Adolescent precursors of young adult drinking motives

Boredom and curiosity: the hunger and the appetite for information

Boredom and curiosity are common everyday states that drive individuals to seek information. Due to their functional relatedness, it is not trivial to distinguish whether an action, for instance in the context of a behavioral experiment, is driven by boredom or curiosity. Are the two constructs opposite poles of the same cognitive mechanism, or distinct states? How do they interact? Can they co-exist and complement each other? Here, we systematically review similarities and dissimilarities of boredom and curiosity with respect to their subjective experience, functional role, and neurocognitive implementation. We highlight the usefulness of Information Theory for formalizing information-seeking in the context of both states and provide guidelines for their experimental investigation. Our emerging view is that despite their distinction on an experiential level, boredom and curiosity are closely related on a functional level, providing complementary drives on information-seeking: boredom, similar to hunger, arises from a lack of information and drives individuals to avoid contexts with low information yield, whereas curiosity constitutes a mechanism similar to appetite, pulling individuals toward specific sources of information. We discuss predictions arising from this perspective, concluding that boredom and curiosity are independent, but coalesce to optimize behavior in environments providing varying levels of information.

Characterizing reward and relief/habit drinking profiles in a study of naltrexone, varenicline, and placebo

INTRODUCTION

This study aims to clarify differences in mood, craving, and treatment response between reward and relief/habit individuals in a study of naltrexone, varenicline, and placebo. We hypothesized that relief/habit individuals would have a poorer mood during early abstinence and higher levels of alcohol craving than reward individuals. We hypothesized that reward individuals would demonstrate better drinking outcomes on naltrexone versus placebo.

METHODS

Data were culled from a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled human trial of 53 individuals (18F/16M) with alcohol use disorder randomized to varenicline (n = 19), naltrexone (n = 15), or matched placebo (n = 19). In this 6-day practice quit trial, participants attempted to abstain from drinking and completed daily diaries. Participants were classified into reward or relief/habit subgroups based on self-reported motivation for drinking. Multilinear models tested differences in mood and alcohol craving between reward and relief/habit individuals. General linear models tested differences between reward and relief/habit individuals' drinking outcomes on each medication versus placebo.

RESULTS

Relief/habit individuals showed decreases in positive mood and increases in negative mood over the quit attempt across medications, compared to reward individuals (P's < .05). Reward individuals' tension decreased on naltrexone, while relief/habit individuals' tension remained stable (F = 3.64, P = .03). Reward individuals in the placebo group had higher percent days abstinent than relief individuals in the placebo group (P < .001).

DISCUSSION

This study suggests relief/habit individuals' mood worsens during early abstinence. Our finding that reward individuals' tension decreased on naltrexone and increased on placebo may suggest a clinical response to the medication.

Variation by race/ethnicity-gender in the relationship between arrest history and alcohol use

BACKGROUND

Alcohol use contributes to the national burden of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Arrest, as a unique form of criminal justice system involvement, may be related to alcohol use from adolescence to adulthood. This study investigates the relationship between arrest and alcohol use across race/ethnicity-gender (R/E-G) status (e.g., Black, Latinx, and White men and women) as youth age.

METHODS

Data from 17 waves (1997-2015) of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 cohort (N = 8901) were used to explore how variation in R/E-G moderates the relationship between arrest history and alcohol use trajectories from 13 to 30 years old. Multilevel zero-inflated Poisson and Poisson regression were used to assess R/E-G variation in the relationship between arrest history and days of alcohol consumption, drinks per drinking occasion, and days of binge drinking after accounting for covariates, including incarceration.

RESULTS

The findings indicate that an arrest history is associated with alcohol use, and these results varied by R/E-G status, age, and alcohol use outcome. Those with an arrest history reported more days of drinking than their counterparts without an arrest; yet, the magnitude and direction of average drinks per occasion and binge drinking days varied by R/E-G status and age. Paradoxically, Black men, Black women, and Latinx men with an arrest history reported fewer days of binge drinking as they aged than their counterparts without an arrest.

CONCLUSIONS

A history of arrest is important for alcohol use from adolescence to adulthood and varies by R/E-G status, age, and alcohol use outcome. This work confirms previous scholarship showing that arrest and alcohol use are socially patterned and R/E-G status is an essential consideration in understanding the relationship. Future work should include additional identities and health behaviors and the consequences related to alcohol use outcomes.

