Perceived Gender Match and Accepting Alcohol Offers From Peers in Emerging Adulthood.

AIMS: Emerging adulthood (ages 18-25) has been associated with elevated alcohol use, yet little is known regarding gender identity and drinking contexts in this population. Our goals were to examine the effects of perceived gender match on alcohol use decision-making in social settings among emerging adults. METHODS: Participants (N = 135; 64% white, 11 transgender) completed measures of alcohol consumption, alcohol expectancies and motives, and the Collegiate-Simulated Intoxication Digital Elicitation using an established Internet panel. We conducted a series of univariate analyses to examine the relation between perceived gender match and behavioral willingness (BW) to accept alcohol in a social context. RESULTS: Participants identifying as men were significantly more likely to accept offers of alcohol when compared with women. While men and women did not differ in terms of BW when participants perceived a gender-matched actor making the offer, when there was a gender mismatch, women had significantly lower BW when compared with men. Though transgender participants were more likely to endorse hazardous drinking behaviors, there were no observable effects of transgender identity on BW. CONCLUSION: In this sample, we found that men have a higher BW for alcohol than women and that trans identified persons are at increased risk for alcohol misuse. These findings support the need for more research examining the effect of gender identity on patterns of alcohol use and decision-making in mixed-gender contexts for emerging adults.

The interaction between parental behavior and motivations to drink alcohol in high school students.

BACKGROUND: Alcohol use during adolescence has been predicted by motives to drink or abstain, as well as parental attitudes to youth drinking. As peers can provide access and opportunities to drink, permissiveness of peers' parents toward alcohol is also of importance. OBJECTIVES: We examined whether adolescent alcohol use is predicted by motives to drink or abstain, strictness of one's own parents, alcohol permissiveness by peers' parents, and an interaction between these factors. METHOD: A sample of high school students from the Pacific Northwest (N = 1056; 49% girls; mage = 15.6) completed alcohol use and parenting measures, the Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised, and the Motives for Abstaining from Alcohol Questionnaire. A zero-inflated negative binomial regression model examined the combined influence of motives, parent's strictness, and peer's parents' permissiveness on past month use. RESULTS: Parental permissiveness was associated with higher rates of drinking among students with low (but not high) conformity motives and motives to abstain. Higher parental permissiveness was associated with higher rates of drinking among students with low (but not high) coping motives. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate that parental strictness regarding teen alcohol use extends beyond the family unit to influence adolescent drinking in the broader social network. Parents may have a limited capacity to deter drinking through setting rules and expectations for adolescents who are motived to drink to conform but such limit setting maybe particularly helpful for youth with fewer motives to abstain.

Inaccuracies in survey reporting of alcohol consumption.

BACKGROUND: Alcohol consumption estimates in public health predominantly rely on self-reported survey data which is likely to underestimate consumption volume. Surveys tend to ask specifically about standard drinks and provide a definition or guide in an effort to gather accurate estimates. This study aimed to investigate whether the inclusion of the term standard drinks with pictorial guide is associated with an adjustment in self-reported alcohol volume. METHODS: A web-based survey was administered with AUDIT-C questions repeated at the beginning and end of the survey with and without the standard drink term and guide. The order in which respondents were presented with the different question types was randomised. Two cohorts of university/college students in NSW Australia (n = 122) and the US Pacific Northwest (n = 285) completed the survey online. RESULTS: Australian students did not adjust their responses to questions with and without the standard drink term and pictorial guide. The US students were more likely to adjust their responses based on the detail of the question asked. Those US students who drank more frequently and in greater volume were less likely to adjust/apply a conversion to their consumption. CONCLUSIONS: This study supports previous findings of the inaccuracy of alcohol consumption volume in surveys, but also demonstrates that an assumption of underestimation cannot be applied to all individual reports of consumption. Using additional questions to better understand drink types and serving sizes is a potential approach to enable accurate calculation of underestimation in survey data.

Drinking refusal self-efficacy: Impacts on outcomes from a multi-site early intervention trial.

