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Accuracy and Bias in Perceptions of why Social Network Members Drink: A Truth and Bias Approach to Drinking Motive (mis)perception
Abstract
Perceived drinking motives of social network members appear to influence emerging adults’ alcohol use indirectly through their own drinking motives. Ascertaining the accuracy of motive perceptions can determine the relevance of social norm interventions for drinking motives and the utility of egocentric versus direct-reporting social network designs. As part of a larger study, 60 emerging adults (70% female; mean age = 21.57) reported cross-sectionally on their own drinking motives and the drinking motives of a peer. Peers were recruited and reported on their drinking motives. Regression analyses utilizing the truth and bias model indicated social, coping-with-anxiety, and coping-with-depression motives exhibited accuracy. Participants also overestimated peers’ social, enhancement, and conformity motives. Coping-with-depression and enhancement motives exhibited assumed similarity. Most motive perceptions were heavily or singularly influenced by bias. Whether to include actual and/or perceived motives in social network research designs should be carefully considered.
... Perceivers can utilize the information that they have directly received from their partner, which contributes to their accuracy, while simultaneously relying on indirect information to inform their judgements (e.g., partner disclosure of alcohol problems vs. images of partner drinking), which may introduce bias (Stern & West, 2017). The limited information available has demonstrated that individuals exhibit both accuracy and bias in their perceptions of peers' substance use frequency (Cox et al., 2019;Henry et al., 2011;Mason et al., 2019) and drinking motives (Bartel et al., 2022). Only two studies have used the truth and bias model of judgement to concurrently account for distinct perceptual processes in emerging adult friendships (Bartel et al., 2022;Reid et al., 2020). ...
... The limited information available has demonstrated that individuals exhibit both accuracy and bias in their perceptions of peers' substance use frequency (Cox et al., 2019;Henry et al., 2011;Mason et al., 2019) and drinking motives (Bartel et al., 2022). Only two studies have used the truth and bias model of judgement to concurrently account for distinct perceptual processes in emerging adult friendships (Bartel et al., 2022;Reid et al., 2020). Since romantic partners are often the first to identify, experience the consequences of, and facilitate help-seeking for their partners' alcohol-related problems (Rodriguez et al., 2013a, b), it is important to simultaneously ascertain each of the unique forces that contribute to partner perceptions of alcohol-related problems. ...
... Regarding drinking problems, there may be a reciprocal interaction between couple members, where each partner indirectly influences one another's drinking behaviours and they subsequently perceive similarity in drinkingrelated problems. The findings from Bartel et al. (2022) mirror this understanding by demonstrating that perceptions of drinking motives within one's social network were linked to one's own motives. ...
Given that romantic partners are often the first to identify their partners’ alcohol-related problems, we sought to ascertain the perceptual processes that contribute to partner perceptions of an individual’s alcohol-related problems and whether these processes systematically differ across gender. We assessed couples’ (N = 168) perceptions of their own and their partners’ alcohol-related problems. A dyadic multilevel model guided by the truth, and a bias model of judgement was conducted with gender as a moderator. Perceivers were accurate in their estimations of their partners’ alcohol-related problems. However, men significantly underestimated their partners’ alcohol-related problems. Perceivers showed greater accuracy in their perceptions of their partners’ alcohol-related problems when they themselves reported more alcohol-related problems compared to when they reported fewer alcohol-related problems. Partners’ biased perceptions may limit the identification of at-risk individuals. Future research should investigate the individual and couple-based consequences of accurate and biased perceptions of alcohol-related problems.
... Furthermore, all existing studies have had social network members report on their own motives, rather than asking participants why they believe network members engage in alcohol use (i.e., perceptions). As preliminary research suggests perceptions of the motives of others are not completely accurate (Bartel et al., 2022a;Shannon et al., 2018), perceptions of network motives may have a greater impact than actual network motives on participant motives/behavior. Finally, the existing motives literature has exclusively investigated social influence; however, it is equally possible selection is occurring (i.e., own motives could predict future network motives through selection of network members with motives similar to one's own). ...
Introduction: A significant body of research has investigated the impacts of social influence and social selection on binge drinking and risk factors for binge drinking in emerging adults; however, one risk factor for binge drinking that has yet to be thoroughly investigated in this regard is drinking motives. Preliminary research suggests the motives of others may impact emerging adults’ own alcohol use indirectly through their own motives (i.e., social influence). While these are important findings, research to date has been only conducted with adolescents or dyads and has not examined selection (i.e., selecting social network members with similar motives). We filled these gaps with a longitudinal egocentric social network design. Methods: Emerging adults (N = 177) completed measures on their alcohol use, drinking motives, and social networks at baseline (T1) and four-month follow-up (T2). Results: A cross-lagged panel model indicated T1 perceived network drinking motives predicted T2 participant drinking motives (for all motives but social), but T1 participant drinking motives did not predict T2 perceived network drinking motives. Path analysis indicated T1 perceived network drinking motives predicted T2 participant binge drinking frequency indirectly through T2 participant drinking motives for enhancement, coping-with-anxiety, and conformity, but not social or coping-with-depression, motives. Discussion: Results suggests drinking motives of those around emerging adults impact their own drinking motives, and indirectly, their own alcohol use. We found evidence of social influence, but not social selection. Conclusion: It appears that those around emerging adults have the capacity to influence their drinking behaviors and drinking motives.