Validation of a German version of the Boredom Proneness Scale and the Multidimensional State Boredom Scale

The scientific interest in boredom is growing over the past decades. Boredom has not only been linked to symptoms of psychopathology, but also shows a remarkable effect on individual behavior under healthy conditions. Current characterizations of boredom in humans mostly rely on self-report assessments which proved to faithfully reflect boredom in a vast range of experimental environments. Two of the most commonly used and prominent self-report scales in order to assess boredom are the Multidimensional State Boredom Scale (MSBS) and the Boredom Proneness Scale (BPS). Here, we present the German translations of both questionnaires and their validation. We obtained and analyzed psychometric data from more than 800 healthy individuals. We find that the German MSBS and BPS show vast congruence with their originals in respect to item statistics, internal reliability and validity. In particular, we find remarkable associations of state boredom and trait boredom with indicators of mental burden. Testing the factor structure of both questionnaires, we find supporting evidence for a 5-factor model of the MSBS, whereas the BPS in line with its original shows an irregular, inconsistent factor structure. Thus, we validate the German versions of MSBS and BPS and set a starting point for further studies of boredom in German-speaking collectives.

Modeling fashion as an emergent collective behavior of bored individuals

Boredom is an aversive mental state that is typically evoked by monotony and drives individuals to seek novel information. Despite this effect on individual behavior, the consequences of boredom for collective behavior remain elusive. Here, we introduce an agent-based model of collective fashion behavior in which simplified agents interact randomly and repeatedly choose alternatives from a circular space of color variants. Agents are endowed with a memory of past experiences and a boredom parameter, promoting avoidance of monotony. Simulating collective color trends with this model captures aspects of real trends observed in fashion magazines. We manipulate the two parameters and observe that the boredom parameter is essential for perpetuating fashion dynamics in our model. Furthermore, highly bored agents lead future population trends, when acting coherently or being highly popular. Taken together, our study illustrates that highly bored individuals can guide collective dynamics of a population to continuously explore different variants of behavior.

High state boredom vastly affects psychiatric inpatients and predicts their treatment duration

Boredom is a ubiquitous, aversive human experience typically elicited by low information and monotony. Boredom can occur either as a transient mental state that prompts individuals to adapt their behavior to avoid monotony or as a temporally stable trait, describing a chronic susceptibility to feeling bored. Increased trait boredom was found to correlate with various psychopathologies and indicators of mental burden. However, the role of state boredom in psychopathological conditions and its implications for psychiatric treatment remain elusive. Here, we address this issue by investigating state boredom and trait boredom in a cohort of psychiatric inpatients and a healthy control cohort. We find that in both groups, state boredom, even more than trait boredom, shows remarkable associations with psychopathology. In the inpatient group, state boredom is implicated broadly in multiple mental disorders and shows an association with treatment in closed psychiatric wards. Furthermore, through statistical modeling, we find that high-state boredom during inpatient therapy is predictive of a longer therapy duration. Thus, we show that state boredom constitutes an indicator of mild and severe psychopathology in different mental disorders, affecting the outcome of psychiatric patients. Potential therapeutic interventions are discussed, aiming to enhance information flow in the brain in order to alleviate boredom in clinical settings.

Do brief motivational interventions increase motivation for change in drinking among college students? A two-step meta-analysis of individual participant data

BACKGROUND

Brief motivational interventions (BMIs) are one of the most effective individually focused alcohol intervention strategies for college students. Despite the central theoretical role of motivation for change in BMIs, it is unclear whether BMIs increase motivation to change drinking behavior. We conducted a two-step meta-analysis of individual participant data (IPD) to examine whether BMIs increase motivation for change. N = 5903;59% women, 72% White) from Project INTEGRATE. The BMIs included individually delivered motivational interviewing with personalized feedback (MI + PF), stand-alone personalized feedback (PF), and group-based motivational interviewing (GMI).

METHODS

We included 15 trials of BMI (N = 5903;59% women, 72% White) from Project INTEGRATE. The BMIs included individually-delivered motivational interviewing with personalized feedback (MI + PF), stand-alone personalized feedback (PF), and group-based motivational interviewing (GMI). Different measures and responses used in the original trials were harmonized. Effect size estimates were derived from a model that adjusted for baseline motivation and demographic variables for each trial (step 1) and subsequently combined in a random-effects meta-analysis (step 2).