This study examines relationships between drink refusal self-efficacy (DRSE) and outcomes in Project Options (PO), an adolescent alcohol use early intervention. 1171 US high school students (39.3% Hispanic, 59.3% girls) participated in PO, reporting their demographics, alcohol use, and drinking reduction efforts at baseline, 30 days and three months later. Items from the Drug Taking Confidence Questionnaire for Adolescents (DTCQ-A) assessed DRSE. DRSE corresponded negatively with drinking at 30 days and, among drinkers, predicted fewer use reduction attempts at 30 days and three months. Results indicate that, unlike in treatment settings, DRSE may not correspond to improved early intervention outcomes.

The Spirit Is Willing, But the Flesh is Weak: Why Young People Drink More Than Intended on Weekend Nights-An Event-Level Study.

BACKGROUND: Heavy alcohol use is common among young adults on weekend nights and is assumed to be intentional. However, little is known about the extent to which heavy consumption is planned prior to the onset of drinking and what factors contribute to drinking more than intended. This study investigates drinking intentions at the beginning of an evening and individual and situational factors associated with a subsequent consumption over the course of multiple nights. METHODS: Using a smartphone application, 176 young people aged 16 to 25 (mean age = 19.1; 49% women) completed questionnaires on drinking intentions, consumption, and drinking environments before, during, and after multiple Friday and Saturday nights (n = 757). Multilevel regressions were used to investigate individual-level and night-level factors associated with previous drinking intentions and subsequent deviations from intentions. RESULTS: Participants intended to consume 2.5 drinks (SD = 2.8) per night yet consumed 3.8 drinks (SD = 3.9) on average. Drinking intentions were higher among those who frequently went out at night and engaged in more frequent predrinking. Participants drank more than intended on 361 nights (47.7%). For both genders, the number of drinks consumed before 8 pm, attending multiple locations, and being with larger groups of friends contributed to higher consumption than intended at the individual and the night levels. Heavier consumption than intended also occurred when drinking away from home for men and when going to nightclubs for women. CONCLUSIONS: Making young adults aware of the tendency to drink more than intended, particularly when drinking begins early in the evening, moves from location to location, and includes large groups of friends, may be a fruitful prevention target. Structural measures, including responsible beverage service, may also help in preventing excessive drinking at multiple locations.

Impact of Ethnic Composition on Mechanisms of Change in School-Based Substance Use Intervention Groups.

Delivering alcohol use intervention services in the school setting represents a key approach to engaging youth of all backgrounds, particularly underserved populations, in such programming. Relative progress has been made toward implementing culturally responsive services for youth; however, little is known about the role of ethnic composition on group processes purported to underlie mechanisms of change. We examined associations between ethnic group composition and therapeutic processes within a voluntary, school-based alcohol use intervention at seven schools across three cities (N groups = 353). Ethnic composition was characterized as: group ethnic diversity on a continuum, group ethnic homogeneity (i.e., where at least 66% of participants shared the same ethnicity), and comparing groups where one of the three largest ethnicities in the sample reached the majority (i.e., African-American vs. Hispanic vs. non-Hispanic white). Ratings on group processes were obtained from participants (satisfaction; belonging), facilitators (empathy; rapport), and coders (engagement; responsiveness). Mixed-effects models revealed that students in groups with African-American and Hispanic majorities reported a higher sense of satisfaction compared to groups with non-Hispanic white majorities. Facilitators endorsed expressing empathy more frequently with majority African-American and Hispanic groups than with non-Hispanic white groups. Study findings highlight the importance of considering different dimensions of ethnic composition when examining mechanisms of change in group intervention research.

Feasibility and Reliability of a Coding System to Capture In-Session Group Behavior in Adolescents.

Limited research has explored the role of in-session behavior during motivational enhancement (ME) in group formats. The current study presents initial feasibility of assessing behavior of high school students (N = 425) attending Project Options, a voluntary secondary drug and alcohol prevention program utilizing ME techniques. Building on previous research exploring client language supporting/opposing health behavior, student group behavior was coded live at the specific utterance and global level; group leader behavior was also coded globally. Interrater reliability of the coding system was assessed, and preliminary validity of the coding system was examined by exploring associations between characteristics of group members and in-session group behavior. Initial reliability estimates were excellent for the specific behavior codes. Reliability of the global codes was mixed, with raters demonstrating good reliability on support for unhealthy behavior, opposition to unhealthy behavior, and support for healthy behavior. Reliability of the group leader codes was fair to poor. Greater percent healthy talk was associated with a lower percentage of group members reporting lifetime alcohol use. The results of the current study suggest that some in-session behavior at the group level can be coded reliably via live observation and that in-session behavior at the group level is associated with alcohol use prior to attending the program. Future research is needed to explore the utility of in-session behavior in terms of predicting future behavior at the group and individual level.

