Alcohol use during the COVID-19 pandemic: gender, parenthood, intimate partner violence, and stress.

Some preliminary work during the COVID-19 pandemic indicates that adult alcohol use increased, particularly for parents. This cross-sectional study examined the quantity and frequency of adults' alcohol use during the early stages of the pandemic. Additionally, the influences of gender, parenthood, COVID-19-related stressors and intimate partner violence (IPV) on alcohol consumption were examined. The sample consisted of 298 adults (98 parents) from across the United States who completed self-report surveys through Qualtrics at the beginning of the pandemic in May 2020. In the present study, all men reported higher levels of drinking compared to all women. Although stress levels did not impact alcohol consumption, findings indicate that increased IPV experiences were associated with higher levels of heavy drinking during the pandemic. Results also suggested that having children in the home particularly impacted drinking levels during the pandemic, above and beyond the influence of gender, IPV, and stress levels. These findings suggest that parenthood may have had a cascading influence on drinking experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Implications and recommendations for further research are discussed.

The Indirect Effect of Peritraumatic Dissociation on the Relationship Between Childhood Maltreatment and Schizotypy.

Schizotypy is a multidimensional personality construct that is understood as a vulnerability for schizophrenia, often manifesting as more subtle and attenuated symptoms, referred to as schizotypic psychopathology. It has many well-established environmental risk factors, including experiencing childhood maltreatment (CM), but the intermediary mechanisms that relate CM to schizotypic psychopathology are unclear. Prior studies have demonstrated that trait dissociation may indirectly affect the relationship between CM and schizotypic psychopathology. However, less is known about the importance of peritraumatic dissociative experiences during CM and how it relates to schizotypic symptom manifestations in young adulthood. Therefore, the present study explored the independent contributions of peritraumatic and trait dissociation in the relationship between CM and schizotypy. Participants (N = 346) were undergraduate students who completed online self-report measures on CM, trait dissociation, peritraumatic dissociation experienced during CM, and schizotypic symptoms. The indirect effect of peritraumatic dissociation and trait dissociation on the relationship between CM and schizotypy was examined using mediational analyses. Correlational analyses revealed significant associations between self-reported CM, schizotypy, trait dissociation, and peritraumatic dissociation. In addition, mediational analyses indicated a significant indirect effect of peritraumatic dissociation (ß = .06, 95% confidence interval (CI) [0.01, 0.12]), but not trait dissociation (ß = .05, 95% CI [-0.02, 0.12]), on CM and schizotypy. These results highlight peritraumatic dissociation as an important mechanism driving the expression of schizotypic symptoms among individuals with a history of CM. Understanding how trauma sequelae lead to schizotypic psychopathology may be crucial in assessing and treating individuals with maltreatment histories or those on the psychosis spectrum.

A standardised database of Chinese emotional film clips.

Film clips are widely used in emotion research due to their relatively high ecological validity. Although researchers have established various film clip sets for different cultures, the few that exist related to Chinese culture do not adequately address positive emotions. The main purposes of the present study were to establish a standardised database of Chinese emotional film clips that could elicit more categories of reported positive emotions compared to the existing databases and to expand the available film clips that can be used as neutral materials. Two experiments were conducted to construct the database. In experiment 1, 111 film clips were selected from more than one thousand Chinese movies for preliminary screening. After 315 participants viewed and evaluated these film clips, 39 excerpts were selected for further validation. In experiment 2, 147 participants watched and rated these 39 film clips, as well as another 8 excerpts chosen from the existing databases, to compare their validity. Eventually, 22 film excerpts that successfully evoked three positive emotions (joy, amusement, and tenderness), four negative emotions (moral disgust, anger, fear, and sadness), and neutrality formed the standardised database of Chinese emotional film clips.

Development and Psychometric Evaluation of a Brief Approach and Avoidance of Alcohol Questionnaire.