RESULTS

The overall intervention effect of BMIs on motivation for change was not statistically significant (standard mean difference [SMD]: 0.026, 95% CI: [-0.001, 0.053], p = 0.06, k = 19 comparisons). Of the three subtypes of BMIs, GMI, which tended to provide motivation-targeted content, had a statistically significant intervention effect on motivation, compared with controls (SMD: 0.055, 95% CI: [0.007, 0.103], p = 0.025, k = 5). By contrast, there was no evidence that MI + PF (SMD = 0.04, 95% CI: [-0.02, 0.10], k = 6, p = 0.20) nor PF increased motivation (SMD = 0.005, 95% CI: [-0.028, 0.039], k = 8, p = 0.75), compared with controls. Post hoc meta-regression analysis suggested that motivation sharply decreased each month within the first 3 months postintervention (b = -0.050, z = -2.80, p = 0.005 for k = 14).

CONCLUSIONS

Although BMIs provide motivational content and normative feedback and are assumed to motivate behavior change, the results do not wholly support the hypothesis that BMIs improve motivation for change. Changing motivation is difficult to assess during and following interventions, but it is still a theoretically important clinical endpoint. Further, the evidence cautiously suggests that changing motivation may be achievable, especially if motivation-targeted content components are provided.

Boredom Susceptibility and Quit Smoking: The Role of Anxiety Symptoms

Boredom is one of the main reported motives for smoking. However, scarce research has examined the relationship between boredom susceptibility and abstinence achievement in treatment-seeking smokers. The aim of this study is to examine the mediating effect of anxiety symptoms in the relationship between boredom susceptibility and abstinence at the end of a smoking cessation treatment. The sample was composed of 481 Spanish smokers who received a cognitive-behavioral treatment to quit (M_age= 45.51, SD = 11.16; 60.6% female). The Boredom Susceptibility subscale of the Sensation Seeking Scale Form-V and the Beck Anxiety Inventory were used. Pearson correlations and mediation analyses were conducted to examine the relationships between the study variables. Boredom susceptibility was significantly and positively correlated to anxiety symptoms, but not to abstinence. Anxiety symptoms were significantly and negatively correlated to abstinence. A significant indirect effect of boredom susceptibility on abstinence at the end of treatment through anxiety symptoms was found. There was no direct relation between boredom susceptibility and abstinence. These findings extend previous literature by showing that higher boredom susceptibility is associated with less likelihood to be abstinent at the end of the treatment through higher anxiety symptoms. These results highlight the relevance of considering the inclusion of boredom and anxiety management techniques in smoking cessation interventions.

A retrospective examination of changes in drinking motives during the early COVID-19 pandemic

OBJECTIVE

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to substantial changes in college student alcohol use. Changes in drinking motives may explain some of these changes in drinking patterns. The purpose of the present study is to explore how drinking motives and alcohol use have changed amongst college students considering the timeframes before and after the onset of COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., March 2020) in the United States. We hypothesized that there would be significant changes in drinking motives after March 2020, which would be significantly related to changes in alcohol use.

METHODS

Participants for the current study were undergraduate students reporting lifetime alcohol use (n = 198, M_age = 21.3, 66.7% female, 86.4% White) recruited through online advertisements in classes to complete an online survey in April 2020. Participants were asked to report on their drinking motives and alcohol use considering the timeframes before and after the onset of closures and stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., before and since March 2020).

RESULTS

Paired samples t-tests revealed that endorsement of social (t[171) = 12.79, p < .001, d = 1.16) and conformity motives significantly decreased (t[170] = 4.46, p < .001, d = 0.31), while endorsement of coping motives significantly increased (t[172] = -2.70, p = .008, d = .15) after the onset of COVID-19. Linear regression analyses, controlling for drinking motives before March 2020, revealed that changes in enhancement (β = -.47, p < .001) and coping motives (β = -.22, p = .04) were significantly associated with changes in alcohol use quantity.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings of the present study support the need for interventions to target coping and social drinking to reduce risk for alcohol use.

