Patterns and Implications of Values Similarity, Accuracy, and Relationship Closeness between Emerging Adults and Mothers.

This study evaluated associations between similarity in personal values, accuracy of values perceptions, and relationship closeness among emerging adults and their mothers (dyads = 99). Contrary to previous studies, values similarity and accuracy were largely unrelated to relationship closeness. This was reinforced by Latent Profile Analysis (LPA), which revealed three unique patterns of values similarity, values accuracy, and closeness between emerging adults and mothers: 1) high relationship closeness, similar values and accurate perceptions; 2) moderate relationship closeness, dissimilar values and inaccurate perceptions; and 3) low relationship closeness but similar values and accurate perceptions. Subsequent analyses revealed different implications for emerging adults' wellbeing from different profiles. Emerging adults from the subgroup with low relationship closeness but high values similarity and values accuracy had more problematic drinking behaviors than the other profiles and lower positive affect.

Investigating the efficacy of a self-directed parenting intervention to reduce risky behaviors among college students: Study protocol for a multi-arm hybrid type 2 randomized control trial.

BACKGROUND: Early adulthood is a critical developmental period when many youth transition from living at home to the relative autonomy of college. This transition results in increased opportunity for positive growth and identity development - and for risky substance use and sexual behaviors. Parents continue to influence young adult behavior even from a distance; however, few studies have rigorously tested parent-college student interventions. METHODS: This multi-arm hybrid type 2 trial tests the short- and long-term efficacy of a self-directed handbook for parents of first-year college students. In the summer before college, parent-student dyads are randomly assigned to one of three conditions: control, Parent Handbook, or Parent Handbook Plus. Handbook parents receive encouragement via phone calls to read the handbook and complete activities with their student before leaving for college. Handbook Plus parents also receive booster messages targeted at risky or stressful times. Participants complete surveys of intervention-targeted knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors at baseline and four months after baseline. Students complete three additional surveys at nine, 16, and 21 months after baseline. Dyads in the intervention conditions also reported on handbook utilization, perceived usefulness, and engagement with intervention materials. DISCUSSION: Self-directed family interventions may be a feasible strategy for involving parents of college students. This trial aimed to determine: 1) the efficacy of a self-directed handbook intervention for parents of first-year college students, including whether the addition of periodic booster messages enhanced efficacy; and 2) how variations in handbook utilization, perceived usefulness, and engagement were linked to student outcomes.

PREDICTORS AND IMPLICATIONS OF VALUES CLARITY IN FIRST-YEAR COLLEGE STUDENTS.

The importance of clarifying personal values has gained popularity in brief interventions recently, but little is known about factors that predict clarity in values or the benefits of values clarity in non-clinical populations. First-year college students and their mothers (99 dyads) completed an online survey where they rated the importance of 20 values and students indicated how they thought their mothers would rate each value. An overall values clarity score was created for both dyad members by taking the mean across the 20 values. Students reported their alcohol use in the past 30 days and their emotional wellbeing. Results revealed that students who perceived their mothers to have strong values clarity reported having greater values clarity themselves and consistent with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) principles, students with higher values clarity scores reported drinking less frequently, fewer instances of binge drinking, and greater positive affect.

Investigating the Relationship between University Students' Psychological Flexibility and College Self-Efficacy.

For many, college is a period of transition, marked with acute stress, threats to success, and decreases in self-efficacy. For certain groups of students, the risk of these poor outcomes is elevated. In this study, 348 students from a large residential university in the western United States were surveyed to understand the role of psychological flexibility and inflexibility on self-efficacy and the potential moderating impact of year in college and underrepresented racial minority (URM) status. Results indicated that students who are psychologically flexible reported greater college self-efficacy, whereas students who are psychologically inflexible reported lower college self-efficacy. The impact of psychological inflexibility on self-efficacy was moderated by URM status and year in school; psychological inflexibility had a stronger impact on URM students' self-efficacy than non-minority students, and psychological inflexibility had a greater effect on college students starting college as opposed to students who had been enrolled for multiple years.

An exploration of engagement and effectiveness of an online values affirmation.

