Regulatory Focus and Substance Use in Adolescents: Protective Effects of Prevention Orientation.

BACKGROUND: Substance use is a major risk factor for negative health and functioning outcomes among middle schoolers. The purpose of this study was to assess whether individual differences in the adolescents' goal orientation are associated with elevated or attenuated risk for substance use. Regulatory focus theory stipulates that individuals vary in their strength of orientation toward promotion goals ("making good things happen") and prevention goals ("keeping bad things from happening"). Objectives: We sought to examine the association between individual differences in regulatory focus and adolescents' reports of their own and their friends' substance use. Methods: Participants were 241 seventh grade students who completed measures of regulatory focus (promotion and prevention orientation), self-reported substance use, perceived substance use habits of peers, and demographics. Logistic regression models were used to examine adjusted odds of lifetime tobacco use, alcohol use, and marijuana use for both participants' own use and their reports of friends' use. Results: Prevention orientation was associated with lower odds of all self-reported lifetime substance use outcomes (tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana). Prevention orientation was also associated with lower odds of reporting all types of substance use among friends. Promotion orientation was not associated with any self-reported substance use outcome, and was only associated with higher odds of reporting lifetime alcohol use among friends. Conclusions: These findings underscore the importance of regulatory focus as it relates to adolescent substance use. Future research may seek to incorporate regulatory focus within interventions intended to prevent or delay initiation of substance use in adolescents.

Raising Grateful Children One Day at a Time.

The current study examined micro-developmental processes related to the socialization of children's gratitude. Specifically, we tested whether parents who engage in more frequent daily socialization practices targeting children's gratitude reported more frequent displays of gratitude by their children after controlling for potential confounds (i.e., parents' own gratitude, sensitive parenting, and children's socio-emotional functioning). The sample of 101 parent-child dyads completed a baseline lab visit followed by a seven-day diary study. Using multi-level modeling, we found that parents who engaged in more frequent gratitude socialization acts (versus parents with fewer socialization acts) reported more frequent displays of gratitude by their children across the seven-day period (a between-dyad effect). We also found that on days when a parent engaged in more socialization acts than usual (versus days when that parent engaged in fewer acts than usual) parents reported relative increases in gratitude displays by their children (a within-dyad effect). These findings show that parent socialization acts are associated with children's displayed gratitude and point to the need for future work to explore reactive and proactive parent-child interactions that may underlie these associations as well as associations between micro-developmental and macro-developmental processes.

Grateful parents raising grateful children: Niche selection and the socialization of child gratitude.

Given that children's exposure to gratitude-related activities may be one way that parents can socialize gratitude in their children, we examined whether parents' niche selection (i.e., tendency to choose perceived gratitude-inducing activities for their children) mediates the association between parents' reports of their own and their children's gratitude. Parent-child dyads (N =101; children aged 6-9; 52% girls; 80% Caucasian; 85% mothers) participated in a laboratory visit and parents also completed a seven-day online diary regarding children's gratitude. Decomposing specific indirect effects within a structural equation model, we found that parents high in gratitude were more likely to set goals to use niche selection as a gratitude socialization strategy, and thereby more likely to place their children in gratitude-related activities. Placement in these activities, in turn, was associated with more frequent expression of gratitude in children. We describe future directions for research on parents' role in socializing gratitude in their children.

Natural Peer Leaders as Substance Use Prevention Agents: the Teens' Life Choice Project.

In adolescent social groups, natural peer leaders have been found to engage in more frequent experimentation with substance use and to possess disproportionate power to affect the behavior and social choices of their associated peer followers. In the current exploratory study, we used sociometrics and social cognitive mapping to identify natural leaders of cliques in a seventh grade population and invited the leaders to develop anti-drug presentations for an audience of younger peers. The program employed social-psychological approaches directed at having leaders proceed from extrinsic inducements to intrinsic identification with their persuasive products in the context of the group intervention process. The goals of the intervention were to induce substance resistant self-persuasion in the leaders and to produce a spread of this resistance effect to their peer followers. To test the intervention, we compared the substance use behaviors of the selected leaders and their peers to a control cohort. The study found preliminary support that the intervention produced changes in the substance use behavior among the leaders who participated in the intervention, but did not detect a spread to non-leader peers in the short term. This descriptive study speaks to the plausibility of employing self-persuasion paradigms to bring about change in high-risk behaviors among highly central adolescents. In addition, it highlights the viability of applying social psychological principles to prevention work and calls for more research in this area.