The primary mechanism of change in emotion-focused couples therapy (EFT-C) is described as one partner accessing and expressing vulnerability, with the other partner responding affiliatively, with compassion, acceptance, validation, and support. These interactions are assumed to restructure the negative, rigid interactional cycle that usually brings couples to therapy and helps build a positive emotional bond. The primary aim of this study was to test whether for this process to occur, partners need to accurately perceive their spouse's experiences of vulnerability during therapy. Specifically, it examined the factors (i.e., tracking accuracy, assumed-similarity bias, and directional bias) shaping partners' perceptions of their spouse's vulnerability and whether accurate perceptions predict positive session outcomes during EFT-C. Data from 36 couples who took part in the York Emotional Injury Project were analyzed. Following each session, clients reported their own experience of vulnerability as well as their perceptions of their partners' vulnerability. Session outcome was defined as the extent to which clients reported resolution. Using a multilevel Truth and Bias model, the results indicated that partners accurately perceived changes in their spouses' expressions of vulnerability (i.e., significant tracking accuracy). Interestingly, partners' perceptions were also tied to their own expressions of vulnerability (i.e., significant assumed-similarity bias) and tended to underestimate the level of their partners' vulnerability expressions (i.e., significant negative mean-level bias). Using a multilevel Response Surface Analysis, we found that accuracy regarding partners' vulnerability was associated with higher levels of resolution.
Background:
Binge drinking peaks in emerging adulthood and is associated with a myriad of negative consequences. Research indicates that social network members have a significant influence on binge drinking. In particular, theory suggests that drinking habits of romantic partners and peers have a stronger influence on emerging-adult binge drinking than do drinking habits of siblings and parents. We investigated the relative influences of siblings, parents, romantic partners, and peers on emerging adults' binge drinking using a multisource design and a robust measure of binge drinking. We hypothesized peer and romantic partner binge drinking would more strongly predict emerging-adult (egos) binge drinking than would parent and sibling binge drinking. Methods: We recruited 321 participants (egos) aged 17-25 years, alongside 882 members of their social network (alters). Egos and alters completed self-report measures of binge drinking (frequency, quantity, and self-perception). Results: Structural equation modeling revealed that the direct positive effect from romantic partner binge drinking to ego binge drinking was significant. In contrast, the direct effects from peer, parent, and sibling binge drinking to ego binge drinking were nonsignificant. Conclusion: In emerging adulthood, romantic partners appear to have the strongest association with ego binge drinking.
A growing body of research has examined self-reported measures of social network alcohol use, such as the Important People Instrument (IPI), among college students. However, it remains unknown whether IPI judgments of friends' alcohol use are accurate. We hypothesized that judgments of friends' drinking status (e.g., heavy drinker) and maximum drinks per day would primarily reflect friends' self-report (accuracy), rather than projection of participants' self-report (assumed similarity) or a systematic tendency to under- or overestimate behavior (directional bias). We also expected that accuracy would be stronger when participants were women, had more contact with friends, or drank less each week or when friends drank less each week. In all, 654 randomly selected, 1st-year students indicated their 5 closest friends in their class, yielding 111 friendship dyads. Participants judged each friend's drinking status and maximum drinks per day and rated these items for themselves. Gender, frequency of contact, and typical drinks per week were assessed. Results indicated that judgments of drinking status and maximum drinks per day were highly accurate. Accuracy effects were consistently stronger than was assumed similarity; directional bias was nonsignificant. Accuracy did not depend on gender or participants' weekly consumption but was stronger for both outcomes when contact was more frequent and, for maximum drinks per day, when friends' weekly consumption was relatively low. Results support validity of the IPI for assessing social network alcohol use among students. Given that perceptions are accurate, research is needed on intervention strategies that facilitate management of risky peers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
Excessive alcohol consumption is related to adverse physical and social consequences. Research shows an individual's own drinking motives (reasons for drinking alcohol) are linked to his or her specific drinking outcomes in a theoretically expected manner. Romantic couples often engage in a "drinking partnership," where partners reciprocally influence each other's drinking. Though alcohol consumption partner effects have been studied, partner effects of drinking motives on an individual's alcohol consumption have not been investigated in romantic couples. We investigated this topic. Romantic couples (N = 203) were assessed once weekly for four weeks using self-report questionnaires. Participants were on average 22.7 years old (SD = 5.5) and were in their relationship an average of 2.3 years (SD = 2.4). Actor-partner interdependence models using multilevel path-Analysis with indistinguishable dyads were conducted, with each motive predicting drinking quantity and frequency. There were significant actor effects for social and enhancement motives; moreover, changes in a partner's enhancement and social motives predicted change in the individual's drinking quantity during any given week, but only averaged partners' enhancement motives predicted the individual's drinking frequency. Copingwith-anxiety motives had significant actor effects when predicting averaged quantity and frequency; moreover, changes in partners' coping-with-Anxiety motives predicted changes in drinking quantity. Enhancement and social motives of the partner influenced the drinking quantity and frequency of the actor by way of influencing the actor's enhancement and social motives. Intervention efforts targeting both members of a romantic dyad on their reasons for drinking should be tested for preventing escalations in either member's drinking behavior.
