Jaye L. Derrick's research while affiliated with University of Houston and other places

Purpose To test whether the impact of subjective norms, race/ethnicity-specific descriptive norms, vaccine conspiracy beliefs, and prosocial concern on COVID-19 vaccination intentions differs by race/ethnicity for young adults. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting May-August 2021 in Texas. Subjects Racially/ethnically diverse unvaccinated college students (N = 314). Measures COVID-19 vaccination intentions, theory-driven constructs (eg, perceived susceptibility), vaccine conspiracy beliefs, prosocial concern, and social norms. Analysis Block-sequential multiple Tobit regression. Results Results revealed three significant two-way interactions between race/ethnicity and (1) subjective norms, F (5, 251) = 2.28, P < .05; (2) COVID-19 vaccine conspiracy beliefs, F (5, 251) = 2.88, P < .05; and (3) prosocial concern, F (5, 251) = 2.61, P < .05. There was a positive association between subjective norms and intentions for European and African Americans, a positive association between prosocial concerns and intentions for European and multiracial/multiethnic Americans, and a negative association between conspiracy beliefs and intention for Hispanics. The interaction between race/ethnicity and race/ethnicity-specific descriptive norms was not significant, F (5, 251) = 1.09, P = .37. Conclusion Although based on a relatively small sample, our findings suggest the importance of culturally tailoring COVID-19 vaccination messages to correct conspiracy beliefs, signaling a positive subjective norm, and enhancing prosocial concerns for specific racial-ethnic groups.

Over the past decade, self-administered mindfulness interventions, such as those administered via phone apps, have become increasingly popular. However, their effectiveness for regulating stress is unclear. In a multi-site study (Nsites = 37, Nparticipants = 2,239; all fluent English speakers) we experimentally investigated the efficacy of four single, stand-alone mindfulness exercises (versus three active control conditions) on self-reported stress with Bayesian mixed-effects models. All mindfulness exercises proved to be more efficacious than the active control conditions in reducing participants' self-reported stress levels. Between the control condition (M = 1.95) and the condition with the largest reduction in stress levels (Body Scan; M = 1.68), there was a mean difference of 0.27 on a four-point scale, (Cohen’s d = -.56) indicating a small decrease in stress. Our findings suggest that brief mindfulness exercises may be beneficial in reducing stress, even though we cannot fully distinguish between true effects and demand effects.

The short-term consequences of drinking events may be positive or negative. Most studies have considered only one outcome, but people may experience different alcohol outcomes on different occasions, depending on the circumstances. The present study sought to identify predictors of drinking events that resulted in couple intimacy, conflict, or neither outcome using existing data from a 30-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study. Participants were a community sample of partnered, moderately drinking adults with a recent history of verbal or physical partner aggression (N=249 couples). They provided reports of drinking events, intimacy and conflict events, and ratings of relationship harmony and discord in three randomly signaled reports each day. Mixed-effects multinomial analyses were used to compare predictors of drinking events that, within three hours, resulted in intimacy, conflict, or neither outcome. Consistent with previous research, characteristics of the drinker (individual tendencies to experience intimacy or conflict) and characteristics of the drinking event (alcohol quantity, drinking companions) both predicted drinking outcomes. Moreover, the pre-drinking relationship context predicted post-drinking relationship outcomes, consistent with the idea that alcohol focuses attention on salient contextual cues. Specifically, greater pre-drinking relationship harmony predicted greater likelihood of experiencing intimacy after drinking, whereas greater pre-drinking relationship discord predicted greater likelihood of experiencing conflict after drinking. In summary, characteristics of the drinker, the drinking event, and the pre-drinking relationship context contribute to the likelihood that a given drinking event will have short-term positive or negative relationship outcomes.

(1) Background: Gender differences between men’s and women’s parenting roles are well-documented as the “second shift”. We examined the main effects and interaction of work distress and parenting distress with energy (i.e., vigor) in a sample of 310 dual-income, different-sex couples with kids married for approximately nine years. (2) Methods: We used actor–partner interdependence modeling (APIM) to examine how spouses’ distress was associated with their energy. (3) Results: For both wives and husbands, there were negative associations between the actor’s parenting distress and their energy level and between the actor’s work distress and their energy level. However, only wives experienced a significant interaction of work and parenting distress such that high levels of both forms of distress were associated with low levels of energy, indicating that only wives experience this form of work–family conflict. (4) Conclusions: When women experience more strain at home than men, they may need more time to recover from their work and family duties. If they cannot do so, they will have less energy to carry out their responsibilities and may be at a higher risk of future adverse health outcomes.