Conscientiousness in life course context: a commentary.

In this commentary, the common themes from the interesting articles in this special section of Developmental Psychology are considered as they illuminate the potential ontogenetic sources of the conscientiousness-well-being-longevity interconnections that have emerged in recent research. In particular, consideration is given to the changing nature of the expression of conscientiousness over the life course and the importance of the causally linked chain of developmental events associated with the sustenance of this trait from early childhood to later life. Methodological as well as conceptual issues are part of the common thematic analysis provided. In addition, several more or less neglected issues are addressed in the commentary. These include an examination of the potential roles of self-presentation social context and social aggregation in the developmentally emergent conscientiousness-well-being relationship. Further, the potential downside of the moral tinge of the conscientiousness construct is considered, as is the cultural variation in the benefits of conscientiousness to well-being. Finally, the applied significance of research on the conscientiousness-well-being link to health promotion over the life course is addressed. The commentary concludes with reflections on the transformation of 1970s trait-like conceptions as unbending tautological predictors of behavior into the situationally and developmentally nuanced conceptions of conscientiousness provided in these collected articles.

Early risk factors for alcohol use across high school and its covariation with deviant friends.

OBJECTIVE: Past research has associated childhood characteristics and experiences with alcohol use at single time points in adolescence. Other work has focused on drinking trajectories across adolescence but with risk factors typically no earlier than middle or high school. Similarly, although the connection between underage drinking and affiliation with deviant friends is well established, early risk factors for their covariation across adolescence are uncertain. The present study examines the influence of early individual and contextual factors on (a) trajectories across high school of per-occasion alcohol use and (b) the covariation of alcohol use and deviant friends over time. METHOD: In a longitudinal community sample (n = 374; 51% female), temperamental disinhibition, authoritarian and authoritative parenting, and parental alcohol use were assessed during childhood, and adolescents reported on alcohol use and affiliation with deviant friends in the spring of Grades 9, 10, 11, and 12. RESULTS: Early parental alcohol use predicted the intercept of adolescent drinking. Subsequent patterns of adolescent alcohol use were predicted by sex and interactions of sex and childhood disinhibition with early authoritarian parenting. Additionally, childhood disinhibition interacted with parental alcohol use to moderate the covariation of drinking and deviant friends. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight early individual and contextual risk factors for alcohol use across high school, extending previous work and underscoring the importance of developmental approaches and longitudinal techniques for understanding patterns of growth in underage drinking.

Evaluating the impact of a substance use intervention program on the peer status and influence of adolescent peer leaders.

The current study involved an examination of the impact of a peer-led substance use intervention program on the peer leaders beyond the substance use-related goals of the intervention. Specifically, unintended consequences of an adult-sanctioned intervention on the targeted peer leader change agents were investigated, including whether their participation affected their peer status, social influence, or self perceptions. Twenty-two 7th grade peer-identified intervention leaders were compared to 22 control leaders (who did not experience the intervention) and 146 cohort peers. Three groups of measures were employed: sociometric and behavioral nominations, social cognitive mapping, and leadership self-perceptions. Results indicated that unintended consequences appear to be a legitimate concern for females. Female intervention leaders declined in perceived popularity and liked most nominations over time, whereas males increased in total leader nominations. Explanations for these results are discussed and further directions suggested.

Academic Giftedness and Alcohol Use in Early Adolescence.

Adolescence is a period of development particularly vulnerable to the effects of alcohol use, with recent studies underscoring alcohol's effects on adolescent brain development. Despite the alarming rates and consequences of adolescent alcohol use, gifted adolescents are often overlooked as being at risk for early alcohol use. Although gifted adolescents may possess protective factors that likely inhibit the use of alcohol, some gifted youth may be vulnerable to initiating alcohol use during adolescence as experimenting with alcohol may be one way gifted youth choose to compensate for the social price (whether real or perceived) of their academic talents. To address the dearth of research on alcohol use among gifted adolescents the current study (a) examined the extent to which gifted adolescents use alcohol relative to their nongifted peers and (b) examined the adjustment profile of gifted adolescents who had tried alcohol relative to nongifted adolescents who tried alcohol as well as gifted and nongifted abstainers. More than 300 students in seventh grade (42.5% gifted) participated in the present study. Results indicated gifted students have, in fact, tried alcohol at rates that do not differ from nongifted students. Although trying alcohol was generally associated with negative adjustment, giftedness served as a moderating factor such that gifted students who had tried alcohol were less at risk than their nongifted peers. However, evidence also suggests that gifted adolescents who tried alcohol may be a part of a peer context that promotes substance use, which may place these youth at risk for adjustment difficulties in the future.