The Relationship between Binge Drinking and Binge Eating in Adolescence and Youth: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Adolescence and youth are critical periods in which alcohol consumption is usually initiated, especially in the form of binge drinking. In recent years, it is increasingly common to find adolescents and young people who also present binge behaviors towards unhealthy food with the aim of alleviating their anxiety (emotional eating) and/or because of impulsive personality. Despite the social and health relevance of this issue, it remains scarcely studied and more preventive research needs to be developed. Our meta-analysis study aimed to evaluate the relationship and co-occurrence of both binge behaviors during adolescence and young adulthood to clarify the link between binge drinking and eating. Selective literature search on different online databases was performed. We identified discrete but significant results regarding the direct association between binge drinking and binge eating in correlation coefficients and odds ratio. Future research should focus on the common psychological background and motives behind these problematic behaviors owing to their clinical implications for effective prevention and treatment.

Genetic and environmental etiology of drinking motives in college students

BACKGROUND

Drinking motives are robust proximal predictors of alcohol use behaviors and may mediate distinct etiological pathways in the development of alcohol misuse. However, little is known about the genetic and environmental etiology of drinking motives themselves and their potential utility as endophenotypes.

METHODS

Here, we leverage a longitudinal study of college students from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds (phenotypic N = 9889, genotypic N = 4855) to investigate the temporal stability and demographic and environmental predictors of four types of drinking motives (enhancement, social, coping, and conformity). Using genome-wide association study (GWAS) and in silico tools, we characterize their associated genes and genetic variants (single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs).

RESULTS

Drinking motives were stable across four years of college (ICC >0.74). Some robust environmental predictors of alcohol misuse (parental autonomy granting and peer deviance) were broadly associated with multiple types of drinking motives, while others (e.g., trauma exposure) were type specific. Genome-wide analyses indicated modest SNP-based heritability (14-22%, n.s.) and several suggestive genomic loci that corroborate findings from previous molecular genetic studies (e.g., PECR and SIRT4 genes), indicating possible differences in the genetic etiology of positive versus negative reinforcement drinking motives that align with an internalizing/externalizing typology of alcohol misuse. Coping motives were significantly genetically correlated with alcohol use disorder diagnoses (r_g  = 0.71, p = 0.001). However, results from the genetic analyses were largely underpowered to detect significant associations.

CONCLUSIONS

Drinking motives show promise as endophenotypes but require further investigation in larger samples to further our understanding of the etiology of alcohol misuse.

Experienced entropy drives choice behavior in a boring decision-making task

Boredom has been defined as an aversive mental state that is induced by the disability to engage in satisfying activity, most often experienced in monotonous environments. However, current understanding of the situational factors inducing boredom and driving subsequent behavior remains incomplete. Here, we introduce a two-alternative forced-choice task coupled with sensory stimulation of different degrees of monotony. We find that human subjects develop a bias in decision-making, avoiding the more monotonous alternative that is correlated with self-reported state boredom. This finding was replicated in independent laboratory and online experiments and proved to be specific for the induction of boredom rather than curiosity. Furthermore, using theoretical modeling we show that the entropy in the sequence of individually experienced stimuli, a measure of information gain, serves as a major determinant to predict choice behavior in the task. With this, we underline the relevance of boredom for driving behavioral responses that ensure a lasting stream of information to the brain.

Clinical and Epidemiological Characteristics of Acute Poisoning in Children in Southwestern China: A Review of 1755 Cases from 2014 to 2020

Purpose

Acute poisoning is a major cause of disability and death in children, but there is a lack of large-scale and multicenter epidemiological data on acute poisoning in children.

Patients and Methods

The current study was a retrospective analysis of clinical data from 1755 children aged 0 to 14 years who were hospitalized between 01 January 2014 and 31 December 2020 in southwestern China.

Results

Acute poisoning was common in childhood, particularly in early childhood (607; 34.6%) and preschool (655; 37.3%), and most cases occurred in rural areas (1191; 67.9%). It was more common in boys (934; 53.2%) than in girls (821; 46.8%). In urban areas, poisoning was mainly caused by drugs (266; 47.2%), chemical agents (59; 10.5%), and alcohol (54; 9.6%). In rural areas, it was mainly caused by pesticides (620; 52.1%) and medications (213; 17.9%), the route of poisoning was usually the digestive tract (1671; 95.2%), in most cases the poisoning was accidental (1618; 92.3%), and pesticides (659; 37.5%) and medications (479; 27.3%) predominated. After timely treatment, the majority of patients had no substantial organ damage, sequelae, or disabilities, and mortality was low (17; 1.0%).

