV. The current study examines this overlap in IPV perpetration and victimization among a nation...

The purpose of this article is to evaluate the victim-offender overlap among a nationally representative sample of Native American adolescents and young adults. Data for this study were obtained from 338 Native American youth who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) Waves I-IV. Group-based trajectory mod...

In this commentary, we discuss a study by Caetano and colleagues (2012) that examines alcohol consumption and binge drinking behavior among U.S.-Mexico border and non-border Mexican Americans using data from the Hispanic Americans Baseline Alcohol Survey. We discuss how Caetano and colleagues (2012) addressed 3 gaps in our understanding of drinking...

The current study evaluates neighborhood effects, individual-level effects, and demographic characteristics that influence physically aggressive behavior among urban youth. Using data derived from 5,812 adolescents from Project Northland Chicago (PNC) and Heirarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) techniques, the results suggested that neighborhood problem...

The current study sought to estimate trajectories of violent behavior and evaluate the direct and indirect effects of contextual factors among Hispanics, stratified by gender. Relying on data from 3,719 Hispanic adolescents surveyed as a part of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), violence trajectories were estimated...

Intimate partner violence is a significant public health problem, as these behaviors have been associated with a number of negative health outcomes including illicit drug use, physical injury, chronic pain, sexually transmitted diseases, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder. The current study examined the association between marijuana use...

Many studies have examined the role of peer and parental alcohol use on drinking behaviors among adolescents. Few studies, however, have examined parental influences on driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol. The current study uses data from a longitudinal study to examine the role of parental alcohol use during adolescence on the risk for DU...

Elementary school-age child report instruments that do not require reading or interviews are lacking. In four samples, psychometric estimates for 5- to 9-year-olds were obtained for the Assessment of Liability and Exposure to Substance use and Antisocial behavior© (ALEXSA©), a child-report instrument that can be completed even by illiterate childre...

Background Alcohol abuse and violence are key contributors to leading causes of death among youth. Yet, the relationship between violence and alcohol use is complex and the developmental impact of this association merits further investigation. The current study used prospective data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Hea...

Using a longitudinal sample of Puerto Rican adolescents living in the Bronx, New York, this study examines the predictors of exposure to violence within gender. Results from a series of negative binomial regressions suggested (a) sensation seeking, peer delinquency, coercive discipline, and initial delinquency increased the likelihood of exposure t...

Objective: The purpose of this study is (a) to evaluate the predictors of serious physical violence among Hispanics using a longitudinal, nationally representative sample of adolescents, and (b) to evaluate the effects of multiple levels of influence (generational differences, individual-level characteristics, and contextual variables) on serious v...

The current study examined the relationship between alcohol and violence using a longitudinal survey of adolescents ages 11—26. Data were derived from 10,828 adolescents in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) Waves I-III. Survey logistic regression was used to examine the relationship between alcohol use and violence....

To evaluate the risk factors associated with the initiation of driving under the influence (DUI) among Hispanics in a longitudinal and nationally-representative sample of adolescents and young adults. Specifically, this study tests the effect of demographic variables, individual-level risk factors, and eco-processes (e.g., peer drug use, parental i...

Youth with alcohol or marijuana dependence or disorders (substance use disorders [SUDs]) are at increased risk of acquiring sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Sexual partner characteristics may explain the relationship between SUD and STD. Clinical criteria for SUD, clinical STD diagnosis, and sexual partner characteristics were assessed among 1...

Over a hundred studies have established the effects of beverage alcohol taxes and prices on sales and drinking behaviors. Yet, relatively few studies have examined effects of alcohol taxes on alcohol-related mortality. We evaluated effects of multiple changes in alcohol tax rates in the state of Florida from 1969 to 2004 on disease (not injury) mor...

Purpose: Knowledge about offenders and knowledge about victims has traditionally been undertaken without formal consideration of the overlap among the two. A small but growing research agenda has examined the extent of this overlap. At the same time, there has been a minimal amount of research regarding offending and victimization among minority y...

