Roisin O'Connor

Concordia University Montreal · Department of Psychology

Heavy drinking and smoking have been found to be among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality within Indigenous youth in North America. The focus of this study was to examine the relative roles of cultural identity, parent–child communication about the harms of substance use (SU), and perception about peers’ opinions on heavy drinking and ci...

Background: Gray's original Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) posits that an oversensitive behavioral inhibition system (BIS) may increase risk for negative-reinforcement-motivated drinking, given its role in anxiety. However, existing data provides mixed support for the BIS-alcohol use association. The inconsistent evidence is not surprising,...

Objective: Alcohol use and related problems increase during adolescence and peak in early adulthood. Tension reduction theories suggest that those high in anxiety sensitivity (AS) may be at risk for misusing alcohol for its anxiolytic effects. Cognitive theories point to drinking motives and alcohol expectancies as explanatory mechanisms of this r...

The association between restrained eating and alcohol use remains poorly understood among undergraduates. Consistent with tension reduction theory, individuals with disordered eating may be motivated to drink alcohol to cope with negative emotionality. Perhaps what pushes them to drink despite restriction goals is impulsivity. The combined impact o...

Objective: Many young adults struggle with comorbid alcohol misuse and emotional problems (i.e., depression and anxiety). However, there is currently a paucity of evidence-based, integrated, accessible treatment options for individuals with these comorbidities. The main goal of this study was to examine efficacy of a novel online, minimally guided,...

Two datasets include self-report data from (a) a 21-day daily diary study ('N' = 263) and (b) a cross-sectional psychometric study ('N' = 139) of emerging adult drinkers. Data were collected from two Canadian cities, and represent unique, non-overlapping participants in both datasets. Questionnaires assessed perfectionism, reinforcement sensitivity...

Background: Social anxiety is associated with increased and decreased alcohol use. Alcohol expectancies may help explain these inconsistencies. For example, a fear of losing control in front of others could motivate avoidance of alcohol. Similarly, cognitive models propose that individuals with elevated social anxiety believe they are at risk of be...

To resolve the mixed findings on the link between social anxiety (SA) and alcohol use, studies have examined the role of post-event processing (PEP), i.e., negative thinking about past social events. In a sample of 18–30 year olds (82% female) high (n = 40) and low (n = 49) in SA, the current 21-day study assessed the effect of PEP after social dri...

Social anxiety (SA) is thought to relate to alcohol misuse. However, current evidence is inconsistent - especially in young adulthood. Recent non-experimental data show that trait impulsivity moderates the effect of SA on alcohol misuse. Specifically, this work suggests that concurrently elevated impulsivity may draw attention to the immediate, anx...

Background and aims: Despite increases in female gambling, little research investigates female-specific factors affecting gambling behavior (GB). Although research suggests that some addictive behaviors may fluctuate across menstrual cycle phase (MCP), gambling requires further investigation. In two studies, we examined associations between MCP an...

We explored links between two perfectionism facets and alcohol-related problems. We predicted perfectionistic cognitions and nondisplay of imperfection would indirectly predict alcohol problems through negative affect, coping motives, and conformity motives, but would be unrelated to quantity of alcohol consumption. Participants included 263 young...

BACKGROUND Alcohol misuse and emotional problems (ie, depression and anxiety) are highly comorbid among Canadian young adults. However, there is a lack of integrated, accessible, and evidence-based treatment options for these young adults. OBJECTIVE The main goal of this study is to develop and test the efficacy of an integrated, online self-help...

Background: Alcohol misuse and emotional problems (ie, depression and anxiety) are highly comorbid among Canadian young adults. However, there is a lack of integrated, accessible, and evidence-based treatment options for these young adults. Objective: The main goal of this study is to develop and test the efficacy of an integrated, online self-h...

Depression and alcohol use disorders are highly comorbid. Typically, alcohol use peaks in emerging adulthood (e.g., during university), and many people also develop depression at this time. Self-medication theory predicts that depressed emerging adults drink to reduce negative emotions. While research shows that depression predicts alcohol use and...