Conclusion

Acute poisoning is a frequent accident in childhood, mainly in infants and preschool children, mostly in rural areas, and poisoning mostly occurs via the digestive tract. Family and community education should be conducted to prevent poisoning.

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Different drugs come with different motives: Examining motives for substance use among people who engage in polysubstance use undergoing methadone maintenance therapy (MMT)

BACKGROUND

Substance use motives (i.e., reasons for using a substance) are thought to be the most proximal variable leading to substance use. These motives have been described by various typologies, the most well known being the four-factor drinking motives model which separates motives into enhancement, social, coping, and conformity (Cooper, 1994). Although extensively studied in adult community samples, motives for use have less commonly been investigated among populations at a later stage of addiction, where polysubstance use is more common. Moreover, because the motives literature has largely focused on drinking motives, it is not clear whether existing findings can also be applied to other substances (Cooper et al., 2016).

METHODS

Using Zero-inflated beta Bayesian linear mixed modeling, we investigated the stability of seven distinct substance use motives (enhancement, social, expansion, coping with anxiety, coping with depression, coping with withdrawal, and conformity) across six different drug categories (tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, opioids, stimulants, and tranquilisers) to determine the extent to which drug class can influence motive endorsement. One-hundred-and-thirty-eight methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) clients (F = 34.1%; M = 65.9%; age = 40.18 years) completed a novel short-form polysubstance motives questionnaire.

RESULTS

External motives (i.e., conformity and social motives) were the most stable across drug categories, while all internal motives (i.e., enhancement, expansion, and all three coping motives) demonstrated varying levels of inter-drug variability.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings have important implications for prevention and intervention strategies among people who engage in polysubstance use, highlighting the importance of both universal and substance-specific programming.

Drinking Motives and Drinking Consequences across Days: Differences and Similarities between Moderate, Binge, and High-Intensity Drinking

BACKGROUND

The current study examined the extent to which within-person variation in drinking motives differentiates moderate, binge, and high-intensity drinking; and independent associations of motives and drinking intensity with alcohol use consequences in a sample of young adult drinkers from across the United States.

METHODS

Participants were past 30-day drinkers in the U.S. nationally representative Monitoring the Future 12th grade sample in 2018, who also reported alcohol use during a 14-day data collection burst 1 year later (N = 484 people, mean age 19.3 [SD 0.40], 43% female; N = 1042 drinking days) as part of the Young Adult Daily Life Study in 2019. Weighted multilevel modeling estimated within- and between-person associations of drinking motives, drinking intensity (i.e., moderate [women 1-3, men 1-4 drinks], binge [women 4-7, men 5-9 drinks], and high-intensity drinking [women 8+, men 10+ drinks]), and number of positive and negative alcohol consequences.

RESULTS

On days participants reported greater enhancement and social motives, they were more likely to engage in high-intensity (vs. binge) drinking and binge (vs. moderate) drinking and experience more positive alcohol consequences. On days participants reported greater enhancement and coping motives, they experienced more negative alcohol consequences. Binge (vs. moderate) drinking on a given day was associated with more positive and negative alcohol consequences; high-intensity (vs. binge) drinking on a given day was associated with more negative alcohol consequences that day. Moderation analyses indicated that social motives were associated with high-intensity (vs. binge) drinking only among college students.

CONCLUSIONS

Stronger drinking motives on a given day were associated with drinking intensity (enhancement and social motives) and negative consequences (enhancement and coping). High-intensity (vs. binge or moderate) drinking was associated with more negative consequences but not more positive consequences. These results underscore that high-intensity drinking and consequences vary across days and time-varying, occasion-specific risks such as current motivational context are appropriate targets for intervention.

The map of cognitive processes in boredom: multiple mediation models

BACKGROUND

Trait boredom is associated with several internalizing and externalizing problems. Addressing existing research gaps in the field, the present study investigated the map of cognitive processes for boredom, based on the rational emotive behaviour therapy model (REBT).

AIMS

The general aim of the study was to investigate the organization of irrational and rational evaluative cognitions related to boredom, and the association between boredom and depression symptoms and state/trait anxiety.