Marijuana use/cessation expectancies and marijuana use in college students.

BACKGROUND: Research suggests that marijuana expectancies are associated with problematic marijuana use; however, these marijuana-related cognitions remain relatively understudied. OBJECTIVE: This study examined marijuana-related decision-making among college students by exploring the relationships among marijuana expectancies and marijuana use variables. METHOD: College students (N = 357) endorsing lifetime marijuana use completed an online survey on marijuana use expectancies, marijuana cessation expectancies, marijuana use, and future marijuana use intentions. A simple regression framework was used to test the effect of each type of expectancies on marijuana outcome; a hierarchical regression framework tested the unique predictive validity when both types were entered into the same model. RESULTS: Both marijuana use expectancies and marijuana cessation expectancies independently predicted a number of marijuana use variables. Additionally, marijuana use expectancies and marijuana cessation expectancies contributed significant unique variance to the prediction of marijuana use. CONCLUSIONS: It is important to consider both use expectancies and cessation expectancies, as these two domains of marijuana-related cognitions appear to act independently, rather than as opposite ends of the same construct. Longitudinal studies are needed to further examine how these factors interact to influence marijuana use and problems over time.

Marijuana motivations across adolescence: impacts on use and consequences.

UNLABELLED: Background. Motivational models for marijuana use have focused on reasons to use marijuana, but rarely consider motives to abstain. OBJECTIVES: We examined how both adolescent marijuana abstinence motives and use motives contribute to marijuana use and problems at the end of emerging adulthood. Methods. 434 community recruited youth who had not initiated marijuana use at baseline were followed from adolescence (at ages 12, 15, and 18 years) into emerging adulthood (age 25 years). Motives to abstain and to use marijuana, marijuana consumption, and marijuana-related problems were assessed across time. Results. Endorsing more motives to abstain from marijuana across adolescence predicted less marijuana use in emerging adulthood and fewer marijuana-related problems when controlling for past motives to abstain and marijuana-related behavior. Positive reinforcement use motives related to increased marijuana consumption and problems, and negative reinforcement motives predicted problems when controlling for past marijuana use motives and behaviors. Expansion motives during adolescence related to lower marijuana use in emerging adulthood. When considered together, motives to abstain buffered the effect of negative reinforcement motives on outcomes at age 25 for youth endorsing a greater number of abstinence motives. Conclusions/ Implications. Given these findings, inclusion of both motives to use and abstain is warranted within comprehensive models of marijuana use decision making and may provide important markers for prevention and intervention specialists.

Marijuana use, motives, and change intentions in adolescents.

Research typically focuses on motives to use or abstain from marijuana (MJ) in isolation; few studies have integrated both constructs in models of MJ use decision making. We expand the existing literature by integrating these motives in cognitive models of use and cessation in adolescents. We expected use motives to account for past use and intentions for future use, and for motives to abstain to dominate models explaining intention, desire, and self-efficacy for quitting. Adolescent MJ users (N = 162) reported their use and abstinence motives as well as their use and cessation behavior via online survey conducted in high schools. Past use was related to high conformity and low coping, while past cessation attempts were related to high enhancement motives. Intentions to use were related to low negative consequences and conformity, and high enhancement and expansion motives to use. Quitting intention was related to social motives to use, as was quitting self-efficacy. Self-efficacy was also related to high personal/peer beliefs motives to abstain. While past MJ use and intended future use were almost exclusively accounted for by use motives, both motives to use and abstain impacted self-reported cognitions associated with cessation in this sample of adolescent MJ users.

Gamification and motivation: Impact on delay discounting performance.