A progressive and hierarchical sequence of drug use suggests that a sequence of stages of drug use can describe the order by which adolescents try drugs. We propose an operational definition to test gateway relations by providing a framework with the aim of describing a set of conditions to guide the evaluation of whether a drug serves as a gateway...

Alcoholic beverage consumption among high school students has shifted from beer to liquor. The current longitudinal study examined the effects of beverage-specific alcohol use on drinking behaviors among urban youth. Data included 731 adolescents who participated in Project Northland Chicago and reported consuming alcohol in 7th grade. Logistic reg...

Although sex is one of the strongest correlates of crime, contentions remain regarding the necessity of sex-specific theories of crime. The current study examines delinquent trajectories across sex among Puerto Rican youth socialized in two different cultural contexts (Bronx, United States and San Juan, Puerto Rico). Results indicate: similar subst...

A growing body of literature has recently emerged examining sex-specific pathways of offending. Yet, despite significant gains, this area of research is still rather underexplored. With a particular focus on the role of delinquent peers, this current study investigates the sex similarities/differences in offending trajectories among a large sample...

This study sought to identify trajectories of physical aggression among urban Hispanic youth, and to examine the effects of risk and protective factors at age 11 on trajectories of physical aggression over time (ages 12-18). Relying on data from 731 urban Hispanic adolescents from Project Northland Chicago (PNC), latent trajectory modeling was used...

Several studies have examined the factors associated with juvenile delinquency, but this literature remains limited largely because it has not moved beyond traditional factors generally and because of the lack of research conducted on minority—especially Hispanic—youth. This study seeks to overcome these two limitations by using data from a longitu...

Ecodevelopmental theory is a theoretical framework used to explain the interplay among risk and protective processes associated with HIV risk behaviors among adolescents. Although ecodevelopmentally based interventions have been found to be efficacious in preventing HIV risk behaviors among Hispanic youth, this theory has not yet been directly empi...

Several studies have investigated factors associated with physical aggression during adolescence. Yet, little is known about the longitudinal relationship between drug use, particularly alcohol use, and physical aggression among minority youth. The present study examined the effects of alcohol and substance use at age 11 on trajectories of physical...

Mixed effects models have become very popular, especially for the analysis of longitudinal data. One challenge is how to build a good enough mixed effects model. In this paper, we suggest a systematic strategy for addressing this challenge and introduce easily implemented practical advice to build mixed effects models. A general discussion of the s...

Project Northland, a multi-component alcohol use preventive intervention, was adapted, implemented and evaluated in 61 Chicago public schools and surrounding neighborhoods. Neighborhoods were randomly assigned to intervention or control condition. A cohort of 5811 students, beginning in 6th grade, received three years of intervention strategies and...

The current study was conducted to ascertain whether the effects of nativity (i.e., U.S. born vs. immigrant) on Hispanic adolescent substance use is mediated by ecological processes such as family functioning, school connectedness, and perceived peer substance use. The effects of family, peer, and school processes on adolescent substance use were e...

This study identified heterogeneous classes of alcohol-related neighborhood characteristics to which multi-ethnic, early adolescents in urban communities are exposed. The sample comprised 4,215 youth from 42 community areas in Chicago, Illinois who completed surveys at the beginning of 6th grade (2002). Neighborhood measures included: (1) mean numb...

This study examined associations between patterns of alcohol use initiation and progression from age 12 to 14 years and recent cigarette and marijuana use, and violent and delinquent behavior at age 14. The study sample (n = 2,193) was predominantly African American or Hispanic (43% and 37%, respectively) and low-income (68% receiving free, or redu...

We examined relationships between alcohol-related neighborhood context, protective home and family management practices, and alcohol use among urban, racial/ethnic minority, adolescents. The sample comprised 5,655 youth who were primarily low SES (72%), African American (43%) and Hispanic (29%). Participants completed surveys in 2002-2005 (ages 11-...

This study examined the trajectories of delinquency among Puerto Rican children and adolescents in two cultural contexts. Relying on data from the Boricua Youth Study, a longitudinal study of children and youth from Bronx, New York, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, a group-based trajectory procedure estimated the number of delinquency trajectories, wheth...