BACKGROUND: The Approach and Avoidance of Alcohol Questionnaire (AAAQ) was developed as a measure of craving to assess both desires to consume and desires to avoid consuming alcohol. Although the measure has been used in a variety of populations to predict future alcohol use behavior, the factor structures observed vary based on sample type (e.g., clinical vs. college samples) and may be overly long for use in repeated measures designs. The current article describes the development of a brief version of the AAAQ for use in clinical populations. METHODS: Using existing data sets of individuals in treatment for alcohol use disorder, exploratory analyses (e.g., exploratory factor analysis and item response theory) were conducted using an inpatient sample (N = 298) at a substance abuse treatment facility. Confirmatory analyses (e.g., confirmatory factor analysis and multiple regression) were conducted using an inpatient detoxification sample (N = 175) and a longitudinal outpatient treatment sample (N = 53). RESULTS: The brief AAAQ had comparable internal consistency, explained a similar amount of variance in alcohol consumption and related problems, and exhibited superior model fit as compared to the original measure. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that the brief AAAQ is an effective tool to assess alcohol craving in clinical populations in treatment settings.

Alcohol use moderates the relationship between symptoms of mental illness and aggression.

Diagnosis of mental illness (MI) inconsistently predicts aggressive behavior although co-occurrence of substance use appears to increase the frequency of aggression in MI populations. We propose that alcohol use should moderate the relationship between mental disorders marked by deficits in self-control and aggression and victimization. In the present study, alcohol use, physical aggression perpetration, physical aggression victimization, injury and psychiatric symptoms were assessed in a sample of 297 substance use disorder patients (102 women; Mage = 38.9, SD = 20.2) recruited from a residential treatment facility. Negative binomial regression analyses examined the relationship of physical aggression, victimization, and injury over the previous 12 months to symptoms of bipolar mania, psychosis, posttraumatic stress disorder, antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), and daily volume of alcohol consumed. Consistent with past research relating MI to aggression, rates of victimization were higher than rates of perpetration. Results demonstrated that alcohol use moderated the relationship of manic symptoms of bipolar disorder to perpetration of aggression and causing injury to others. Three way-interactions between gender, alcohol use, and both psychotic and ASPD symptoms were related to victimization. The combination of heavy alcohol use and increased psychotic or ASPD symptoms was related to greater victimization for women but not for men. Women with more psychotic symptoms who were heavy drinkers were also more likely to report causing injury to another person. Results were generally consistent with the multiple-thresholds model of alcohol-related aggression; however, the moderating effects of alcohol use were dependent on gender and type MI. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Alcohol, Self-Regulation and Partner Physical Aggression: Actor-Partner Effects Over a Three-Year Time Frame.

The question of how individual differences related to self-regulation interact with alcohol use patterns to predict intimate partner aggression (IPA) is examined. We hypothesized that excessive drinking will be related to partner aggression among those who have low self-regulation. In addition, we explored the extent to which differences in self-regulation in one partner may moderate the relationship between alcohol use and partner aggression. A sample of married or cohabitating community couples (N = 280) ages 18-45 was recruited according to their classification into four drinking groups: heavy drinking in both partners (n = 79), husband only (n = 80), wife only (n = 41), by neither (n = 80), and interviewed annually for 3 years. IPA, drinking, and scores on measures of negative affect, self-control, and Executive Cognitive Functioning (ECF) were assessed for both members of the couple. The Actor Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) was used to analyze longitudinal models predicting the occurrence of IPA from baseline alcohol use, negative affect, self-control and ECF. Actor self-control interacted with partner self-control such that IPA was most probable when both were low in self-control. Contrary to prediction, actors high in alcohol use and also high on self-control were more likely to engage in IPA. Partner alcohol use was predictive of actor IPA when the partner was also high in negative affect. Low partner ECF was associated with more actor IPA. These findings suggest that self-regulatory factors within both members of a couple can interact with alcohol use patterns to increase the risk for relationship aggression.

Event-Related Potentials as Biomarkers of Behavior Change Mechanisms in Substance Use Disorder Treatment.

Substance use disorders (SUDs) are one of the most prevalent psychiatric conditions and represent a significant public health concern. Substantial research has identified key processes related to reinforcement and cognition for the development and maintenance of SUDs, and these processes represent viable treatment targets for psychosocial and pharmacological interventions. Research on SUD treatments has suggested that most approaches are comparable in effectiveness. As a result, recent work has focused on delineating the underlying mechanisms of behavior change that drive SUD treatment outcome. Given the rapid fluctuations associated with the key neurocognitive processes associated with SUDs, high-temporal-resolution measures of human brain processing, namely event-related potentials (ERPs), are uniquely suited to expand our understanding of the underlying neural mechanisms of change during and after SUD treatment. The value of ERPs in the context of SUD treatment are discussed along with work demonstrating the predictive validity of ERPs as biomarkers of SUD treatment response. Example associations between multiple ERP components and psychosocial and/or pharmacological treatment outcome include the P3a and P3b (in response to neutral and substance-related cues), the attention-related negativities (e.g., N170, N200), the late positive potential, and the error-related negativity. Also addressed are limitations of the biomarker approach to underscore the need for research programs evaluating mechanisms of change. Finally, we emphasize the advantages of ERPs as indices of behavior change in SUD treatment and outline issues relevant for future directions in this context.