Objective: Alcohol use is an established risk factor for intimate partner aggression (IPA); however, few studies have considered whether couple drinking episodes increase the short-term likelihood of IPA episodes. The present ecological momentary assessment study considered the temporal effects of alcohol consumption on IPA perpetration and victimization within a sample of community couples at elevated risk of aggression. Method: Mixed-sex (n = 191), same-sex male (n = 31), and same-sex female (n = 27) cohabiting couples (total N = 249; ages 21-35) made three independent, random reports for 30 consecutive days. Dyadic multilevel modeling was used to examine the impact of each partner's drinking episodes on the occurrence of verbal and physical perpetration and victimization events within the next 4 hr, using the actor-partner interdependence model. Results: Actor and partner alcohol use increased the likelihood of conflict and likelihood of conflicts involving verbal perpetration and victimization within the next 4 hr; alcohol effects on physical aggression were weaker. Actor alcohol effects on IPA remained significant after the addition of several control variables; partner effects did not. The absence of Alcohol × Gender interaction effects suggests that alcohol effects on IPA do not depend on actor or partner gender or their combination. Conclusions: There are robust alcohol effects on the occurrence of verbal aggression perpetration and victimization episodes, with weak effects on physical aggression perpetration. Conflicts that include alcohol are not more likely to include aggression; rather, alcohol increases the likelihood of conflict occurring, with a proportion of those involving verbal aggression. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Introduction: Peer sexual harassment is associated with adolescent substance use at the global level; however, it is unknown whether substance use occurs proximal in time to the sexual harassment experience. This study used daily reports to examine the proximal relations between sexual harassment victimization and affect and substance use. Based on theories of self-medication, we hypothesized that negative affect and substance use (cigarettes, electronic cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana) would be higher than typical on days when sexual harassment occurred relative to nonvictimization days. Method: A community sample of 13-16-year-old adolescents (N = 204, 55.4% female) from a metropolitan area in the northeastern United States completed 56 days of online reports assessing experiences with peer sexual harassment, substance use (cigarettes, electronic cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana), and positive and negative affect. Results: Multilevel modeling revealed that experiencing sexual harassment on a given day was associated with higher than typical negative affect on that day, relative to nonvictimization days. The likelihood of cigarette and alcohol use (but not electronic cigarettes, marijuana, or positive affect) was greater on days when sexual harassment occurred. Conclusion: Sexual harassment victimization is proximally associated with negative affect and alcohol and cigarette use, suggesting that adolescents may be using substances to cope with sexual harassment victimization. The co-occurrence of sexual harassment with negative affect and substance use points to the need for prevention efforts that conjointly address sexual harassment victimization, coping, and substance use.

Background The outbreak of the novel 2019 SARS2-Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has led to substantial psychological distress across the United States and the world. However, emerging work suggests that prominent COVID-19 consequences such as fear of COVID-19 infection and emotional distress resulting from economic adversity and social distancing may afflict the Latinx population disproportionately. The current study sought to investigate the influence of experiential avoidance (EA), or an individual’s tendency to rigidly avoid negative internal experiences (i.e. feelings, thoughts, etc.), on the severity of COVID-19 fear and emotional distress symptoms due to economic adversity and social distancing.Method Participants included 188 Latinx persons recruited via an online survey panel program.ResultsResults indicated that EA was a statistically significant contributing factor to fear of COVID-19 and emotional distress associated with economic adversity and social distancing. These effects were evident over and above the variance accounted for by gender, years living in the United States, education, and COVID-19 related work and home life stress.Conclusions Overall, the present work is the first to document empirically EA as it relates to fear of COVID-19 infection and related emotional distress resulting from economic adversity and social distancing among Latinx persons.

Researchers have only recently recognized the paucity of research on sexual minority samples and the need to diversify research samples. However, recruiting sexual minority samples of sufficient size to allow for adequate statistical power can be challenging, particularly when the goal is to compare heterosexual with sexual minority subsamples. We describe successful efforts to recruit same-sex male and female intimate couples in sufficient numbers to permit comparison with a larger sample of primarily mixed-sex community couples participating in a 30-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study of alcohol and relationship functioning. Our efforts involved targeting Facebook ads to appeal to same-sex couples, expanding the geographic reach of the ads beyond the local area, and conducting videoconference as opposed to in-person orientation sessions. Efforts yielded sufficient numbers of same-sex couples meeting stringent eligibility criteria to permit statistical comparisons and offer a potentially cost-effective means for recruiting hard-to-reach populations.

Objective Suicidal ideation has increased among Latinx individuals in the last decade. Smoking increases the likelihood of suicidal ideation but work on Latinx smokers is minimal. Hazardous drinking and emotion dysregulation could be factors related to suicidal ideation among Latinx smokers, as has been evident in non-Latinx White samples. The current study sought to examine the main and interactive effects of emotion dysregulation and hazardous drinking in relation to suicidal ideation among Latinx daily-smokers. Methods Participants were 371 Spanish-speaking daily-smokers (58.8% female; Mage = 33.3; SDage = 9.8) recruited from the United States through Qualtrics. We used structural equation modeling (SEM) to test an interactive model of emotion dysregulation and hazardous alcohol consumption in relation to suicidal ideation; we also tested the effect of emotion dysregulation on suicidal ideation as a function of hazardous drinking status. Results Results indicated that latent emotional dysregulation was associated with greater suicidal ideation (p < 0.001); however, hazardous drinking was not related to suicidal ideation (p = 0.186). The interactive term of emotional dysregulation and hazardous drinking was significantly related to suicidal ideation (p = 0.017). Specifically, greater emotion dysregulation was significantly related to suicidal ideation among Latinx smokers who engaged in hazardous drinking (p < 0.001) but not those who did not engage in hazardous drinking (p = 0.123). Conclusions The current findings suggest that smoking combined with hazardous drinking may be related to increased suicidal ideation among Latinx smokers. Findings are discussed in relation to the potential role of intervention strategies that focus on emotion dysregulation and hazardous drinking among Latinx current daily smokers to mitigate suicidal risk among this established health disparities population.