Maternal socialization goals, parenting styles, and social-emotional adjustment among Chinese and European American young adults: testing a mediation model.

The authors compared the associations among perceived maternal socialization goals (self-development, filial piety, and collectivism), perceived maternal parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, and training), and the social-emotional adjustment (self-esteem, academic self-efficacy, and depression) between Chinese and European American young adults. The mediation processes in which socialization goals relate to young adults' adjustment outcomes through parenting styles were examined. Results showed that European American participants perceived higher maternal self-development socialization goals, whereas Chinese participants perceived higher maternal collectivism socialization goals as well as more authoritarian parenting. Cross-cultural similarities were found in the associations between perceived maternal authoritative parenting and socioemotional adjustment (e.g., higher self-esteem and higher academic self-efficacy) across the two cultural groups. However, perceived maternal authoritarian and training parenting styles were found only to be related to Chinese participants' adjustment (e.g., higher academic self-efficacy and lower depression). The mediation analyses showed that authoritative parenting significantly mediated the positive associations between the self-development and collectivism goal and socioemotional adjustment for both cultural groups. Additionally, training parenting significantly mediated the positive association between the filial piety goal and young adults' academic self-efficacy for the Chinese group only. Findings of this study highlight the importance of examining parental socialization goals in cross-cultural parenting research.

Racial differences in the relationship between alcohol consumption in early adulthood and occupational attainment at midlife.

OBJECTIVES: We assessed the relationship between alcohol consumption in young adulthood (ages 18-30 years) and occupational success 15 years later among Blacks and Whites. METHODS: We analyzed data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study on employment status and occupational prestige at year 15 from baseline. The primary predictor was weekly alcohol use at baseline, after stratification by race and adjustment for socioeconomic factors. RESULTS: We detected racial differences in the relationship between alcohol use in early adulthood and employment status at midlife. Blacks who were very heavy drinkers at baseline were more than 4 times as likely as Blacks who were occasional drinkers to be unemployed at year 15 (odds ratio [OR]=4.34; 95% confidence interval [CI]=2.22, 8.47). We found no statistically significant relationship among Whites. Occupational prestige at midlife was negatively related to very heavy drinking, but after adjustment for marital status, active coping, life stress, and educational attainment, this relationship was statistically significant only among Blacks. CONCLUSIONS: Heavy drinking during young adulthood was negatively associated with labor market success at midlife, especially among Blacks.

Social Network Centrality and Leadership Status: Links with Problem Behaviors and Tests of Gender Differences.

Seventh-grade students (N = 324) completed social cognitive maps to identify peer groups and peer group leaders, sociometric nominations to describe their peers' behaviors, and questionnaires to assess their own behaviors. Peer group members resembled one another in levels of direct and indirect aggression and substance use; girls' cliques were more behaviorally homogenous than were boys' cliques. On average, leaders (especially if they were boys) were perceived as engaging in more problem behaviors than were nonleaders. In girls' cliques, peripheral group members were more similar to their group leader on indirect aggression than were girls who were more central to the clique. Peer leaders perceived themselves as being more able to influence peers but did not differ from nonleaders in their perceived susceptibility to peer influence. The findings contribute to our understanding of processes through which influence may occur in adolescent peer groups.

Early adolescents' social standing in peer groups: behavioral correlates of stability and change.

Sociometric nominations, social cognitive maps, and self-report questionnaires were completed in consecutive years by 327 students (56% girls) followed longitudinally from grade 7 to grade 8 to examine the stability of social standing in peer groups and correlates of changes in social standing. Social preference, perceived popularity, network centrality, and leadership were moderately stable from grade 7 to grade 8. Alcohol use and relational aggression in grade 7 predicted changes in social preference and centrality, respectively, between grade 7 and grade 8, but these effects were moderated by gender and ethnicity. Changes in social standing from grade 7 to grade 8 were unrelated to grade 8 physical aggression, relational aggression, and alcohol use after controlling for the grade 7 corollaries of these behaviors. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding links between social standing and problem behaviors during adolescence.

