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ABSTRACT: Laboratory-based experimental research has demonstrated that the pharmacological effects of alcohol can increase aggressive responding. Given mixed findings and concerns regarding task validity, however, it remains uncertain whether this effect holds constant across men and women and whether variability in subjective alcohol intoxication contributes to alcohol-related aggression. In this investigation, the authors used 4 years of event-level data in a sample of 1,775 college students (140,618 total observations) to provide a test of laboratory-derived findings on the link between alcohol and aggression in an alternative methodology. They found support for several such findings: (a) Within-person increases in alcohol intoxication, as assessed by estimated blood alcohol concentrations (eBACs), were associated with increases in the probability of aggression at the drinking-episode level; (b) this association was significantly stronger among men than among women; and (c) within-person variability and between-persons individual differences in levels of subjective alcohol intoxication were associated with aggression over and beyond eBACs. Cross-methodological replication can reduce the impact of constraints specific to experimental studies on conclusions regarding alcohol's relation with aggression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).
Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology 02/2013; · 2.58 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: College students continue to drive after drinking at alarmingly high rates. Age trends suggest that driving after drinking increases from late adolescence across the college years, largely mirroring trends in binge drinking. Relatively little research, however, has examined change over time in driving after drinking among college students or tested whether some students might be at greater risk of escalations in driving after drinking. Using a sample of 1,833 nonabstaining students who completed surveys for seven semesters across the college years, we tested whether personal (i.e., age of drinking onset, gender, risk perceptions, and sensation seeking) and contextual (i.e., college residence) factors were associated with changes in driving after drinking. Using latent growth curve modeling, we found significant individual differences in rates of change in driving after drinking. Male students and students who began drinking earlier in life increased in driving after drinking more rapidly, whereas living in on-campus housing was associated with time-specific decreases in driving after drinking. These results demonstrate the value of considering driving after drinking from a longitudinal perspective and suggest possible avenues toward preventing the public health consequences of intoxicated driving. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors 01/2012; · 2.09 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Individual differences in subjective response to alcohol, as measured by laboratory-based alcohol challenge, have been identified as a candidate phenotypic risk factor for the development of alcohol-use disorders (AUDs). Two models have been developed to explain the role of subjective response to alcohol, but predictions from the 2 models are contradictory, and theoretical consensus is lacking.
This investigation used a meta-analytic approach to review the accumulated evidence from alcohol-challenge studies of subjective response as a risk factor. Data from 32 independent samples (total N = 1,314) were aggregated to produce quantitative estimates of the effects of risk-group status (i.e., positive family history of AUDs or heavier alcohol consumption) on subjective response.
As predicted by the Low Level of Response Model (LLRM), family history-positive groups experienced reduced overall subjective response relative to family history-negative groups. This effect was most evident among men, with family history-positive men responding more than half a standard deviation less than family history-negative men. In contrast, consistent with the Differentiator Model (DM), heavier drinkers of both genders responded 0.4 standard deviations less on measures of sedation than did the lighter drinkers but nearly half a standard deviation more on measures of stimulation, with the stimulation difference appearing most prominent on the ascending limb of the blood alcohol concentration curve.
The accumulated results from 3 decades of family history comparisons provide considerable support for the LLRM. In contrast, results from typical consumption comparisons were largely consistent with predictions of the DM. The LLRM and DM may describe 2 distinct sets of phenotypic risk, with importantly different etiologies and predictions for the development of AUDs.
Alcoholism Clinical and Experimental Research 07/2011; 35(10):1759-70. · 3.34 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Although alcohol use and related problems are highly prevalent in emerging adulthood overall, college students drink somewhat more than do their peers who do not attend college. The personal or social influences underlying this difference, however, are not yet well understood. The present study examined whether personality traits (i.e., self-regulation and sensation seeking) and peer influence (i.e., descriptive drinking norms) contributed to student status differences.
At approximately age 22, 4-year college students (n = 331) and noncollege emerging adults (n = 502) completed web-based surveys, including measures of alcohol use, alcohol-related problems, personality, and social norms.
College students drank only slightly more heavily. This small difference, however, reflected personality suppression. College students were lower in trait-based risk for drinking, and accounting for traits revealed a stronger positive association between attending college and drinking more heavily. Although noncollege emerging adults reported greater descriptive drinking norms for social group members, norms appeared to more strongly influence alcohol use among college students. Finally, despite drinking less, noncollege individuals experienced more alcohol-related problems.
The association between attending college and drinking heavily may be larger than previously estimated, and it may be masked by biased selection into college as a function of both self-regulation and sensation seeking. Differing patterns of alcohol use, its predictors, and its consequences emerged for the college and noncollege samples, suggesting that differing intervention strategies may best meet the needs of each population.
Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs 07/2011; 72(4):622-32. · 2.25 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Heavy episodic drinking is strongly associated with driving after drinking, yet there has been mixed evidence regarding whether the disinhibiting effects of alcohol intoxication contribute to the decision to drive after drinking. This investigation tested whether greater alcohol intoxication increased the probability of driving after drinking particularly during drinking episodes in which students experienced reduced subjective feelings of intoxication. A sample of 1,350 college students completed up to 30 days of web-based daily diary monitoring in each of 4 consecutive years. Participants reported daily on their alcohol consumption, subjective intoxication, and whether they drove after drinking on the previous day or night. In generalized estimating equation models, daily estimated blood alcohol concentration (eBAC) was more strongly associated with driving after drinking during episodes in which subjective intoxication was lower. That is, students were most likely to drive after drinking when they were objectively more intoxicated but perceived themselves as less intoxicated. These event-level associations did not change over time nor did they differ as a function of gender. Further, the effects persisted when predicting driving at eBACs above the legal limit for operating a motor vehicle. Greater subjective intoxication may serve to inhibit driving after drinking, particularly when students are objectively more intoxicated. In the absence of subjective intoxication, however, other salient pressures might impel driving after drinking. Prevention efforts should incorporate the importance of variability in subjective intoxication. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors 06/2011; 26(3):384-92. · 2.09 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Intelligence tests are widely assumed to measure maximal intellectual performance, and predictive associations between intelligence quotient (IQ) scores and later-life outcomes are typically interpreted as unbiased estimates of the effect of intellectual ability on academic, professional, and social life outcomes. The current investigation critically examines these assumptions and finds evidence against both. First, we examined whether motivation is less than maximal on intelligence tests administered in the context of low-stakes research situations. Specifically, we completed a meta-analysis of random-assignment experiments testing the effects of material incentives on intelligence-test performance on a collective 2,008 participants. Incentives increased IQ scores by an average of 0.64 SD, with larger effects for individuals with lower baseline IQ scores. Second, we tested whether individual differences in motivation during IQ testing can spuriously inflate the predictive validity of intelligence for life outcomes. Trained observers rated test motivation among 251 adolescent boys completing intelligence tests using a 15-min "thin-slice" video sample. IQ score predicted life outcomes, including academic performance in adolescence and criminal convictions, employment, and years of education in early adulthood. After adjusting for the influence of test motivation, however, the predictive validity of intelligence for life outcomes was significantly diminished, particularly for nonacademic outcomes. Collectively, our findings suggest that, under low-stakes research conditions, some individuals try harder than others, and, in this context, test motivation can act as a third-variable confound that inflates estimates of the predictive validity of intelligence for life outcomes.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 05/2011; 108(19):7716-20. · 9.68 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Recent models of alcohol use in youth and young adulthood have incorporated personality change and maturation as causal factors underlying variability in developmental changes in heavy drinking. Whereas these models assume that personality affects alcohol use, the current prospective study tested the converse relation. That is, we tested whether, after accounting for the effect of traits on drinking, collegiate heavy drinking in turn predicted individual differences in change in alcohol-related aspects of personality. We also examined whether affiliation with heavy-drinking peers better accounted for this relation. Following a cohort of recent high school graduates (N=1,434) through the college years, we found evidence for transactional relations between heavy drinking and changes in impulsivity and sensation seeking. Both traits predicted increases in heavy drinking, but more important, heavy drinking predicted increases in sensation seeking and impulsivity. In final models, social influences did not underlie the effect of heavy drinking on increases in sensation seeking and impulsivity. The results of this investigation suggest that collegiate heavy drinking may negatively and pervasively impact a wide range of behaviors because of its effect on personality change.
Journal of Abnormal Psychology 03/2011; 120(3):543-56. · 4.86 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Even among those at risk for problematic alcohol use, there is variability in developmental trajectories of drinking and related problems. This prospective study examined the role of person-environment interactions in increased drinking during the transition to college.
The authors followed a sample of recent high school graduates to test whether protective environmental factors could delay increases in drinking among those high in trait-level risk factors.
Participants completed web-based surveys.
A sample of 1784 students in the incoming class of 2004 at a large public United States university completed high school and first-semester-of-college assessments.
Participants completed self-report measures of alcohol use, alcohol-related problems, perceived awareness and caring from parents and other adults, sensation seeking and impulsivity.
In the transition to college, high sensation seekers from more protective high school parental environments increased their alcohol use and problems more than did other students. Increases in alcohol problems were also high among more impulsive students from less protective environments. Whereas high sensation seekers drank equivalently in college regardless of high school-perceived awareness and caring, those who had greater high school-perceived awareness and caring did not experience as many alcohol-related problems in college.
Differences in drinking trajectories may be a function of person-environment interactions. Risk associated with high sensation seeking may be masked among adolescents in protective environments, but its emergence in the college transition predicts increases in alcohol use and related problems.