This study considered the influence of misperceptions of typical versus self-identified important peers' heavy drinking on personal heavy drinking intentions and frequency utilizing data from a complete social network of college students. The study sample included data from 1,313 students (44% male, 57% White, 15% Hispanic/Latinx) collected during the fall and spring semesters of their freshman year. Students provided perceived heavy drinking frequency for a typical student peer and up to 10 identified important peers. Personal past-month heavy drinking frequency was assessed for all participants at both time points. By comparing actual with perceived heavy drinking frequencies, measures of misperceptions of heavy drinking (accurately estimate, overestimate, underestimate) were constructed for both general and important peers. These misperceptions were then used as predictors of concurrent and prospective personal heavy drinking frequency and intentions using network autocorrelation analyses. The majority of students (84.8%) overestimated, 11.3% accurately estimated, and 3.9% underestimated heavy drinking among their general peers, whereas 42.0% accurately estimated, 36.9% overestimated, and 21.1% underestimated important peers' heavy drinking. For both referents, overestimation of peer heavy drinking was associated with more frequent heavy drinking and higher drinking intentions at both time points. Importantly, the effects of underestimating and overestimating close peers' drinking on personal alcohol use were significant after controlling for the influence of misperceptions of general peers' heavy drinking. Close peers are a critical referent group in assessments related to social norms for young adult alcohol use. Implications for prevention and intervention are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
Twenty-first birthdays are associated with heavier drinking and more negative consequences than any other high-risk drinking event. Friends are the strongest social influence on young adult drinking; however, previous research on college students' drinking has often only examined individuals' perceptions of "friends" generally. Unfortunately, this may obscure the positive influence of some friends and the negative influence of others. Using data drawn from a larger intervention study aimed at reducing 21st birthday drinking, this research examined how specific friends (N = 166) who were present at 21st birthday celebrations may have exacerbated or mitigated celebrants' (N = 166) experience of alcohol-related consequences, as well as how characteristics of that friendship moderate these effects. Controlling for sex, alcohol consumption, and friend prointoxication intentions for the celebrants' 21st birthday drinking, higher friend prosafety/support intentions predicted the celebrants experiencing fewer alcohol-related consequences. Higher prosafety/support intentions also buffered participants from the negative influence of friend prointoxication intentions. Furthermore, the closeness of the friendship moderated this effect. At high levels of closeness, having a friend with lower prosafety/support intentions was associated with more alcohol-related consequences for the celebrant. Post hoc analyses revealed that this effect may have been driven by discrepancies between celebrants' and friends' reports of friendship closeness; celebrants' perception of closeness that was higher than the friends' perception was associated with the celebrant experiencing more alcohol-related consequences. Results demonstrate the ways that specific friends can both mitigate and exacerbate 21st birthday alcohol-related consequences. The implications of the present findings for incorporating specific friends into drinking-related interventions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record
Substance use and exercise have opposite trajectories in young adulthood, and research indicates that peers are influential for both of these health behaviors, but simultaneous investigations of peer associations with substance use and exercise have not been conducted. Objective: Use a college residence hall peer network to examine associations between peer behaviors and alcohol use, marijuana use, and exercise behavior. Method: 129 undergraduates (51.9% female, 48.1% non-Hispanic White; 84.5% first-year students) in one residence hall completed a Web-based survey of substance use and exercise and identified up to 10 students in the residence hall who were important to them. Two social network analytic methods, community detection cluster analysis and network autocorrelation modeling, were used to identify peer groupings and to examine the associations between peer and participant behaviors, respectively. Results: Participants nominated an average of 4.1 residence hall members, and 53.9% of the ties were reciprocal. 6 clusters were identified that differed significantly on demographics, college activities, substance use, and exercise. Weekly volume of alcohol consumed among nominated peers was significantly associated with that of participants, and all other covariates, including gender and athlete status, were not significant. Peer marijuana use also was associated with participant use after controlling for covariates. Exercise levels of nominated peers were not associated with exercise levels of participants. Conclusions: College student networks may be good targets for health-related prevention programs. Programs that use close-proximity peers to influence the behavior of others might be more effective with substance use as the target behavior than exercise. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).
Objective:
Poor mental health, sleep problems, drinking motivations, and high-risk drinking are prevalent among college students. However, research designed to explicate the interrelationships among these health risk behaviors is lacking. This study was designed to assess the direct and indirect influences of poor mental health (a latent factor consisting of depression, anxiety, and stress) to alcohol use and alcohol-related consequences through the mediators of global sleep quality and drinking motives in a comprehensive model.
Method:
Participants were 1,044 heavy-drinking college students (66.3% female) who completed online surveys.
Results:
A hybrid structural equation model tested hypotheses involving relations leading from poor mental health to drinking motives and poorer global sleep quality to drinking outcomes. Results showed that poor mental health significantly predicted all four subscales of drinking motivations (social, coping, conformity, and enhancement) as well as poor sleep. Most of the drinking motives and poor sleep were found to explain alcohol use and negative alcohol consequences. Poor sleep predicted alcohol consequences, even after controlling for all other variables in the model. The hypothesized mediational pathways were examined with tests of indirect effects.
Conclusions:
This is the first study to assess concomitantly the relationships among three vital health-related domains (mental health, sleep behavior, and alcohol risk) in college students. Findings offer important implications for college personnel and interventionists interested in reducing alcohol risk by focusing on alleviating mental health problems and poor sleep quality.
The present study investigated how symptoms of mania—associated with heightened and persistent positive emotion—influence emotion experience and perception during distressing social interactions, whereby the experience of heightened positive emotion may not be socially adaptive. Specifically, mania symptoms were assessed via a validated self-report measure, and used to predict emotion experience and perception during a naturalistic conversation between romantic couples about a time of distress and suffering (N = 68 dyads). Results indicated that mania symptoms were associated with increased positive and decreased negative emotion experience and perception between couples, as well as decreased empathic accuracy for partners’ negative but not positive emotions. These findings suggest that mania symptoms may be associated with “rose-colored” glasses characterized by a positively biased emotional experience and outward perception even during perhaps the most intimate and distressing social situations.
The theory of emerging adulthood has been proposed as a way of conceptualizing the developmental characteristics of young people between the ages of 18 and 25. Here, the theory is applied to explaining the high rates of substance use in this age group. Specifically, five developmentally distinctive features of emerging adulthood are proposed: the age of identity explorations, the age of instability, the age of self-focus, the age of feeling in-between, and the age of possibilities. Then, each of these features is applied to an explanation of drug use in emerging adulthood.