Dual process models propose that behaviour is influenced by the interactive effect of impulsive (i.e., automatic or implicit) and self-regulatory (i.e., controlled or explicit) processes. Recently, evidence from the alcohol literature demonstrates that the impulse to engage in risky behaviour is mitigated by a high capacity to self-regulate. The cu...

Background: The joint subsystem hypothesis (Corr, 2002) suggests that to understand be-havioural choices, the interactive effects of the behavioural inhibition (BIS; ‘stop’, conflict resolution) and the behavioural approach (BAS; ‘go’, reward) system need to be considered. Extending this work to problematic buying, we hypothesized that those with a...

Background: Alcohol use has been reported to fluctuate over women's menstrual cycles (MCs), with increased intake occurring premenstrually/menstrually (phases characterized by heightened negative affect) and during the ovulatory phase (a phase characterized by positive affect). This suggests women may drink for particular emotion-focused reasons a...

Couture, M., Stewart, S., Cooper, M., Kuntsche, E., O’Connor, R., Mackinnon, S., & DRINC Team, t. (2017). The DRINC (Drinking Reasons Inter-National Collaboration) project: Rationale and protocol for a cross-national study of drinking motives in undergraduates. The International Journal Of Alcohol And Drug Research, 6(1), 7-18. doi:http://dx.doi.or...

Hazardous drinking in emerging adulthood is associated with multiple domains of alcohol problems, which range in type and severity. Alcohol problems at the severe end of the spectrum (e.g., impaired control) may be early warning signs of alcohol use disorders (AUDs) among emerging adults. However, given the emphasis in the literature on predictors...

Introduction and aims: This study tested the measurement invariance of the Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised Short Form (DMQ-R-SF) in undergraduates across 10 countries. We expected the four-factor structure to hold across countries, and for social motives to emerge as the most commonly endorsed motive, followed by enhancement, coping and con...

The link between social anxiety (SA) and problematic drinking is complex; this seems predominantly true among young adults. Individuals high on SA are thought to be particularly sensitive to the negative effects of alcohol, which should deter them from drinking. Yet, some evidence suggests that those high on SA continue to drink despite experiencin...

Background: Undergraduate students experience diverse problems because of alcohol use. Accordingly, the Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire (YAACQ) was developed to assess multiple domains of alcohol-related problems. A preliminary psychometric evaluation in a U.S. college sample showed support for 8 factors that were invariant across g...

Background: There is great interest in the role of the behavioral inhibition system (BIS) and the behavioral approach system (BAS) in the etiology of alcohol use because of the strong links of these systems to neuroscience and cognitive models of addiction. The revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory suggests that the strength of the BIS and BAS...

Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory predicts that those with a strong behavioral inhibition system (BIS) likely experience considerable anxiety and uncertainty during the transition out of university. Accordingly, they may continue to drink heavily to cope during this time (a period associated with normative reductions in heavy drinking), but only if...

Objective: Dual-process models propose that behavior is influenced by the interactive effect of impulsive (automatic) and self-regulatory (controlled) processes. Elaborations of this model posit that the effect of impulsive processes on alcohol use is influenced by capacity and motivation to self-regulate. The interactive effect of these three pro...

Tension reduction theory states that persons high in anxiety sensitivity (AS) are particularly sensitive to alcohol's anxiolytic effects and thus may engage in problematic drinking to reduce distress. However, the literature is mixed, suggesting a complex AS pathway to problematic drinking. Elevated AS may promote drinking to alleviate anxiety, whi...

According to theory, depressed individuals self-medicate their negative affect with alcohol. Due to isolation and interpersonal difficulties, undergraduates with elevated depressive symptoms may do much of their drinking alone and/or in intimate contexts (e.g., with family or romantic partners) rather than at normative social events (e.g., parties)...