Drinking and driving behavior at stop signs and red lights.

Alcohol is one of the principal risk factors for motor vehicle crashes. One factor that contributes to vehicle crashes is noncompliance with stop signs and red lights. The present experiment investigated the effects of alcohol and drinking patterns on driving behavior at stop signs and red lights. 28 participants participated in drinking and simulated driving sessions during which they received a moderate dose of alcohol (0.08% BAC) or a placebo. Simulated driving tasks measured participants' driving performance at stop signs and red lights in response to each dose. Results suggested that alcohol impaired the driver control of speed and direction and prolonged their simple and complex reaction time, which were exhibited by impaired speed and lateral control, longer reaction time when the lights turned yellow, and lower deceleration towards stop signs and red lights. Visual degradation may also occur under alcohol intake. It was also suggested that alcohol impaired non-binge drinkers more severely. To be specific, higher acceleration was observed in impaired non-binge drinkers.

(Dis)similarity in Impulsivity and Marital Satisfaction: A Comparison of Volatility, Compatibility, and Incompatibility Hypotheses.

Impulsivity is negatively associated with relationship satisfaction, but whether relationship functioning is harmed or helped when both partners are high in impulsivity is unclear. The influence of impulsivity might be exacerbated (the Volatility Hypothesis) or reversed (the Compatibility Hypothesis). Alternatively, discrepancies in impulsivity might be particularly problematic (the Incompatibility Hypothesis). Behavioral and self-report measures of impulsivity were collected from a community sample of couples. Mixed effect polynomial regressions with response surface analysis provide evidence in favor of both the Compatibility Hypothesis and the Incompatibility Hypothesis, but not the Volatility Hypothesis. Mediation analyses suggest results for satisfaction are driven by perceptions of the partner's negative behavior and responsiveness. Implications for the study of both impulsivity and relationship functioning are discussed.

Two Studies of Connectedness to Parents and Suicidal Thoughts and Behavior in Children and Adolescents.

We tested hypotheses that greater connectedness to parent(s) is associated with lower risk for nonlethal suicidal thoughts and behavior (STB), termed direct protective effects, and that parent connectedness serves to moderate (lower) the risk for STB associated with psychopathology including major depressive episode (MDE), termed moderating protective effects. Independent samples of children and adolescents recruited for a multicenter study of familial alcoholism were studied. Generalized estimating equation models were used that adjusted for age, sex, and youth psychopathology variables. The sample for Study 1 was assessed at baseline and about 2- and 4-year follow-ups, with baseline characteristics of n = 921, M age = 14.3 ± 1.8 years, and 51.8% female. The sample for Study 2 was assessed at baseline and about 5-year follow-up, with baseline characteristics of n = 867, M age = 12.0 ± 3.2 years, and 51.0% female. In both studies, increased perceived connectedness to father but not mother was associated with lower risk for measures of STB, consistent with direct protective effects. In Study 1, measures of parent connectedness were associated with lower risk for STB but only for youth that did not experience MDE (or alcohol use disorder), inconsistent with moderating protective effects. Study 2 showed that connectedness to fathers was associated with lower risk for suicide plans or attempts (severe STB) but not frequent thoughts of death or dying (nonsevere STB). Improved connectedness to fathers may lower risk for STB in children and adolescents, consistent with direct protective effects. Hypotheses about moderating protective effects were not supported.

Psychometric Evaluation of the Substance Use Risk Profile Scale (SURPS) in an Inpatient Sample of Substance Users Using Cue-Reactivity Methodology.