Alcohol use is prevalent among college students, including those who are in committed romantic relationships. Individuals' perceptions of their partner's alcohol use may have significant effects on how they view both their partner and their relationship. The current study examines the effect of one's perception of one's romantic partner's drinking as problematic on one's relationship satisfaction and commitment, and whether this varies as a function of one's partner's drinking. Both partners in romantic heterosexual relationships (N = 78 dyads) completed an online survey assessing alcohol use and problems, relationship satisfaction and commitment, and the perception that their partner's drinking was problematic. Analyses using Actor-Partner Interdependence Models (APIMs) revealed a partner-moderated actor interaction, such that partner self-reported drinking significantly moderated the association between the actor's perception of their partner's drinking as problematic and actor relationship outcomes. Results indicated that when partners drank at higher levels, perceiving their drinking as problematic did not have an effect. These individuals were less satisfied regardless of their perceptions. However, when partners drank at lower levels, perceiving their drinking as problematic was negatively associated with relationship outcomes. Furthermore, for alcohol consumption, three-way interactions with gender emerged, indicating that this effect was stronger for males. Results extend the literature on drinking in relationships and on interpersonal perception. Implications and future directions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).
Personalized drinking feedback is an evidence-based and increasingly common way of intervening with high-risk college drinking. This article extends an earlier review by Walters and Neighbors (S. T. Walters & C. Neighbors, 2005, Feedback interventions for college alcohol misuse: What, why, and for whom? Addictive Behaviors, 30, 1168-1182) by reviewing the literature of published studies using personalized feedback as an intervention for heavy drinking among college students. This article updates and extends the original review with a more comprehensive and recent set of 41 studies, most of which were not included in the original article. This article also examines within-subject effect sizes for personalized feedback interventions (PFIs) for high-risk alcohol use and examines the content of PFIs more closely to provide insight on the most essential components that will guide the future development of feedback-based interventions. In general, PFIs appear to be reliably effective at reducing harmful alcohol misuse among college students. Some components are almost universally included (i.e., drinking profile and normative comparison), precluding inferences regarding their unique contribution. Significantly larger effect sizes were observed for interventions that included decisional balance, practical costs, and strategies to limit risks. The present research provides an important empirical foundation for determining the relative contribution of individual components and facets in the efficacy of PFIs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).
In 2 studies, the Inclusion of Other in the Self (IOS) Scale, a single-item, pictorial measure of closeness, demonstrated alternate-form and test–retest reliability; convergent validity with the Relationship Closeness Inventory (E. Berscheid et al, 1989), the R. J. Sternberg (1988) Intimacy Scale, and other measures; discriminant validity; minimal social desirability correlations; and predictive validity for whether romantic relationships were intact 3 mo later. Also identified and cross-validated were (1) a 2-factor closeness model (Feeling Close and Behaving Close) and (2) longevity–closeness correlations that were small for women vs moderately positive for men. Five supplementary studies showed convergent and construct validity with marital satisfaction and commitment and with a reaction-time (RT)-based cognitive measure of closeness in married couples; and with intimacy and attraction measures in stranger dyads following laboratory closeness-generating tasks. In 3 final studies most Ss interpreted IOS Scale diagrams as depicting interconnectedness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In this paper, we introduce social network analysis for investigating the effect of network position and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) use on the performance of general practitioners (GPs) residing in rural Australia. Here, we highlight the data collection procedure, its benefits and limitations and standard measures of social network data. We first suggest that collection and analysis of relational and attribute data offers richer insights with regards to the investigation of structural effects of network position on performance of GPs. Second, drawing from theoretical and methodological strengths of previous studies conducted in health care, we describe the process for collecting relational data from GPs in isolated and rural settings. We primarily discuss two specific types of social network data collection approaches--(i) whole network and (ii) ego-centric network approach; and highlight its opportunities and challenges. Third, we discuss the problem of network sampling in the context of GPs in rural areas. Finally, challenges associated with analysing social network data are presented.
For researchers and practitioners interested in social relationships, the question remains as to how large social networks typically are, and how their size and composition change across adulthood. On the basis of predictions of socioemotional selectivity theory and social convoy theory, we conducted a meta-analysis on age-related social network changes and the effects of life events on social networks using 277 studies with 177,635 participants from adolescence to old age. Cross-sectional as well as longitudinal studies consistently showed that (a) the global social network increased up until young adulthood and then decreased steadily, (b) both the personal network and the friendship network decreased throughout adulthood, (c) the family network was stable in size from adolescence to old age, and (d) other networks with coworkers or neighbors were important only in specific age ranges. Studies focusing on life events that occur at specific ages, such as transition to parenthood, job entry, or widowhood, demonstrated network changes similar to such age-related network changes. Moderator analyses detected that the type of network assessment affected the reported size of global, personal, and family networks. Period effects on network sizes occurred for personal and friendship networks, which have decreased in size over the last 35 years. Together the findings are consistent with the view that a portion of normative, age-related social network changes are due to normative, age-related life events. We discuss how these patterns of normative social network development inform research in social, evolutionary, cultural, and personality psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).
Heterosexual couples (N = 57) discussed features about each other they wanted to change. During a review of their recorded discussions, for each 30 s of interaction, perceivers provided judgments of their partner's regard, and partners reported their actual regard for the perceiver. The authors simultaneously assessed the extent to which perceivers' over- or underestimated their partner's regard (mean-level bias) and tracked their partner's changing regard across the discussion (tracking accuracy). Perceivers on average tended to underestimate their partner's regard (negative mean-level bias) but exhibited substantial tracking accuracy. Bias and accuracy were related; perceivers that were more negatively biased more accurately tracked changes in their partner's regard. Women who were more insecure about their partner's continued regard demonstrated more negative mean-level bias and greater tracking accuracy, whereas more secure women demonstrated more positive bias and lower accuracy. The results indicate that bias and accuracy are shaped by context-relevant goals and motives.
We present a new model for the general study of how the truth and biases affect human judgment. In the truth and bias model, judgments about the world are pulled by 2 primary forces, the truth force and the bias force, and these 2 forces are interrelated. The truth and bias model differentiates force and value, where the force is the strength of the attraction and the value is the location toward which the judgment is attracted. The model also makes a formal theoretical distinction between bias and moderator variables. Two major classes of biases are discussed: biases that are measured with variables (e.g., assumed similarity) and directional bias, which refers to the extent to which judgments are pulled toward 1 end of the judgment continuum. Moderator variables are conceptualized as variables that affect the accuracy and bias forces but that do not affect judgments directly. We illustrate the model with 4 examples. We discuss the theoretical, empirical, methodological, measurement, and design implications of the model.