Delay discounting is a phenomenon strongly associated with impulsivity. However, in order for a measured discounting rate in an experiment to meaningfully generalize to choices made elsewhere in life, participants must provide thoughtful, engaged answers during the assessment. Classic discounting tasks may not optimize intrinsic motivation or enjoyment, and a participant who is disengaged from the task is likely to behave in a way that provides a biased estimate of their discounting function. We assessed degree of delay discounting in a task intended to vary level of participant motivation. This was accomplished by introducing varying levels of gamification, the application of game design principles to a non-game context. Experiment 1 compared three versions of the delay discounting task with differing degrees of gamification and compared performance and task enjoyment across those variations, while Experiment 2 used two conditions (one gamified, one not). Participants found more gamified versions of the task more enjoyable than the other conditions, without producing substantial between-group differences in most cases. Thus, more polished task gameplay can provide a more enjoyable experience for participants without undermining delay discounting effects commonly reported in the literature. We also found that in all experimental conditions, higher levels of interest in or enjoyment of the task tended to be associated with more rapid discounting. This may suggest that low task motivation may result in less impulsive choice and suggests that participants who find delay discounting experiments sufficiently boring may bias assessments of value across delays.

Motives to drink or not to drink: longitudinal relations among personality, motives, and alcohol use across adolescence and early adulthood.

BACKGROUND: Adolescent selective intervention programs for alcohol have focused on the identification of youth at risk as a function of personality and associated alcohol-related cognitions. Research into the role of personality, drinking motivations, and alcohol-related outcomes has generally focused exclusively on motives to drink. We expand on this literature by focusing on both motives to drink and motives not to drink across time from adolescence to early adulthood in a community sample. METHODS: Using 3 waves of data from 3 cohorts from the Rutgers Health and Human Development Project (n = 1,380; 49.4% women), we modeled the influence of baseline alcohol consumption, disinhibition (DIS), and harm avoidance (ages 15, 18, and 21 years) on drinking motives and motives not to drink 3 years later (ages 18, 21, and 24 years) and alcohol use and drinking-related problems 7 years subsequently (ages 25, 28, and 31 years). RESULTS: Path analytic models were relatively invariant across cohort. Across cohorts, DIS and baseline alcohol consumption related to later positive reinforcement drinking motives, but less consistency was found for the prediction of negative reinforcement motives to drink. While positive reinforcement motives were associated with greater alcohol consumption and problems 7 years later, negative reinforcement motives were generally associated with problems alone. Positive reinforcement motives for drinking mediated relations between baseline consumption and later consumption. However, results were mixed when considering DIS as a predictor and drinking problems as an outcome. Similarly, personality and baseline consumption related to later motives not to drink and such motives predicted subsequent alcohol-related problems. However, mediation was not generally supported for pathways through motives to abstain. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study replicate and extend previous longitudinal findings with youth and add to the growing literature on motivations not to engage in alcohol use.

Alcohol and Other Drug Use in Middle School: The Interplay of Gender, Peer Victimization, and Supportive Social Relationships.

The current study examined the impact of supportive social relationships (i.e., teacher support, adult support, school relatedness) and peer victimization on middle school students' substance use. Over 3,000 middle school students reported on alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use, supportive social relationships, and instances in which they were the victim of aggressive behavior. Mixed-effects logit regression analyses revealed complementary patterns of results across types of substances. Students who perceived high levels of social support were less likely to report alcohol and drug use initiation, particularly at low levels of peer victimization. Gender moderated the negative effect of peer victimization, with highly victimized boys most likely to report alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use. Results indicated a complex interplay of social influences and moderating variables in predicting early onset alcohol and other drug use, one that researchers should consider when studying adolescents' decisions to use alcohol and other drugs.

Measures of self-reported identity associated with sex and gender: Relations with collegiate drinking.