METHODS

The 233 participants (84% women) completed online scales of evaluative cognitions, trait boredom, trait/state anxiety and depression. Multiple mediation models via the SPSS extension PROCESS were employed.

RESULTS

The REBT psychopathology and psychological health models were partially confirmed, as the evaluative primary cognitions predicted positively and significantly the secondary ones in both cases. Low frustration tolerance (LFT) and global evaluations (GE), and frustration tolerance (FT), respectively, had significant effects. We found a positive significant association between boredom proneness and the negative dysfunctional emotions investigated.

CONCLUSIONS

Both results offer further support for the hierarchy of cognitions and the distinction between the level of irrationality and rationality in REBT. This is the first attempt to assess a cognitive map of boredom, underlining the importance of (L)FT in relation to boredom. The significance of GE in boredom suggests that people might see themselves responsible, or even blame themselves, others or life itself while bored. The associations of boredom with anxiety and depression are relevant, as its role in those contexts is not yet fully understood.

Are changes in binge drinking among European adolescents driven by changes in computer gaming?

INTRODUCTION

There is currently no good explanation for the decline in adolescent drinking reported for many Western countries in recent years. As modern computer gaming is highly exciting and socially rewarding, it may function as a substitute for adolescent binge drinking. We hypothesized a negative correlation between country-level changes in computer gaming and binge drinking.

METHODS

We analysed within-country changes based on data from 15-16 year-old pupils (n = 517 794) participating in the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Drugs from 1995 to 2015. Binge drinking in the last 30 days (5+ units on one occasion) was regressed on frequency of computer gaming and three control variables measuring the frequency of engagement in other hobbies, reading books and going out (to a disco, cafe, etc.).

RESULTS

Descriptive data showed no general decline in binge drinking across European countries. In contrast to our prediction, the association between binge drinking and computer gaming was not negative [b = 0.26, one-sided 95% confidence interval (-∞, 0.47), P = 0.98, Bayes Factor = 0.21]. We found the same pattern of result in a secondary analysis on six Nordic countries that have experienced declines in adolescent drinking recent years. In analyses with covariates reflecting engagement in other activities, we only observed statistical evidence for an effect of going out.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

A substantial decline in adolescent binge drinking during the years 1995-2015 is only evident in some European countries, and it is likely not caused by increased computer gaming.

Gambling motives: Association with addictive disorders and negative and positive mood in youth

Gambling disorder and other comorbid addictive disorders may have similar underlying affective and motivational patterns. This study aims at examining the association between gambling disorder, comorbid addictive disorders (i.e., alcohol, drugs, spending, and videogames), positive and affective mood, and gambling motives in a community sample. A sample of 1099 adolescents and young adults was recruited from educational centres, from which 569 (51.7%) scored as non-problem gamblers, 42 (3.8%) as at-risk gamblers, and 53 (4.8%) as problem gamblers. Results suggest that enhancement, social, and coping motives are greater among problem gamblers and at-risk gamblers as compared to non-problem gamblers. Problem gamblers scored higher in gambling and comorbid disorders than at-risk gamblers, and also higher in gambling motives and negative mood when compared to non-problem gamblers. Likewise, gambling severity was significantly associated to gambling motives, negative mood, and other addictive disorders. Finally, enhancement motives were predictive of gambling, alcohol, drugs, and spending while controlling for the effect of age, sex, and positive and negative mood. These results shed light into the nature of the relationship between gambling and other comorbid addictions and can be used to tailor prevention and treatment strategies.

Affective Drinking Motives, Delinquency and Binge Drinking: A Comparison of Male and Female High School Seniors

Aim

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the association between affective drinking motives, delinquency and binge drinking varied as a function of sex and if so, whether delinquency moderated the relationship between affective drinking motives and binge drinking in late adolescent males and females.

Methods

Participants were 623 (257 males, 366 females) high school seniors from the 2018 Monitoring the Future study. A principal components analysis was initially performed to create component scores for the first factor of a 15-item drinking motives scale subsequently labeled affective drinking motives. These scores, along with sex and a measure of delinquency, were then entered into a three-way interaction. The interaction was found to correlate significantly with binge drinking. Because of the significant three-way interaction, analyses were performed on male and female participants separately.