This longitudinal study provided a comprehensive examination of age-related changes in alcohol outcome expectancies, subjective evaluation of alcohol outcomes, and automatic alcohol associations in early adolescence. A community sample (52% female, 75% White/non-Hispanic) was assessed annually for 3 years (mean age at the first assessment = 11.6 ye...

In response to conflicting reward (Behavioral Approach System [BAS]) and/or punishment cues (Fight-Flight-Freeze System [FFFS]) the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) inhibits behavior, leading to increased attention to threat, high anxiety, and behavioral ambivalence. The role of BIS in alcohol misuse is complex, as anxiety promotes self-medicatio...

reinforcement sensitivity theory

reinforcement sensitivity theory and alcohol use in young adults

reinforcement sensitivity theory and alcohol misuse in young adults

Most cognitive models of substance abuse and dependence posit that controlled and automatic processes are central to substance use. Tests of these models rely on methods that are interpreted to measure one or the other of these processes. There has been growing interest in the use of implicit substance use tasks, which are posited to reflect automa...

Reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) is a useful framework for understanding alcohol use, including problematic drinking among college students. Although the link between the behavioral approach system (BAS) and drinking is well established, the role of the behavioral inhibition system (BIS) is less well studied, and findings have been mixed. Con...

The Inventory of Gambling Situations (IGS-63; Turner and Littman-Sharp, Inventory of gambling situations users guide, 2006) is a 63-item measure of high-risk gambling situations. It assesses gambling across 10 situational subscales that load onto two higher-order factors: negative and positive situations (Stewart et al. Psychology of Addictive Beha...

A brief personality risk profile (23 items), the Substance Use Risk Profile Scale was tested for concurrent and predictive validity for substance use in 1139 adolescents (grades 8-10) from a mid-sized city in western Canada. The SURPS was administered in two waves of a longitudinal study separated by 12 months (2003-04). As expected, four subscales...

Important to the assessment of adolescent alcohol misuse is examination of alcohol-related problems. However, most measurement tools have only been validated among Euro-American cultures. The present study assessed the ability of the Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index (RAPI) to identify problem drinkers among groups of First Nations Mi’kmaq and non-Abor...

[Clin Psychol Sci Prac 17: 72–76, 2010] Isolating the mechanisms of change that lead to reduced risk for heavy drinking by college students—a high-risk population—will permit development of succinct, targeted, and thereby more effective interventions. Examinations of currently used empirically supported brief interventions provide a starting point...

Cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT) is effective in treating a wide range of psychological problems. Yet many clients whose symptom presentations significantly differ from textbook examples feel that their treatment has failed. Cognitive–Behavioral Therapy for Refractory Cases: Turning Failure Into Success expertly demonstrates how these standard in...

The authors regret that in the above article, there was an error in the description of the highest response option for the item inquiring aboutthe average number of alcoholic drinks consumed on a typical drinking occasion for the Sample 3 participants screened in 2006–07 (see p. 2625oftheoriginalarticle).Initially,4(6ormore)wasthoughttobethehighest...

Background: Cognitive processes are thought to be pivotal to risk for heavy drinking. However, few studies have examined the alcohol cue-activated positive and negative semantic memory networks that may be pivotal to drinking behavior. Moreover, much is to be understood about the influences of cognitive processes, particularly in high-risk drinkin...

This study is part of a school-based collaborative research project with a Nova Scotian Mi’kmaq community that hopes to shed light on the relationship between exposure to violence and mental health in First Nations youth. This particular study sought to examine how the multifaceted construct of resilience might act as a protective factor, buffering...

Individual differences in Gray’s Behavioral Approach System (BAS) and Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) have been associated with young adults’ substance misuse and gambling. To clarify the distinct and common etiology of these behaviors, the current study examined the unique influence of BAS sub-components (Reward Responsiveness, Drive, Fun Seeki...