We evaluated the effects of tax increases on alcoholic beverages in 1983 and 2002 on alcohol-related disease mortality in Alaska. We used a quasi-experimental design with quarterly measures of mortality from 1976 though 2004, and we included other states for comparison. Our statistical approach combined an autoregressive integrated moving average m...

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the state of drug abuse research among Hispanic adolescents in the areas of prevalence, etiology, prevention, and treatment from a cultural perspective. Cultural and acculturation-related processes are central to the understanding of the epidemiology, etiology, prevention, and treatment of dr...

Στόχοι: Σκοπός της παρούσας μελέτης ήταν να διερευνήσει τις επιδράσεις της παροχής αλκοόλ από τους γονείς και της διαθεσιμότητας αλκοόλ στο σπίτι στην πορεία των νεαρών εφήβων όσον αφορά τη χρήση αλκοόλ και την πρόθεση για χρήση. Σχεδιασμός: Τα στοιχεία αποτελούν μέρος μια μακροχρόνιας μελέτης της χρήσης αλκοόλ μεταξύ εφήβων διαφορετικών εθνικοτήτω...

Hispanic adolescents are a rapidly growing population and are highly vulnerable to substance abuse and HIV infection. Many interventions implemented thus far have been "one size fits all" models that deliver the same dosage and sequence of modules to all participants. To more effectively prevent substance use and HIV in Hispanic adolescents, differ...

Hundreds of laws have been implemented in the United States over the past few decades designed to reduce alcohol-impaired driving and the crashes that often result. One approach has been to lower the legally allowable alcohol concentration for drivers. We examined the effects of changes in legal BAC limit in 28 U.S. states from January, 1976 to Dec...

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of parental provision of alcohol and home alcohol accessibility on the trajectories of young adolescent alcohol use and intentions. Data were part of a longitudinal study of alcohol use among multi-ethnic urban young adolescents who were assigned randomly to the control group of a preventi...

Examine patterns of progression in substance use among Hispanic youth 13 to 17 years of age from two longitudinally representative studies. Patterns of substance use among youth in Puerto Rico were examined using a longitudinal study (n=663) of adolescents living on the island. The National Longitudinal Study of Youth was used to examine patterns o...

We examined effects of state statutory changes in DUI fine or jail penalties for firsttime offenders from 1976 to 2002. A quasi-experimental time-series design was used (n=324 monthly observations). Four outcome measures of drivers involved in alcohol-related fatal crashes are: single-vehicle nighttime, low BAC (0.01-0.07g/dl), medium BAC (0.08-0.1...

To examine the relation between dieting and smoking initiation among adolescents. Prospective data from a nationally representative study were used. Two waves (1994 to 1996) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The sample included 7795 non-Latino Caucasian and non-Latino African-American adolescents. Dieting status was the indep...

We evaluated the effects of driving under the influence (DUI) mandatory preconviction and postconviction drivers' license suspension laws in each of 46 U.S. states using 1 to 2 decades of long-term follow-up data on fatal car crashes. State-specific results were combined using meta-analytic techniques, and provide a direct test of the concept of ce...

Examine sources of alcohol over time in a large, ethnically diverse adolescent population from a poor, urban environment. Surveys were administered at four time points (6th-8th grades) assessing demographic characteristics, past year alcohol use and sources of alcohol to youth in Chicago, Illinois 2002-2005. Growth curve analysis was used to examin...

This study was conducted to test the validity of a measure that has potential to bridge research on the addictive liability of drugs and on individuals' liability to addiction, which to date have evolved in largely parallel arenas. The length of time between onset of abuse and dependence (LOTAD) has evolved from recent findings on transitions throu...

Understanding the processes of acculturation in ethnic minority populations is one of the central tasks of crosscultural research. Addressing challenges of theory, methods, and application in acculturation research requires ongoing advancements in methods and theoretical and model development. The current study was designed to explain a person-cent...

Using a dynamic sequential sampling model and a recently proposed model for confidence judgments in recognition memory (T. Van Zandt, 2000b), the authors examine the tendency for rememberers to reverse their responses after a primary decision. In 4 experiments, speeded "old"-"new" decisions were made under bias followed by a 2nd response', either a...