The current project sought to examine the psychometric properties of a personality based measure (Substance Use Risk Profile Scale; SURPS: introversion-hopelessness, anxiety sensitivity, impulsivity, and sensation seeking) designed to differentially predict substance use preferences and patterns by matching primary personality-based motives for use to the specific effects of various psychoactive substances. Specifically, we sought to validate the SURPS in a clinical sample of substance users using cue reactivity methodology to assess current inclinations to consume a wide range of psychoactive substances. Using confirmatory factor analysis and correlational analyses, the SURPS demonstrated good psychometric properties and construct validity. Further, impulsivity and sensation-seeking were associated with use of multiple substances but could be differentiated by motives for use and susceptibility to the reinforcing effects of stimulants (i.e., impulsivity) and alcohol (i.e. sensation-seeking). In contrast, introversion-hopelessness and anxiety sensitivity demonstrated a pattern of use more focused on reducing negative affect, but were not differentiated based on specific patterns of use. Taken together, results suggests that among those receiving inpatient treatment for substance use disorders, the SURPS is a valid instrument for measuring four distinct personality dimensions that may be sensitive to motivational susceptibilities to specific patterns of alcohol and drug use.

Substance-induced depression and independent depression in proximal risk for suicidal behavior.

OBJECTIVE: Major depressive episodes may be substance induced or occur independent of substance use. Studies of the roles of substance-induced depression (SID) and independent depression (IND) in suicidal behavior are limited to retrospective reports. The purpose of this study was to examine proximal (i.e., acute) risk for suicide attempts associated with SID and IND. METHOD: Individuals who had attempted suicide (n = 100) and nonsuicidal controls (n = 100) matched for site were recruited from residential substance use treatment programs. Participants were ages 18 and older and screened positive for potential alcohol use disorder. Validated semistructured interviews were used to assess SID, IND, and suicide attempts. Analyses of individual-level risk for attempts were based on multivariate logistic regression that adjusted for risk factors. Population-level attributable risk (PAR) fractions for suicide attempts were also calculated to provide estimates of the percentage of attempts in the study population attributable to SID and IND, respectively. RESULTS: SID was identified in 60% of attempters and 35% of controls and IND in 13% of attempters and 3% of controls. Both variables conferred risk for suicide attempt (SID: odds ratio [OR] = 3.73, 95% CI [1.84, 7.58]; IND: OR = 10.38, 95% CI [2.48, 43.49]. PAR for suicide attempts associated with SID and IND was 0.44 and 0.12, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Both SID and IND confer proximal risk for suicide attempts after adjusting for other risk factors. SID also contributes substantial risk in this population overall. Future research should test the hypothesis that IND confers greater risk than SID at the individual level.

Parent and child psychopathology and suicide attempts among children of parents with alcohol use disorder.

Parents with psychopathology such as alcohol use disorder (AUD) that confers risk for suicide attempt (SA) may have children who are more likely to develop such psychopathology and to attempt suicide, suggesting that risk may be "transmitted" from parents to children. We examined this phenomenon during the transition from childhood to adolescence, when risk for SA increases dramatically. A cohort of 418 children were examined at average age 9.4 (range 7-14) years at enrollment (Time 1, childhood) and approximately 5 years later, prior to reaching age 18 (Time 2, adolescence). One or both biological parents, oversampled for AUD, were also interviewed. Structural equation models (SEM) examined father-child, mother-child, and either/both parent-child associations. The primary outcome was SA over follow-up among offspring, assessed at Time 2. As hypothesized, parental antisocial personality disorder predicted conduct disorder symptoms in offspring both during childhood and adolescence (parent-child model, father-child model) and maternal AUD predicted conduct disorder symptoms during childhood (mother-child model). However, we did not find evidence to support transmission of depression from parents to offspring either during childhood or adolescence, and parent psychopathology did not show statistically significant associations with SA during adolescence. In conclusion, we conducted a rare study of parent-to-child "transmission" of risk for SA that used a prospective research design, included diagnostic interviews with both parents and offspring, and examined the transition from childhood to adolescence, and the first such study in children of parents with AUD. Results provided mixed support for hypothesized parent-child associations.

Effects of heavy drinking on executive cognitive functioning in a community sample.