Brief social-psychological interventions, like the values affirmation (VA), that target individual feelings of competency and buffer against social threats, have been shown to effectively reduce achievement gaps in randomised controlled trials. In the current study, underrepresented minority and first-generation college students in their first university semester (N = 496) were randomly assigned to receive the VA electronically or complete an online survey (control). Results revealed: (a) VA participants did not engage with the intervention in a manner typical of past VA studies that delivered the intervention as a class activity; (b) VA students had lower semester grade point averages (GPAs) than control students; and (c) contrary to previous studies, neither stereotype threat nor social belonging moderated the effectiveness of the VA. These findings further emphasise the importance of the context within which the VA is delivered and highlight the challenges that accompany increasing the reach of the VA through a widespread, online delivery.

Moving Beyond Drinking to Have a Good Time: a Person-Centered Approach to Identifying Reason Typologies in Legal-Aged College Student Drinkers.

Alcohol use, reasons for use, and consequences of use continue to be a major concern in college student populations. This is especially true for students of legal drinking age who may experience different reasons for and greater negative consequences of alcohol use than students under 21 years old. Although multiple studies have used person-centered approaches to understand motivations for and ultimately prevent alcohol use, few have identified multiple typologies of reasons for alcohol use. The current study used latent class analysis to identify homogeneous subtypes of reasons for alcohol use and how classification was associated with alcohol-related consequences in college students aged 21 years old and older (N = 2300) from the 2013 Indiana College Substance Use Survey. Four profiles of reasons for alcohol use emerged across males and females: social drinkers, feel good drinkers, relaxed escaping drinkers, and emotion coping drinkers. Although the likelihood of consequences differed across gender, the emotion coping drinkers were more likely to experience all negative consequences, suggesting that it was a high-risk class. In general, this pattern of risk continued with the feel good drinkers and female relaxed escaping drinkers. These results can help optimize college substance use prevention and intervention efforts to (1) identify and understand characteristics of high- and low-risk student drinkers and (2) tailor the content of interventions to those specific profiles resulting in more effective approaches to reducing alcohol use.

Motivating effort: a theoretical synthesis of the self-sufficiency and two-market theories.

We conducted two experimental studies to examine the effect of introducing social and monetary incentives on participants' (1) effort and (2) willingness to participate in a study. We found that extra credit invoked both communal sharing (CS, social reward) and market pricing (MP, monetary reward) schemas, thus leading to higher willingness to participate and greater effort in an experiment compared to an equivalent cash reward. Consistent with the potential combinational nature of different labour markets proposed by the relational theory, our results suggest that the labour market framework of monetary versus social incentive is not mutually exhaustive of all types of incentive, and the combinational effect created by introducing both labour markets may be the best motivator.

Involvement in internet aggression during early adolescence.

The current study examined concurrent and longitudinal predictors of early adolescents' involvement in Internet aggression. Cross-sectional results (N = 330; 57% female) showed that the likelihood of reporting Internet aggression was higher among youth who spent more time using Internet-based technologies to communicate with friends and who were themselves targets of Internet aggression. Offline relational aggression and beliefs supportive of relational and physical aggression also predicted concurrent involvement in Internet aggression. We used longitudinal data (N = 150; 51% female) to distinguish between youth who were aggressive in traditional contexts only (i.e., school) from those who were aggressive both online and offline. These results indicated that youth who were aggressive both online and offline were older at the initial assessment, were targets of Internet aggression, and held beliefs more supportive of relational aggression than youth who were aggressive offline only. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

How do parents learn about adolescents' experiences? Implications for parental knowledge and adolescent risky behavior.

Cluster analysis was used to identify groups defined by the patterning of fathers' and mothers' sources of knowledge about adolescents' experiences in a sample of 179 families with adolescents (M = 16.5 years). Three clusters emerged for fathers (relational, relies on spouse, relies on others) and mothers (relational, questioners, relies on others). Cluster membership was associated with socioeconomic status, work hours, personal characteristics, and parent-child relationship quality. Longitudinal path analyses revealed that knowledge sources predicted levels of knowledge, which in turn predicted risky behavior 1 year later, indirect paths that were more consistent for fathers than for mothers. Although direct associations between sources of knowledge and subsequent risky behavior were scant, when fathers relied on spouses, youth engaged in less risky behavior.