Coping motives for drinking initiate alcohol-related problems. Interpersonal goals, which powerfully influence affect, could provide a starting point for this relation. Here we tested effects of self-image goals (which aim to construct and defend desired self-views) and compassionate goals (which aim to support others) on heavy-episodic drinking and alcohol-related problems. Undergraduate drinkers (N=258) completed measures of self-image and compassionate goals in academics and friendships, coping and enhancement drinking motives, heavy-episodic drinking, and alcohol-related problems in a cross-sectional design. As predicted, self-image goals, but not compassionate goals, positively related to alcohol-related problems. Path models showed that self-image goals relate to coping motives, but not enhancement motives; coping motives then relate to heavy-episodic drinking, which in turn relate to alcohol-related problems. Self-image goals remained a significant predictor in the final model, which accounted for 34% of the variance in alcohol-related problems. These findings indicate that self-image goals contribute to alcohol-related problems in college students both independently and through coping motives. Interventions can center on reducing self-image goals and their attendant negative affect.
A structural equation model was estimated based on a Swiss national sample of 5649 12- to 18-year-olds to test whether individual drinking motives mediate the link between classmates' motives and individual alcohol use. Results showed that the social, enhancement, coping and conformity motives of individual students are associated with the corresponding motive dimension of other students in the class. No direct effect of the four classmates' motives on individual drinking, but an indirect effect via individual motives was observed. It appears that drinking motives within the adolescent social environment exert their influence on drinking by way of shaping individual motives.
The final, common pathway to alcohol use is motivational. A person decides consciously or unconsciously to consume or not to consume any particular drink of alcohol according to whether or not he or she expects that the positive affective consequences of drinking will outweigh those of not drinking. Various factors (e.g., past experiences with drinking, current life situation) help to form expectations of affective change from drinking, these factors always modulated by a person’s neurochemical reactivity to alcohol. Such major influences include the person’s current nonchemical incentives and the prospect of acquiring new positive incentives and removing current negative incentives. Our motivational counseling technique uses nonchemical goals and incentives to help the alcoholic develop a satisfying life without the necessity of alcohol. The technique first assesses the alcoholic’s motivational structure and then seeks to modify it through a multicomponent counseling procedure. The counseling technique is one example of the heuristic value of the motivational model.
Confidence intervals are widely accepted as a preferred way to present study results. They encompass significance tests and provide an estimate of the magnitude of the effect. However, comparisons of correlations still rely heavily on significance testing. The persistence of this practice is caused primarily by the lack of simple yet accurate procedures that can maintain coverage at the nominal level in a nonlopsided manner. The purpose of this article is to present a general approach to constructing approximate confidence intervals for differences between (a) 2 independent correlations, (b) 2 overlapping correlations, (c) 2 nonoverlapping correlations, and (d) 2 independent R2s. The distinctive feature of this approach is its acknowledgment of the asymmetry of sampling distributions for single correlations. This approach requires only the availability of confidence limits for the separate correlations and, for correlated correlations, a method for taking into account the dependency between correlations. These closed-form procedures are shown by simulation studies to provide very satisfactory results in small to moderate sample sizes. The proposed approach is illustrated with worked examples.
Introduction: A significant body of research has investigated the impacts of social influence and social selection on binge drinking and risk factors for binge drinking in emerging adults; however, one risk factor for binge drinking that has yet to be thoroughly investigated in this regard is drinking motives. Preliminary research suggests the motives of others may impact emerging adults’ own alcohol use indirectly through their own motives (i.e., social influence). While these are important findings, research to date has been only conducted with adolescents or dyads and has not examined selection (i.e., selecting social network members with similar motives). We filled these gaps with a longitudinal egocentric social network design. Methods: Emerging adults (N = 177) completed measures on their alcohol use, drinking motives, and social networks at baseline (T1) and four-month follow-up (T2). Results: A cross-lagged panel model indicated T1 perceived network drinking motives predicted T2 participant drinking motives (for all motives but social), but T1 participant drinking motives did not predict T2 perceived network drinking motives. Path analysis indicated T1 perceived network drinking motives predicted T2 participant binge drinking frequency indirectly through T2 participant drinking motives for enhancement, coping-with-anxiety, and conformity, but not social or coping-with-depression, motives. Discussion: Results suggests drinking motives of those around emerging adults impact their own drinking motives, and indirectly, their own alcohol use. We found evidence of social influence, but not social selection. Conclusion: It appears that those around emerging adults have the capacity to influence their drinking behaviors and drinking motives.
Background: Heavy alcohol consumption and frequent alcohol use are associated with many adverse social and physical consequences. The different motivations underlying why people drink predict different patterns of alcohol consumption. A drinking buddy (i.e. a friend with whom a person drinks alcohol) influences a person’s drinking via social learning, leading to escalations in drinking over time. Purpose: Few studies have investigated drinking motives among peers and none have studied whether the drinking motives of a drinking buddy can influence another person’s drinking behavior; we sought to fill that gap. Method: Same-sex drinking buddies (N = 174; 66.1% female) were assessed once monthly for four months using self-report questionnaires. Participants were on average 18.66 years-old (SD = 1.17). Results: Indistinguishable actor–partner interdependence models using multilevel path analysis were conducted, with each drinking motive predicting drinking frequency and quantity, respectively. There were significant actor effects for social, enhancement, conformity, and coping motives; moreover, the enhancement, social, and coping-anxiety motives of the drinking buddy influenced the individual’s drinking frequency across the four months of the study. Conversely, only the enhancement motives of the buddy predicted drinking quantity in the individual when averaged across time. Sex was not a significant moderator of these effects. Importance: When targeting risky drinking behavior in a therapeutic context, assessing and addressing a person’s reasons for drinking, as well as their drinking buddy’s reasons for drinking, may reduce the risk of escalations in either friend’s drinking frequency over time.