BACKGROUND: Deficits in several aspects of executive cognitive functioning (ECF) have been consistently associated with alcohol use disorders. Most of this research, however, has been conducted in alcohol dependent patient samples. A handful of recent studies, primarily in college students, have also reported similar deficits, but little is known about the effects of heavy drinking in adult, non-patient men and women. METHODS: A community sample (N = 560) of men and women completed a brief battery of ECF measures including measures of attentional control, cognitive flexibility, working memory and response inhibition.Quantity/frequency of alcohol and illicit drug use in the past year were also assessed. RESULTS: Regression analyses indicated that men and women with higher levels of alcohol consumption exhibited greater impairment on several ECF measures, primarily those pertaining to cognitive flexibility and response inhibition. These results remained after controlling for demographic factors such as age, gender, education, and illicit drug use. CONCLUSIONS: These findings support and extend prior work documenting the deleterious effects of heavy alcohol consumption on ECF in a community sample and specifically indicate robust effects on cognitive flexibility,psychomotor speed, and response inhibition.

GABRA2 genotype, impulsivity, and body mass.

BACKGROUND: The goal of this study was to test a hypothesis associating impulsivity with an elevated body mass index (BMI). METHODS: To this end, we examined associations of BMI with putative genetic, neurophysiological, psychiatric, and psychological indicators of impulsivity in 78 women and 74 men formerly dependent on alcohol or drugs. A second analysis was designed to test the replicability of the genetic findings in an independent sample of 109 women and 111 men with a similar history of substance dependence. RESULTS: The results of the first analysis showed that BMI was positively correlated with Total and Nonplanning Scale Scores on the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale and the number of childhood symptoms of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in women. It was also positively correlated, in women, with a GABRA2 variant previously implicated as a risk factor for substance dependence and an objective electroencephalographic feature previously associated with GABRA2 and relapse risk. The second analysis confirmed that the correlation between BMI and the substance-dependence-associated GABRA2 genotype was reliable and sex-specific. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that an elevated BMI is associated with genetic, neurophysiological, psychiatric, and psychological indicators of impulsivity. The sex difference may be explained by greater opportunities to eat and overeat, a preference for higher calorie foods, a longer duration of alcohol/drug abstinence, or previous pregnancies in women.

Husband and wife alcohol use as independent or interactive predictors of intimate partner violence.

OBJECTIVE: Men's heavy drinking has been established as a risk factor for their perpetration of intimate partner violence (IPV); however, the role of women's drinking in their perpetration of IPV is less clear. The current study examined the relative strength of husbands' and wives' alcohol use and alcohol dependence symptoms on the occurrence and frequency of husbands' and wives' IPV perpetration. METHOD: Married and cohabiting community couples (N = 280) were identified and recruited according to their classification in one of four drinking groups: heavy episodic drinking occurred in both partners (n = 79), the husband only (n = 80), the wife only (n = 41), and neither (n = 80). Husband and wife alcohol consumption, alcohol dependence symptoms, and IPV perpetration were assessed independently for both partners. RESULTS: Husband and wife consumption and alcohol dependence symptoms contributed to the likelihood and frequency of husband IPV, both independently and interactively. Husband, but not wife, alcohol dependence symptoms contributed to the occurrence of any wife IPV, although both partners' alcohol dependence symptoms predicted the frequency of wife aggression. Couples with discrepant drinking were not more likely to perpetrate IPV. CONCLUSIONS: Findings for husband IPV support previous research identifying alcohol use of both partners as a predictor. However, for wives, alcohol appears to play less of a role in IPV perpetration, perhaps reflecting that women experience less inhibition against physical aggression in their intimate relationships than do men.

Stressful life events and suicidal behavior in adults with alcohol use disorders: role of event severity, timing, and type.

BACKGROUND: Stressful life events (SLEs) play a key role in suicidal behavior among adults with alcohol use disorders (AUD), yet there are meager data on the severity of SLEs preceding suicidal behavior or the timing of such events. METHOD: Patients in residential substance use treatment who made a recent suicide attempt (cases, n=101) and non-suicidal controls matched for site (n=101) were recruited. SLEs that occurred within 30 days of the attempt and on the day of the attempt in cases were compared to SLEs that occurred in the corresponding periods in controls. SLEs were categorized by type (interpersonal, non-interpersonal) and severity (major, minor) and were dated to assess timing. Degree of planning of suicide attempts was also assessed. RESULTS: Major interpersonal SLEs conferred risk for a suicide attempt, odds ratio (95% CI)=5.50 (1.73, 17.53), p=0.005. Cases were also more likely to experience an SLE on the day of the attempt than on the corresponding day in controls, OR (95% CI)=6.05 (1.31, 28.02), p=0.021. However, cases that made an attempt on the day of a SLE did not make lower planned suicide attempts compared to other cases, suggesting that suicide attempts that are immediately preceded by SLEs cannot be assumed to be unplanned. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest the central importance of major interpersonal SLEs in risk among adults with AUD, a novel finding, and documents that SLEs may lead to suicide attempts within a short window of time (i.e., same day), a daunting challenge to prevention efforts.