OBJECTIVE: Quantitative research has typically relied on categorical measures of sex assigned at birth (SAAB) and gender, with heterogeneous findings in terms of their associations with alcohol-related behavior. This investigation examined continuous indices of self-identification as an alternative to categorical operationalizations in alcohol research. METHOD: Eight hundred ninety-three undergraduate students (74.6% cisgender women, 20.3% cisgender men, 3.9% nonbinary, and 1.2% transgender), recruited from the Midwest and Pacific Northwest of the United States, completed online measures of SAAB (male/female), gender (categorical), continuous indices of identification (femaleness, maleness, and bidirectional), and alcohol consumption (Cahalan Indices; Daily Drinking Questionnaire-Revised; Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test [AUDIT]). RESULTS: Novel continuous measures of identification were associated with categorical indices of SAAB and gender as predicted. While none of the self-identification indices (continuous or categorical) predicted current drinking (consumption in the past 30 days), they evidenced relatively consistent, albeit small effects, across quantity-frequency of drinking and AUDIT scores for current drinkers. Higher scores on maleness and bidirectional indices of identification were associated with greater consumption, while greater endorsement of femaleness and being a cisgender woman (vs. a cisgender man) were related to less drinking. CONCLUSIONS: Continuous self-reported identification items performed well when describing drinking behavior in college students. The inclusion of dimensional scales of identity broadens our ability to capture differing self-conceptualizations in research.

Examination of social smoking classifications using a machine learning approach.

INTRODUCTION: Idiosyncratic definitions of social smoking proliferate in the literature, making cross-study comparison challenging. This project investigated and differentiated four distinct classifications of social smoking using traditional modeling techniques as well as a multilayer perceptron artificial network, a novel machine learning approach suited for heterogeneous, multidimensional data. METHODS: One hundred thirty-three adults recruited from a college in the Pacific Northwest and from Amazon Mechanical Turk, age 18 to 25 (48% men; 37% women; 8% nonbinary; 73% white; 24% Hispanic or Latinx), completed a set of self-report measures assessing common variables associated with cigarette use. Participants also completed a well-validated audio simulation (Smoking-Simulated Intoxication Digital Elicitation) depicting social smoking contexts and reported their willingness to use cigarettes or alcohol in these contexts. RESULTS: Across three of the four social smoking definitions, social smokers consistently scored lower on measures of dependence, frequency, quantity, willingness to smoke, and all use motives than nonsocial smokers. The area under the curve for all four models ranged from excellent to outstanding discrimination within the training set. Frequency of days smoked in the past month was the most important predictor for three of the classification models with a relative importance of 100%. CONCLUSION: The social smoking definitions demonstrated great variability across common cigarette use variables between groups, except for one. The machine learning approach successfully differentiated all four classifications. Recommendations are made for which social smoker classifications to use in subsequent research to maximize appropriate endorsement by the target population.

Comparison of CBD and Cannabis Use Motives.

Cannabidiol, also known as CBD, has increasingly gained popularity as a cure-all product and is now found in products across a variety of industries. Despite the surge in popularity, little remains known about individual motives and patterns of CBD use. The goal of this study was to gain a better understanding of the similarities and differences between motives for CBD and cannabis use as well as comparing motives for younger and older users. Participants (N= 171) in U.S. states and territories with legalized cannabis for recreational use were recruited via Amazon MTurk and were asked to complete an anonymous survey assessing their CBD and cannabis use, effects, and motives for use. The greatest differences between self-reported CBD and cannabis use were for side effect profiles. While the recreational use motive was more commonly endorsed for cannabis, use for beauty purposes was more common for CBD. No age group differences emerged for motives to use CBD or cannabis. Future research examining age-related differences in a larger, more age-diverse samples is recommended.

Social Anxiety, Cannabis Use Motives, and Social Context's Impact on Willingness to Use Cannabis.

Social anxiety is often purported to be a risk factor for increased cannabis use. Cannabis use motives are strong explanatory predictors of cannabis use embedded within social contexts. This investigation explored the impact of social anxiety, cannabis motives, and their interaction on willingness to use cannabis in a community sample of emerging adults. Social anxiety was anticipated to positively correlate with coping and conformity motives and greater willingness to use cannabis in peer social contexts. Motives to use were hypothesized to potentiate social anxiety's influence on cannabis use decision-making. In total, 124 participants completed an audio simulation of social cannabis use contexts (Can-SIDE) and standard measures of social anxiety (SIAS) and use motives (MMM). Contrary to expectations, social anxiety exerted a protective effect on willingness to use cannabis, but only when conformity, social, and expansion motives were at or below average. These effects varied by social contexts of use. Social anxiety leading to increased cannabis use may be most apparent in clinical samples and in high-risk cannabis users, but this pattern was not supported in this sample of community living emerging adults below clinical cutoffs for cannabis use disorder with relatively high social anxiety.