Results

Analyses conducted on male participants revealed a moderate correlation between affective drinking motives and binge drinking but no evidence of an interaction between affective drinking motives and delinquency. Analyses performed on female participants, on the other hand, identified a significant main effect for affective drinking motives and a negative interaction between affective drinking motives and delinquency, indicating that the relationship between affective drinking motives and binge drinking was strongest when delinquency was low.

Conclusions

These results suggest that while delinquency had no apparent impact on the affective drinking motive–binge drinking correlation in boys, low delinquency clearly amplified the counter-binge drinking effects of low affective drinking motives in girls.

Neural Responses to Signals for Behavior Change: Greater Within-Person Variability is Associated With Risk Factors for Substance Dependence

BACKGROUND

An impaired ability to change behavior in the face of cues indicating a need for change is one means of defining risk for substance dependence. The present study used a cognitive task administered in a laboratory as a model of this process. It focused on 2 known and related correlates of risk (conduct disorder, borderline personality disorder) and examined their associations with reactivity to cues requesting a change in motor behavior.

METHODS

A total of 224 teenagers, 14 to 19 years of age, performed a task during which white noise bursts were used to cue a requirement to reverse the mapping of right and left key press responses onto high- and low-frequency pure tones during a subsequent trial block. The amplitude of the P300 electroencephalographic (EEG) response to each cue was summarized by calculating its across-trial average as well as its intertrial variability (ITV). In addition, the number of motor response reversal failures (perseveration errors) was calculated.

RESULTS

The ITV of the P300 response to cues for behavior change was superior to its average amplitude in revealing associations with risk: It was significantly greater among teenagers with more conduct problems and more borderline personality disorder symptoms in comparison with their less-affected peers. ITV was also positively correlated with perseveration errors. No group differences were found in P300 amplitude averaged over trials.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings suggest that the measurement of intertrial variability in brain activity may be more valuable than the average level for revealing neurophysiological differences associated with impulsivity and personality risk factors for dependence. EEG measures may be particularly valuable in this context because they offer superior temporal resolution and signal-to-noise characteristics.

Depressive symptoms are related to boredom proneness in patients receiving hospital care, regardless of alcohol status, lifestyle, or social support

We examined the relationship between boredom proneness and psychological distress in patients receiving hospital care due either to excessive alcohol consumption or to gastrointestinal diseases. Sociodemographic data were collected together with boredom proneness subscales (internal/external lack of stimulation), psychological distress, physical activity, and social support. Boredom proneness due to a lack of external stimulation seemed to constitute a prominent personality trait in patients with alcohol consumption. But depressive symptoms were related only to boredom proneness due to a lack of internal stimulation in all patients, regardless of alcohol status, lifestyle, or social support. Potential implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Heavy episodic drinking in late adolescents: The role of theory of mind and conformity drinking motives

BACKGROUND

Heavy episodic drinking (HED) implies severe consequences for health, both in the short and long term. Peer conformity has shown contradictory relationships with HED, suggesting the presence of a complex interaction between social and individual factors.

OBJECTIVE

This study investigated the moderation role of conformity in the relationship between theory of mind (ToM) and HED.

METHOD

Participants were 170 Italian adolescents (M_age = 18.71, SD_age = 0.77) recruited in public high schools. Self-report measures were administered for evaluating drunkenness and HED. The Drinking Motives Questionnaire was used to assess three drinking motives, namely coping with negative emotions, enhancement of positive feelings, and the need for peer conformity, whereas the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test was adopted to test advanced theory of mind skills. ANOVAs, MANOVAs and regression moderation analyses were performed.

RESULTS

Drunkenness, HED and drinking motives did not vary with gender. Only social motives were higher in boys (vs. girls). HED was positively related to drunkenness and to social, coping and enhancement motives. However, only enhancement significantly predicted HED. Finally, conformity moderated the relationship between ToM and HED. In the presence of high conformity, adolescents with impaired ToM reported significantly more HED than adolescents with high ToM.

CONCLUSIONS

In the presence of conformity needs, social cognition impairment appeared to be a risk factor for HED, whereas good socio-cognitive skills were protective. Implications for research, clinical assessment and prevention are discussed.