Psychosocial outcomes in a weight loss camp for overweight youth.

OBJECTIVE: There is good evidence that youth attending weight loss camps in the UK and US are successful at achieving weight loss. Limited research suggests improvement in body image and self-esteem as well. This study evaluated changes in eight psychosocial variables following participation in a weight loss camp and examined the role of gender, age, length of stay, and body mass index (BMI) in these changes. METHODS: This was an observational and self-report study of 130 participants (mean age = 12.8; mean BMI = 33.5; 70% female; 77% Caucasian). The program consisted of an 1800 kcal/day diet, daily supervised physical activities, cooking/nutrition classes, and weekly psycho-educational/support groups led by psychology staff. Participants completed measures of anti-fat attitudes, values (e.g., value placed on appearance, athletic ability, popularity), body- and self-esteem, weight- and health-related quality of life, self-efficacy, and depressive symptoms. RESULTS: Participants experienced significant BMI reduction (average decrease of 7.5 kg [standard deviation, SD = 4.2] and 2.9 BMI points [SD = 1.4]). Participants also exhibited significant improvements in body esteem, self-esteem, self-efficacy, generic and weight-related quality of life, anti-fat attitudes, and the importance placed on appearance. Changes in self-efficacy, physical functioning and social functioning remained significant even after adjusting for initial zBMI, BMI change, and length of stay. Gender differences were found on changes in self-efficacy, depressive symptoms, and social functioning. CONCLUSION: Participation in weight loss programs in a group setting, such as a camp, may have added benefit beyond BMI reduction. Greater attention to changes in psychosocial variables may be warranted when designing such programs for youth.

Sticks and Stones: The Effects of Teasing on Psychosocial Functioning in an Overweight Treatment-seeking Sample.

This self-report and observational study explores the relationship between perceptions of different kinds of teasing experiences and psychosocial functioning in an overweight treatment-seeking adolescent population. Participants were 96 adolescents enrolled in a residential weight-loss camp program. Prior to the start of treatment, participants' weight status was measured by trained program staff, and participants' perceptions of teasing experiences and psychosocial functioning were assessed through self-report questionnaires. Controlling for body mass index, more frequent and upsetting weight-related teasing experiences were associated with worse psychological functioning. Adolescents most distressed by weight-related teasing exhibited lower self-esteem and higher depressive symptoms regardless of reported frequency of weight-related teasing. Competence-related teasing was also associated with more worries about weight, greater depressive symptoms, and more negative anti-fat attitudes. Weight-related teasing, but not competence-related teasing, was associated with lower levels of program and social involvement for heavier adolescents.

Evaluating a stage model in predicting monolingual spanish-speaking Latinas' cervical cancer screening practices: the role of psychosocial and cultural predictors.

The goals of this study are to evaluate (a) the effectiveness of a stage model in predicting Latinas' self-report of obtaining a Pap test and (b) the unique role of psychosocial/cultural factors in predicting progress toward behavior change. One-on-one structured interviews with monolingual Spanish-speaking Latinas (n=190) were conducted. Most participants (85%) intended to obtain a Pap smear within 1 year; therefore, staging women based on intention was not possible. Moreover, results from the polychotomous hierarchical logistic regression suggest that psychosocial and cultural factors were independent predictors of Pap test history. A stage model may not be appropriate for predicting Pap test screening among Latinas. Results suggest that unique cultural, psychosocial, and demographic factors may inhibit cervical cancer screening practices. Clinicians may need to tailor messages on these cultural and psychosocial factors to increase Pap testing among Latinas.

Longitudinal differences in alcohol use in early adulthood.

OBJECTIVE: Research with college populations suggests that elevated levels of heavy drinking do not generally persist into later adulthood for most individuals. The aims of this study were to determine whether this pattern applies to the population as a whole and to identify those for whom heavy drinking in early adulthood does lead to continued high levels of consumption throughout the life course. METHOD: Patterns of heavy drinking were assessed, and a mixture model was used to evaluate relationships between psychological profiles and trajectories of heavy drinking in early to middle adulthood for race-gender groups. Subjects (N = 5,115; 55% women) were drawn from the longitudinal study of Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) conducted in four major U.S. cities from 1985 to 1995. RESULTS: Patterns of heavy drinking differed by race and gender, with higher rates observed among whites and men. Heavy drinking was generally most common in the early 20s and dropped sharply thereafter. For a subset with psychological profiles characterized by elevated levels of hostility, anxiety, and depressive symptoms, high rates of heavy drinking persisted into later adulthood; 20% of whites and 50% of blacks in the overall sample were in this subset. Rates of heavy drinking in this group were similar for blacks and whites. CONCLUSIONS: At a population level, heavy drinking in early adulthood tends not to continue into later life. For a subset of psychologically vulnerable individuals, however, early adult heavy drinking persists into the middle adulthood years.