An experimental investigation of peer rejection and social anxiety on alcohol and cannabis use willingness: Accounting for social contexts and use cues in the laboratory.

OBJECTIVE: Evidence suggests that social anxiety (SA) is a risk factor for problematic alcohol and cannabis use, particularly during states of social stress. Unfortunately, laboratory studies to date have overlooked decision-making mechanisms (e.g., use willingness) and contextual features of commonly used social stress tasks that may clarify what is driving these links. The current study begins to address this gap by testing the effects of SA and laboratory-induced peer rejection on acute alcohol and cannabis use willingness within a simulated party setting. METHOD: 80 emerging adults (18-25 years; 70% women) endorsing lifetime alcohol and cannabis use were randomly assigned to experience rejection or neutral social cues. They rated their willingness to use alcohol and cannabis before and after cue exposure within the simulated party. A hierarchical regression tested the main and interaction effects of SA symptoms and experimental condition (Rejection vs. Neutral) on alcohol and cannabis use willingness, controlling for past-year use frequency and willingness to accept any offers (e.g., food and nonalcoholic drinks). RESULTS: There were statistically significant main (but not interaction) effects of SA and experimental condition on cannabis use willingness. Higher SA and Rejection exposure were each associated with greater cannabis use willingness. There were neither main nor interaction effects on alcohol willingness. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that elevated SA increases cannabis use willingness across social contexts, regardless of Rejection exposure, while Rejection exposure increases use willingness similarly across levels of SA. Together, findings reinforce the need to consider social-contextual factors and polysubstance use in laboratory settings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Development of the A-DISS rejection task to demonstrate the unique and overlapping affective features of social anxiety and depression.

BACKGROUND: Social anxiety (SA) and depression are prevalent, often comorbid disorders, associated with poor psychosocial functioning. Experimental psychopathology approaches can clarify the transdiagnostic mechanisms underlying these disorders, but most laboratory tasks are limited. We developed and validated the Audio-Dialogue Inductions of Social Stress (A-DISS) experimental task to model real-time rejection sensitivity in a realistic and developmentally relevant context. Participants are asked to imagine overhearing peers at a party talking badly about them (Rejection) or a teacher at their school (Neutral). METHODS: Study 1 focused on identifying and refining stimuli that elicited relevant emotional responses for Rejection (e.g., increased anxiety) and Neutral (e.g., no emotional changes) conditions (N=48). Study 2 examined whether participants' SA and depression symptoms moderated the effects of A-DISS condition (N=52). RESULTS: The Rejection condition elicited higher negative affect/lower positive affect while the Neutral condition sustained stable affect. Findings were consistent across gender and race/ethnicity. Moderation analyses were statistically significant; participants with elevated SA or depression reported feeling more rejected, insecure, and anxious after Rejection than those with below average symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Findings provide preliminary validation of a novel peer rejection task for research on understanding the affective experience of real-time rejection overall, especially for those with elevated SA and depression. SA and depression symptoms each uniquely moderating the effects of Rejection exposure on similar affective states, suggests individuals with SA or depression may benefit from interventions targeting specific reactions to rejection/stress and transdiagnostic risk factors.

Middle School Drinking: Who, Where, and When.

The goal of this research was to describe the most common drinking situations for young adolescents (N=1171; 46.6% girls), as well as determine predictors of their drinking in the seventh and eighth grades. Middle school students most frequently drank at parties with three to four teens, in their home or at a friend's home, and reported alcohol-related problems including conflicts with friends or parents, memory loss, nausea, and doing things they would not normally do. Differences emerged in predicting higher levels of drinking on the basis of sex, race, grade, positive alcohol expectancies, impulsivity, and peer drinking. These findings suggest both specific and general factors are implicated in drinking for middle school students. Contextual factors, including drinking alone, in public places, and at or near school, are characteristic of the most problematic alcohol involvement in middle school and may have utility in prevention and early intervention.