Background
Emerging research suggests the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a significant increase in self-reported isolation and loneliness in a large proportion of the population. This is particularly concerning given that isolation and loneliness are associated with increased cannabis use, as well as using cannabis to cope with negative affect. Objective: We investigated whether self-isolation due to COVID-19 and using cannabis to cope with depression were unique and/or interactive predictors of cannabis use during the pandemic, after controlling for pre-pandemic levels of cannabis use. Method: A sample of 70 emerging adults (mean age = 23.03; 34.3% male) who used both alcohol and cannabis pre-pandemic completed measures of cannabis use (i.e., quantity x frequency) and a novel COVID-19 questionnaire between March 23 and June 15, 2020. Pre-pandemic cannabis use levels had been collected four months earlier. Results: Linear regressions indicated self-isolation and coping with depression motives for cannabis use during the pandemic were significant predictors of pandemic cannabis use levels after accounting for pre-pandemic use levels. There was no interaction between coping with depression motives and self-isolation on cannabis use during the pandemic. Conclusions: Those who engaged in self-isolation were found to use 20% more cannabis during the pandemic than those who did not. Our results suggest that self-isolation is a unique risk factor for escalating cannabis use levels during the pandemic. Thus, self-isolation may inadvertently lead to adverse public health consequences in the form of increased cannabis use.
Background and aims
Emerging evidence suggests that solitary drinking may be an important early risk marker for alcohol use disorder. The current paper is the first meta‐analysis and systematic review on adolescent and young adult solitary drinking to examine associations between solitary drinking and increased alcohol consumption, alcohol problems, and drinking to cope motives.
Methods
PsychINFO, PubMed, and Google Scholar were searched using the PRISMA methodology and a pre‐registered PROSPERO protocol (#CRD42020143449). Data from self‐report questionnaires regarding negative correlates of solitary drinking (e.g., alcohol problems) and solitary drinking motives (e.g., drinking to cope) were pooled across studies using random effects models. Studies included adolescents (ages 12‐18) and young adults (mean age between 18‐30 or samples with the majority of participants age 30 or younger).
Results
Meta‐analytic results from 21 unique samples including 28,372 participants showed significant effects for the associations between solitary drinking and the following factors: increased alcohol consumption, r=0.23, 95%CI [0.13,0.33]; drinking problems, r=0.23, 95%CI [0.13,0.32]; negative affect, r=0.21, 95%CI [0.16,0.26]; social discomfort, r=0.17, 95%CI [0.06,0.27]; negative reinforcement, r=0.28, 95%CI [0.24,0.31]; and positive reinforcement, r=0.10, 95%CI [0.03, 0.17]. These associations were not moderated by age group (i.e., adolescent versus young adult), study quality, or differing solitary drinking definitions. Accounting for publication bias increased the effect sizes from r=0.23 to 0.34 for alcohol consumption and from r=0.23 to 0.30 for drinking problems, and lowered it from r=0.10 to 0.06, and r=0.17 to 0.11, for positive reinforcement and social discomfort, respectively.
Conclusions
Solitary drinking among adolescents and young adults appears to be associated with psychosocial/alcohol problems and drinking to cope motives.
Objective:
Understanding the complex influence of peers on young adult substance use is an important component of intervention research and is challenging methodologically. The false consensus theory suggests that individuals falsely attribute their own substance use behaviors onto others, producing biased data.
Methods:
We tested this theory with 39 young adults who had a cannabis use disorder and a mean age of 20. Participants (egos) recruited three of their close friends (alters). Egos reported their past 30-day cannabis and alcohol use and their perceptions of alters' use. Alters also reported their actual past 30-day cannabis and alcohol use.
Results:
Results demonstrated that egos were very accurate in their perceptions of the frequency of alters' cannabis (ρ = 0.82, p < 0.001) and alcohol (ρ = 0.74, p < 0.001) use. Linear regression models predicted alters' actual cannabis and alcohol use based on egos' perceptions of alters' use, controlling for egos' own substance use. Egos' perceptions of alters' cannabis use strongly predicted alters' actual use (β = 0.80, p < 0.001, adj-R2 = 0.67), and egos' perceptions of alters' alcohol use also predicted alters' actual use (β = 0.66, p < 0.001, adj-R2 = 0.62). Egos' own substance use did not predict alters' use in either model.
Conclusions:
Results provide evidence that the false consensus theory may be limited when applied to young adults with cannabis use disorder within a close-friend research framework. The results support the hypothesis that young adults are very accurate in their perceptions of the frequency of close friends' substance use and that these perceptions are independent of egos' own use. These findings support the continued use of ego-centric reported close peer substance use for understanding peer effects.
This study examined couples' perceptions of each other's daily affect, using a daily diary methodology. Specifically, we tested the extent to which couples accurately inferred how their partner was feeling (empathic accuracy) and the extent to which spouses used their own feelings as a gauge for how their partner was feeling (assumed similarity). We also tested for indirect accuracy in couples' perceptions; that is, that assumed similarity in the context of actual similarity leads to empathic accuracy. Participants were 51 couples who completed daily diaries for seven consecutive nights. Results based on the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model indicated that couples showed both empathic accuracy and assumed similarity in their perception of their partner's positive affect; however, they used assumed similarity in rating their partner's hard negative (anger, hostility) and soft negative (sadness, fear) affect. Furthermore, tests of indirect accuracy found that wives were indirectly accurate in perceiving their husbands' positive affect and both husbands and wives were indirectly accurate in perceiving each other's hard negative affect because they were biased. Complementing laboratory studies, the present study highlights that examining couples' perceptions of each other's feelings in contexts of daily life, and differentiating positive and negative emotions, can further our understanding of the role of emotions for healthy relationship functioning.