Relationship-specific alcohol expectancies in couples with concordant and discrepant drinking patterns.

OBJECTIVE: Despite growing evidence that the marital problems typically attributed to heavy drinking are stronger for couples in which only one partner is a heavy drinker than in couples in which both partners are heavy drinkers, relatively little research has examined factors that may serve to maintain particular drinking configurations. The current research examines the association between the configuration of partners' drinking and relationship-specific alcohol expectancies. METHOD: Data are from an ongoing prospective study examining the effect of alcohol on executive cognitive functioning. Participant couples (n = 251) represented one of four drinking groups: concordant heavy drinkers (n = 68), heavy drinking husband (n = 79), heavy drinking wife (n = 35), and concordant abstainers/light drinkers (n = 69). As part of the study, participant couples completed a measure of relationship-specific alcohol expectancies through the mail. RESULTS: Analyses reveal that wives demonstrate greater intimacy/openness expectancies in the concordant heavy drinking group than in the other three groups, as predicted. Unexpectedly, husbands demonstrate greater intimacy/openness expectancies if either member of the couple is a heavy drinker. Additionally, couples reported stronger sexual enhancement, power/assertion, and social pleasure/fun expectancies when the wife was a heavy drinker and stronger power/assertion expectancies when the husband was a heavy drinker. CONCLUSIONS: Relationship-specific alcohol expectancies are differentially associated with the configuration of partners' drinking patterns. Wives' drinking status appears to influence relationship-specific alcohol expectancies to a greater extent than husbands' drinking status. Additional research is needed to determine the long-term effect of these associations.

The effects of binge drinking and socio-economic status on sober driving behavior.

OBJECTIVE: Drinking and driving is a primary cause of traffic fatalities and it has been suggested that binge drinkers comprise a major portion of those drivers involved in drinking and driving accidents. Although several experimental studies have investigated the driving behavior of binge drinkers (particularly college students and/or young adults) under the influence of alcohol, few studies have focused on a comparison of sober driving behavior of the general population between binge and non-binge drinkers with a consideration of drivers' income levels. In addition, these studies have not taken other potentially influential factors into account such as socio economic status. METHODS: A driving simulator study was conducted with a 2 x 2 factorial design (binge vs. non-binge drinker; low vs. high income). Sixty-two participants who were not under the influence of alcohol or drugs were asked to operate a driving simulator following traffic rules. Multiple aspects of participants' driving behaviors were measured in a sober driving situation. To control the potential effects of confounding factors, factors (e.g., age, gender, etc.) that were significantly correlated to the driving behavior were all entered into the multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) as covariates. RESULTS: Significant interaction effects were found between effects of binge drinking and income levels. Analyses indicated that binge drinkers-independent of their income levels-exhibited more speeding exceedances and longer speeding duration than those of non-binge drinkers with a high income. Individuals characterized as non-binge drinkers with a low income also exhibited more speeding behaviors. CONCLUSION: Cognitive deficits and problems in vehicle control resulting from chronic alcohol consumption may impact binge drinkers' abilities to perform adequately, even in a sober driving situation. In addition, non-binge drinkers with a low income were more prone to make unsafe choices compared to non-binge drinkers with a high income. Further implications of the results in transportation safety and alcohol addiction were also discussed.

Hostile attribution biases for relationally provocative situations and event-related potentials.

This exploratory study investigates how hostile attribution biases for relationally provocative situations may be related to neurocognitive processing using the P300 event-related potential. Participants were 112 (45 women) emerging adults enrolled in a large, public university in upstate New York. Participants completed self-report measures on relational aggression and hostile attribution biases and performed an auditory perseveration task to elicit the P300. It was found that hostile attribution biases for relational provocation situations was associated with a larger P300 amplitude above and beyond the role of hostile attribution biases for instrumental situations, relational aggression, and gender. Larger P300 amplitude is interpreted to reflect greater allocation of cognitive resources or enhanced "attending" to salient stimuli. Implications for methodological approaches to studying aggression and hostile attribution biases and for theory are discussed, as well as implications for the fields of developmental psychology and psychopathology.