Addiction 02/2011; 106(6):1104-13. · 4.31 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Individual differences in subjective alcohol intoxication, as measured by laboratory-based alcohol challenge, have been identified as a phenotypic risk factor for alcohol use disorders. Further, recent evidence indicates that subjective alcohol response is also associated with event-level physiological consequences among college students, including blackouts and hangovers.
The current investigation tested predictors of and outcomes associated with subjective intoxication in the natural drinking environment. In a preliminary laboratory alcohol-challenge study (n = 53), we developed a brief measure of subjective alcohol intoxication for use in event-level research. Participating students in the principal study (n = 1,867; 63% women; 54% Caucasian) completed 30 days of Web-based self-monitoring in each of the 4 college years.
In the principal study, generalized estimating equation analyses revealed that both lighter drinking and a family history of alcohol problems predicted greater subjective intoxication after accounting for estimated blood alcohol concentration (eBAC). Moreover, greater subjective intoxication during a given drinking episode was associated with negative alcohol-related consequences, illicit drug use, and unsafe sex, and at higher eBACs, was associated with aggression, sex, and property crime. Students who on average experienced greater subjective intoxication were also more likely to experience negative consequences and engage in illicit drug use, sex, unsafe sex, and aggression.
These findings suggest that both within-person variability and between-person individual differences in subjective intoxication may be risk factors for adverse drinking outcomes at the event level. Intervention efforts aimed at reducing problems associated with collegiate drinking may benefit from consideration both of who experiences greater subjective intoxication and of the situations in which they are more likely to do so.
Alcoholism Clinical and Experimental Research 12/2010; 35(3):484-95. · 3.34 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: We evaluated selection and socialization processes associated with perceived descriptive norms and drinking from high school through the first 2 years of college.
Participants (n = 2,247; 61.6% female) completed measures of high school drinking and descriptive drinking norms for their social group and the typical student at the university they were entering, as well as alcohol use and social-group norms through their sophomore year of college. We conducted structural equation models by gender and ethnicity to test high school drinking and drinking norms as predictors of collegiate drinking and social-group norms.
Perceptions of typical-college-student drinking during high school predicted freshman-year drinking for men but not women and for White but not Asian or Hispanic students. High school social-group norms predicted freshman drinking for White but not Asian or Hispanic students, whereas freshman social-group norms predicted sophomore drinking for all participants.
Selection and socialization processes co-occur during this transitional time. Heavy drinkers in high school who perceive their friends to be heavy drinkers select into college social groups with perceived heavy drinking. Men and White students who perceive heavy drinking by the typical college student tend to drink heavily in college and choose social groups with perceived heavy drinking. These results support the importance of interventions that are tailored to the individual and that target perceptions of typical-college-student and social-group drinking before entering college for Whites and men but after matriculation for women, Asian, and Hispanic students.
Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs 11/2010; 71(6):895-903. · 2.25 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Prior research suggests that high dispositional self-regulation leads to decreased levels of risky drinking and sexual behavior in adolescence and the early years of college. Self-regulation may be especially important when individuals have easy access to alcohol and freedom to pursue sexual opportunities. In the current 1-year longitudinal study, we followed a sample of N = 1,136 college students who had recently reached the legal age to purchase alcohol and enter bars and clubs to test whether self-regulation protected against heavy episodic drinking, alcohol-related problems, and unprotected sex. We tested main effects of self-regulation and interactions among self-regulation and established risk factors (e.g., sensation seeking) on risky drinking and sexual behavior. High self-regulation inversely predicted heavy episodic drinking, alcohol-related problems, and unprotected sex, even when taking into account gender and risk factors. Moreover, in predicting unprotected sex, we found three-way interactions among self-regulation, sensation seeking, and heavy episodic drinking. Self-regulation buffered against risk associated with heavy drinking but only among those low in sensation seeking. The protective effects of self-regulation for risky drinking and sexual behavior make it a promising target for intervention, with the caveat that self-regulation may be less protective among those who are more drawn to socially and emotionally rewarding stimuli.
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors 09/2010; 24(3):376-85. · 2.09 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Some teachers are dramatically more effective than others, but traditional indicators of competence (e.g., certification) explain minimal variance in performance. The rigors of teaching suggest that positive traits that buffer against adversity might contribute to teacher effectiveness. In this prospective longitudinal study, novice teachers (N = 390) placed in under-resourced public schools completed measures of optimistic explanatory style, grit, and life satisfaction prior to the school year. At the conclusion of the school year, teacher effectiveness was measured in terms of the academic gains of students. All three positive traits individually predicted teacher performance. When entered simultaneously, however, only grit and life satisfaction remained significant predictors. These findings suggest that positive traits should be considered in the selection and training of teachers.
The Journal of Positive Psychology 11/2009; 4(6):540-547. · 1.67 Impact Factor