© 2018 Family Process Institute.
Background:
Research has identified several correlates of suicidal behaviors including depressive symptoms, alcohol use and coping drinking motives. However, their associations and their role as possible causal mechanisms in the prediction of suicide attempt are not well understood. This study examined, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally, the potential pathways from alcohol use, drinking coping motives, and depression to suicide attempts.
Methods:
Participants (N = 4617) were young Swiss men (mean age = 19.95) participating in the Cohort Study on Substance Use Risk Factors. Measures of depressive symptoms, alcohol use (total drinks per week, heavy episode drinking) and coping drinking motives were used from the baseline and/or 15-month follow-up assessments to predict follow-up suicide attempt.
Results:
Main findings showed indirect associations through depressive symptoms, such that coping drinking motives were positively associated with depressive symptoms, which were in turn positively related to suicide attempts over time (for total drinks per week models, cross-sectional model: B = 0.130, SE = 0.035, 95% CI = 0.072, 0.207; longitudinal model: B = 0.039, SE = 0.013, 95% CI = 0.019, 0.069). Alcohol use was not significantly related to suicide attempt.
Limitations:
Main limitation includes a low prevalence rate for suicide attempt potentially reducing power effects in the analyses and our focus on distal-yet not proximal, role of alcohol use on suicide attempt.
Conclusions:
Findings of this study suggest that young men with depressive symptoms and/or those who use alcohol to cope with negative affect may benefit from programs targeting suicidal behaviors.
Objective:
The transition from high school to college is a unique developmental period to examine the relationship between social networks and alcohol use, because during this transition, students enter new environments and alcohol use becomes more pervasive. The aim of this study was to examine the extent to which personal social networks change during this transition and to examine how changes in the composition of networks are related to alcohol use.
Method:
Participants (N = 374, 57.8% female) reported on their alcohol use and provided information about individuals in their social network before and immediately after their first year of college. These network members were matched across the two observations and were classified as either carryover (i.e., named at both assessments), dropped (i.e., named at only the first assessment), or added (i.e., named at only the second assessment).
Results:
We found robust turnover, such that only 22% of network members were retained from the first observation to the second. Furthermore, heavy drinking in high school was associated with retaining more friends during the transition to college, but once in college, adding more heavy drinkers as friends was associated with the greatest alcohol risk.
Conclusions:
These findings show how changes in the composition of the social network influence an individual's alcohol use during the transition to college. Results from this study could be used to improve interventions that address the composition of the social network as a whole, as well as the characteristics of each individual in their social network.
Background:
Approximately one in five adults engage in heavy episodic drinking (HED), a behavior with serious health and social consequences. Environmental, intrapersonal, and interpersonal factors contribute to and perpetuate HED. Prior research supports the partner influence hypothesis where partners influence each other's HED.
Objectives:
We examined the partner influence hypothesis longitudinally over three years in heterosexual couples in serious romantic relationships, while exploring possible sex differences in the magnitude of partner influence.
Methods:
One-hundred-and-seventy-nine heterosexual couples in serious relationships (38.5% married at baseline) completed a measure of HED at baseline and again three years later.
Results:
Using actor-partner interdependence modelling, results showed actor effects for both men and women, with HED remaining stable for each partner from baseline to follow-up. Significant partner effects were found for both men and women, who both positively influenced their partners' HED over the three-year follow-up.
Conclusions:
The partner influence hypothesis was supported. Results indicated partner influences on HED occur over the longer term and apply to partners in varying stages of serious romantic relationships (e.g., cohabiting, engaged, married). Women were found to influence their partners' HED just as much as men influence their partners' HED. Findings suggest HED should be assessed and treated as a couples' issue rather than simply as an individual risky behavior.
Personalized normative feedback is a recommended component of alcohol interventions targeting college students. However, normative data are commonly collected through campus-based surveys, not through actual participant-referent relationships. In the present investigation, we examined how misperceptions of residence hall peers, both overall using a global question and those designated as important peers using person-specific questions, were related to students' personal drinking behaviors. Participants were 108 students (88% freshman, 54% White, 51% female) residing in a single campus residence hall. Participants completed an online baseline survey in which they reported their own alcohol use and perceptions of peer alcohol use using both an individual peer network measure and a global peer perception measure of their residential peers. We employed network autocorrelation models, which account for the inherent correlation between observations, to test hypotheses. Overall, participants accurately perceived the drinking of nominated friends but overestimated the drinking of residential peers. Consistent with hypotheses, overestimating nominated friend and global residential peer drinking predicted higher personal drinking, although perception of nominated peers was a stronger predictor. Interaction analyses showed that the relationship between global misperception and participant self-reported drinking was significant for heavy drinkers, but not non-heavy drinkers. The current findings explicate how student perceptions of peer drinking within an established social network influence drinking behaviors, which may be used to enhance the effectiveness of normative feedback interventions.
Research supports a bidirectional association between heavy alcohol use and marital quality among couples. The current research extends previous research on the role of interpersonal perception by examining how partner drinking and perceiving one's partner's drinking as problematic are associated with subsequent marital outcomes. Specifically, we evaluated how perceiving one's partner to have a drinking problem was associated with marital functioning, and whether that association differed based on the partner's actual drinking. Married couples (N = 123 dyads) with at least one spouse who consumed alcohol regularly completed measures of alcohol use and consequences, the perception that their spouse's drinking was problematic, and marital adjustment (i.e., relationship satisfaction, commitment, and trust). Results from actor-partner interdependence models using structural equations modeling indicated that for husbands, partner heavy drinking was associated with lower adjustment. Additionally, for husbands, perceiving their spouse had a drinking problem was associated with lower adjustment for both themselves and their wives. Moreover, significant interactions between partner drinking and the perception of partner drinking problem on marital adjustment emerged. Specifically, perceiving one's partner's drinking as a problem was only negatively associated with relationship adjustment if the partner reported higher levels of heavy drinking. This pattern was stronger for husbands. Results illustrate the importance of interpersonal perception, gender differences, and the use of dyadic data to model the complex dynamic between spouses with regard to alcohol use and how it affects relationship outcomes.
