Social Rejection and Alcohol Use in Daily Life.

BACKGROUND: Prior studies have found that social rejection is associated with increases in negative affect, distress, and hostility. Fewer studies, however, have examined the impact of social rejection on alcohol use, and no known studies have tested whether the impact of social rejection by close others differs from social rejection by acquaintances in its association with subsequent drinking. METHODS: Participants completed event-contingent reports of their social interactions and alcohol use for 14 consecutive days on smartphones. Multilevel negative binomial regression models tested whether experiencing more social rejection than usual was associated with increased drinking, and whether this association was stronger when participants were rejected by close others (e.g., friends, spouses, family members) versus strangers or acquaintances. RESULTS: Results showed a significant interaction between social rejection and relationship closeness. On days characterized by rejection by close others, the likelihood of drinking significantly increased. On days characterized by rejection by acquaintances, by contrast, there was no increase in the likelihood of drinking. There was no main effect of rejection on likelihood of drinking. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that relationship type is a key factor in whether social rejection translates to potentially harmful behaviors, such as increased alcohol use. This finding is in contrast to many laboratory paradigms of rejection, which emphasize rejection and ostracism by strangers rather than known others. In the more naturalistic setting of measuring social interactions on smartphone in daily life, our findings suggest that only social rejection delivered by close others, and not strangers, led to subsequent drinking.

Parent-adolescent conflict interactions and adolescent alcohol use.

OBJECTIVE: One important factor in adolescents' development of problem alcohol use is their family environment. Yet, the mechanisms that relate parenting to youth alcohol use are not well characterized. This study employed a naturalistic laboratory-based approach to observe parenting behaviors (support, structure, criticism) and adolescents' physiological and emotional responses to parent-adolescent interactions to examine associations with adolescent alcohol use. METHOD: Fifty eight 10-16year olds and their parents completed a 10minute Parent Adolescent Interaction Task (PAIT) in which they discussed a mutually highly-rated conflict topic. Parental support, structure, and criticism were coded from the interaction. Adolescents' heart rate (HR), blood pressure (BP), reported emotions, and salivary cortisol were assessed before, during, and after the interaction. RESULTS: Findings indicated that lower parental structure and support were associated with youth's greater diastolic BP and anger arousal in response to the PAIT. Furthermore, higher HR, systolic BP, and cortisol responses to the interaction were associated with youth's alcohol use. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that heightened emotional and physiological responses to parent-adolescent conflict interactions in youth may be one pathway by which parenting is associated with adolescent alcohol use and risk for abuse.