This research evaluated the importance of reference groups in the relationships between injunctive norms and alcohol consumption for college student drinkers. First-year students (N = 811; 58% women) completed online assessments of their drinking behavior, as well as their perceptions of the approval (injunctive norms) and prevalence (descriptive n...

Empirical examinations of the relation between anxiety sensitivity (AS) and alcohol use have yielded inconsistent results, with some studies finding a positive association and other studies finding no association. The present study sought to clarify this relation by examining the moderational effects of alcohol expectancies (i.e., tension reduction...

Cognitive models conceptualize attitudes and beliefs about substance use (SU) as proximal mediators of a variety of risk and protective factors for SU. Researchers have distinguished implicit and explicit cognition, but limited research has examined this distinction in the early stages of SU. The authors' goal was to examine age differences in impl...

The psychometric properties of the Modified Drinking Motives Questionnaire--Revised (Modified DMQ-R) [Blackwell, E., & Conrod, P. J. (2003). A five-dimensional measure of drinking motives. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia], based on a five-factor model of drinking motives with separate coping-anxiety...

To date, research examining the role of peers in the development of substance use has focused almost exclusively on externalizing behavior problems without considering internalizing behavior problems. This is a notable omission in the literature, because there is some evidence to suggest that internalizing behavior increases risk for substance use,...

The present study examined the influences of personality dimensions (extraversion, neuroticism) on college alcohol involvement both (1) directly and (2) mediated by positive and negative alcohol expectancies across two imagined (high and low) alcohol doses. Participants (N = 339; 176 women) were regularly drinking college students who completed a q...

The structure of posttraumatic stress is of both theoretical and clinical interest. In the present study, seven models of posttraumatic stress were compared using confirmatory factor analysis. A sample of 528 Western New York undergraduate students was assessed 1 and 3 months after the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. At the Month 1 assessme...

In the present study, a typological approach was used to identify patterns of alcohol use in a sample of 533 college freshmen students (<21 years old; 342 women; 191 men), on the basis of quantity and frequency of consumption, and alcohol-related problems. Personality (sensitivity to reward, SR; sensitivity to punishment, SP) and reasons for drinki...

The Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire (SPSRQ) was developed by Torrubia et al. (1995) as a self-report measure of the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) and the Behavioral Approach System (BAS), two motivational systems proposed by Gray’s model (1975, 1982, 1987a, 1987b). Past research used exploratory factor analysi...

The Behavioral Approach System (BAS) and Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) are widely studied components of Gray's sensitivity to reinforcement model. There is growing interest in integrating the BAS and BIS into models of risk for psychopathology, however, few measures assess BAS and BIS functioning in children. We adapted a questionnaire measure...

Disinhibition is a risk factor for alcohol use that may be specifically linked to drinking to enhance positive affect (enhancement motives). In this study individual differences germane to disinhibition were assessed, and their relation to alcohol use and reasons for drinking was examined. Laboratory tasks assessed attentional biases for reward and...

Disinhibition is a risk factor for alcohol use that may be specifically linked to drinking to enhance positive affect (enhancement motives). In this study individual differences germane to disinhibition were assessed, and their relation to alcohol use and reasons for drinking was examined. Laboratory tasks assessed attentional biases for reward and...

In a sample of young Canadian adults, questionnaire data indicated that both unemployment and selfreported underemployment represent health risks, as defined by subjectively rated health, experienced symptoms and illness measures. While health behaviours, including substance use, diet and exercise, medical compliance and unsafe driving practices co...

The experiments explored the effects on feeding when rats were moved between individual and paired housing. In Experiment 1, rats moved to paired housing showed a 3-day suppression in feeding (initially 23%) compared to chronically individual- or pair-housed rats. In Experiment 2, half of the rats from the two control groups of Experiment 1 were mo...

The present study explored the relationships among dietary style (ranging from meat eating to veganism), cognitive restraint and feminist values. Two-hundred and twenty-seven participants with varying dietary styles completed the restraint subscale of the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ) and Attitudes Towards Feminism Scale (ATFS). Results...