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
This article presents findings of focus groups (n = 15) with young people (n = 114) which aimed to explore their views, experiences and interpretations of the ways in which alcohol and drinking are portrayed on television. Young people showed a sophisticated level of awareness of alcohol and its use on television and were adept at deconstructing the alcohol-related messages presented. Participants were undecided as to whether they believed television represented alcohol use in a realistic manner and acknowledged a contradiction between realistic accounts and exaggeration for the creation of ‘entertaining’ content. Overall, participants felt that television should provide a balanced view of alcohol use, showing both the positive side of drinking and the possible negative effects without an overemphasis on the latter. Young people did perceive television to exert an influence upon audiences. However, a ‘third person effect’ was found, with participants speaking in the third person and suggesting that television may influence others, but not themselves. The implications of the findings are discussed in relation to the potential influence of these representations on the development of alcohol-related beliefs and behaviour and the use of television in alcohol-related health promotion.
G*Power (Erdfelder, Faul, & Buchner, 1996) was designed as a general stand-alone power analysis program for statistical tests commonly used in social and behavioral research. G*Power 3 is a major extension of, and improvement over, the previous versions. It runs on widely used computer platforms (i.e., Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Mac OS X 10.4) and covers many different statistical tests of the t, F, and chi2 test families. In addition, it includes power analyses for z tests and some exact tests. G*Power 3 provides improved effect size calculators and graphic options, supports both distribution-based and design-based input modes, and offers all types of power analyses in which users might be interested. Like its predecessors, G*Power 3 is free.
Evidence from 4 studies with 584 undergraduates demonstrates that social observers tend to perceive a "false consensus" with respect to the relative commonness of their own responses. A related bias was shown to exist in the observers' social inferences. Thus, raters estimated particular responses to be relatively common and relatively unrevealing concerning the actors' distinguishing personal dispositions when the responses in question were similar to the raters' own responses; responses differing from those of the rater, by contrast, were perceived to be relatively uncommon and revealing of the actor. These results were obtained both in questionnaire studies presenting Ss with hypothetical situations and choices and in authentic conflict situations. The implications of these findings for the understanding of social perception phenomena and for the analysis of the divergent perceptions of actors and observers are discussed. Cognitive and perceptual mechanisms are proposed which might account for distortions in perceived consensus and for corresponding biases in social inference and attributional processes. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Harm reduction approaches may benefit from research extending the exploration of predictors of alcohol use per se to those components most directly related to alcohol-related harm. This investigation evaluated the relationship between perceived injunctive norms of alcohol use (level of approval of drinking behaviors in specific situations) and the experience of alcohol-related consequences as a function of typical student reference groups at increasing levels of similarity to the respondent: based on race, gender, Greek status, and combinations of these dimensions, as well as parents, close friends, and the students' own attitudes. Participants were 3753 students (61% female) from two campuses who completed an online survey. Preliminary analyses determined that there were no differences in the relationship between perceived injunctive norms and consequences across the eight student groups of varying specificity, thus all eight levels were combined into one variable of perceived student injunctive norms. However, the relationship between this variable and consequences was weaker than the perceived attitudes of more proximal referents (parents, close friends, as well as their own personal attitudes). Subsequent analyses predicting consequences while controlling for demographic variables and drinking level, revealed that perceived injunctive norms for students, parents, and close friends as well as personal attitudes each significantly predicted consequences. Results suggest an important role for perceived injunctive norms in the experiencing of consequences over and above the amount of consumption and point to types of injunctive norms feedback that might form effective interventions (i.e., incorporating close friend and parent feedback as well as general student feedback).
Self-reports remain the most common means of assessing alcohol consumption despite concern for their validity. The objective of this research is to assess the extent to which social desirability biases relate to self-reported consumption, hazardous use, and harms.
In each of two studies presented, undergraduate students (N=391 and N=177) who reported that they had consumed alcohol in the past year completed online confidential surveys.
Both studies show consistent associations between impression management bias and self-reported consumption such that high impression managers report 20 to 33% less consumption and are about 50% less likely to report risky drinking. No significant correlations involving consumption were found for self-deception bias. Study 2 also indicated that high impression managers report 30-50% fewer acute harms following a drinking episode, and that these effects are maintained after controlling statistically for trait impulsivity/constraint.
Impression management bias represents a significant threat to the validity of self-reported alcohol use and harms. Such bias may lead to misspecification of models and under-estimates of harmful or hazardous use.
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 and coping-depression factors, were evaluated in undergraduates. In Study 1, confirmatory factor analyses supported the correlated five-factor model in two samples of undergraduate drinkers (N=726 and N=603). Furthermore, the five-factor model fit the data better than a four-factor model conceptually equivalent to that of Cooper [Cooper, M. L. (1994). Motivations for alcohol use among adolescents: Development and validation of a four-factor model. Psychological Assessment, 6, 117-128] (i.e., with coping-anxiety and coping-depression items constrained to a single factor). In Study 1, drinking motives were predictive of concurrent drinking frequency and typical number of alcoholic beverages per occasion, over and above demographics. In Study 2, the Modified DMQ-R scores showed good to excellent test-retest reliability in a sample of undergraduates who were relatively frequent drinkers (N=169). Also, drinking motives prospectively predicted number of drinks consumed per week and alcohol-related problems, over and above demographics and initial alcohol use. Notably, coping-anxiety and coping-depression motives were distinctly related to alcohol consumption and alcohol problems.
Examining social influence of the “why”: Perceived alcohol motives in the social network impact participant alcohol motives and alcohol use
- S J Bartel
- S B Sherry
- S H Stewart
Social learning theory
- S A Maisto
- K B Carey
- C M Bradizza