Peer standing and substance use in early-adolescent grade-level networks: a short-term longitudinal study.

Two competing hypotheses were tested concerning the associations between current alcohol and cigarette use and measures of individual, group and network peer standing in an ethnically-diverse sample of 156 male and female adolescents sampled at two time points in the seventh grade. Findings lent greater support to the person hypothesis, with early regular substance users enjoying elevated standing amongst their peers and maintaining this standing regardless of their maintenance of or desistance from current use later in the school year. In the fall semester, users (n=20, 13%) had greater social impact, were described by their peers as more popular, and were more central to the peer network than abstainers (i.e., those who did not report current use).Conversely, in the spring semester, there were no differences between users (n=22, 13%) and abstainers in peer ratings of popularity or social impact. Notably, the spring semester users group retained fewer than half of the users from the fall semester. Further, students who had reported current use in the fall, as a group, retained their positions of elevated peer standing in the spring, compared to all other students, and continued to be rated by their peers as more popular and as having greater social impact. We discuss the findings in terms of the benefit of employing simultaneous systemic and individual measures of peer standing or group prominence, which in the case of peer-based prevention programs, can help clarify the truly influential from the "pretenders" in the case of diffusion of risk-related behaviors.

Norm-Narrowing and Self- and Other-Perceived Aggression in Early-Adolescent Same-Sex and Mixed-Sex Cliques.

We examined the relations between group context and self- and other-perceptions of aggressive behavior in an ethnically-diverse sample of 168 male and female grade 7 adolescents. We used self- and peer-reports of aggression in high- and average-aggressive mixed-sex and same-sex cliques to examine whether group members would assimilate their self-report of aggression to the aggression report of their peers by way of perceived homophily or, conversely, engage in contrast and see their level of aggression as comparatively low in the face of high-aggression peers. Among boys in mixed-sex groups, comparison with highly-aggressive others resulted in a self-perception of lower levels of aggression than those perceived by their peers. Conversely, girls in mixed-sex groups reported their own levels of aggression to be higher than those perceived by their peers. We interpret these findings in terms of the notion of "norm narrowing": rather than being set by the larger social environment, such as the school, norms are more narrowly determined within one's immediate peer group.

Weight stigmatization and ideological beliefs: relation to psychological functioning in obese adults.

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the relation among weight-based stigmatization, ideological beliefs about weight, and psychological functioning in an obese, treatment-seeking sample. RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURE: Ninety-three obese, treatment-seeking adults (24 men and 69 women) completed a battery of self-report questionnaires measuring psychological adjustment, attitudes about weight, belief in the controllability of weight, and the frequency of weight-based stigmatization. RESULTS: Weight-based stigmatization was a common experience for participants. Frequency of stigmatizing experiences was positively associated with depression, general psychiatric symptoms, and body image disturbance, and negatively associated with self-esteem. Further, participants' own negative attitudes about weight problems were associated with their psychological distress and moderated the relation between the experience of stigmatization and body image. DISCUSSION: Weight-based stigmatization is a common experience for obese individuals seeking weight loss treatment and appears to contribute to poor mental health adjustment. The negative effects of these experiences are particularly damaging for those who hold strong antifat beliefs.

Body image partially mediates the relationship between obesity and psychological distress.

OBJECTIVE: Body image is considered as a potential mediator of the relationship between obesity and psychological distress. RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES: One hundred ten men and women in a residential weight control facility completed the Multidimensional Body Self-Relations Questionnaire, the Beck Depression Inventory, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the Binge Eating Scale. RESULTS: For both men and women, body-image satisfaction partially mediated the relationship between degree of overweight and depression/self-esteem. DISCUSSION: Sociodemographic factors that may influence the relationships among weight, body image, and depression/self-esteem are discussed.