A Multilevel Study of Alcohol Consumption in Young Adults: Self-Efficacy, Peers' Motivations and Protective Strategies

In both developing and underdeveloped countries there has been a worrying increase in the number of young people drinking alcohol; this public health problem warrants more research. This multilevel study analyzed the influence of drinking refusal self-efficacy, peers’ motivation, and protective behavioral strategies as predictors of alcohol consumption in a sample of 261 young people arranged into 52 social groups (peers who regularly shared leisure activities). A series of questionnaires were administered individually to evaluate beliefs and behaviors related to alcohol consumption at both individual level (drinking refusal self-efficacy) and peer level (enhancement motivation and protective behavioral strategies). The results showed that the individual variable (drinking refusal self-efficacy) predicted alcohol consumption behaviors. The multilevel design allowed us to evaluate the direct and moderated effects of peers’ enhancement motivation and protective behavioral strategies on the relationship between self-efficacy and drinking behavior. These results show the importance of developing cognitive, behavioral, and educational intervention programs to increase young people and university students’ confidence and ability to use protective strategies, in order to reduce alcohol use.

Friend Selection and Influence Effects for First Heavy Drinking Episode in Adolescence

OBJECTIVE

Heavy alcohol consumption has both immediate and longer-term risks for adolescents. Using a dynamic network modeling approach, this study investigated the role of adult supervision and affiliation with heavy drinking friends in predicting the risk of a first heavy drinking episode in a community sample of adolescents.

METHOD

Two cohorts of ninth grade youth (n = 1,220, 48% male) from seven communities were surveyed three times over the course of the school year (fall, winter, and spring), each time assessing their friendship networks, whether they had ever experienced a heavy drinking episode, frequency of heavy drinking over the past month, and the amount of unsupervised time spent with each of their friends over the past month.

RESULTS

Participants were more likely to form friendships with classmates with similar recent heavy drinking behavior, but similarity on adult supervision of time spent with friends had no effect on friendship selection. A negative interaction was observed between these two similarity effects, implying that they were antisynergistic. Risk for a first heavy drinking episode was greater for youth with friends who had experienced such an episode already. This effect was no stronger if these friends had more such episodes in the previous 30 days but was marginally stronger if the friends reported less adult supervision.

CONCLUSIONS

Heavy drinking-related friendships increase the risk of a first heavy drinking episode. Adult supervision of time spent with friends may reduce this risk. Results support interventions that target the spread of heavy drinking through adolescent social ecosystems, in addition to targeting the most at-risk individuals.

Cognitive and affective empathy in binge drinking adolescents: Does empathy moderate the effect of self-efficacy in resisting peer pressure to drink?

Binge drinking during adolescence is influenced by peer pressure and group norms as risk factors. Conversely, drinking refusal self-efficacy is a protective factor. Thus, adolescents with impaired social skills could be more vulnerable to binge drinking. However, there is still little research on impaired social abilities, such as low empathy, in adolescent binge drinkers. This study aimed to investigate the moderating roles of empathic concerns and perspective-taking in the relationship between self-efficacy in resisting peer pressure to drink (SRPPD) and binge drinking. Participants were 188 Italian adolescents (M_age = 16.93, SD_age = 0.76; age-range: 15-19). Self-report instruments were administered. Binge drinking was evaluated with an open response item according to the clinical definition of symptoms; SRPPD was assessed with an item from the Perceived Self-Efficacy scale; empathic concerns and perspective-taking were measured with the Interpersonal Reactivity Index scale. A moderation regression analysis was run. Results showed that binge drinking is positively predicted by age, and negatively predicted by SRPPD and empathic concerns. Only perspective-taking proved to be a moderator in the relationship between SRPPD and binge drinking. In the presence of low perspective-taking, adolescents with low SRPPD reported more binge drinking than adolescents with high SRPPD. Conversely, for adolescents with high levels of perspective-taking, low SRPPD did not predict binge drinking. Our results shed light on patterns of cognitive and affective empathy in binge drinking adolescents, providing relevant implications for research and prevention for at-risk teenagers.

Enhancement motivation to drink predicts binge drinking in adolescence: a longitudinal study in a community sample

BACKGROUND

Binge drinking, characterized by alternations between intense alcohol intakes and abstinence periods, is the most frequent alcohol-consumption pattern among adolescents and is associated with cognitive impairments.

OBJECTIVES

It appears crucial to disentangle the psychological factors involved in the emergence of binge drinking in adolescence, and centrally the role played by drinking motives, which are related to binge drinking.

METHODS

This longitudinal study explored the role of drinking motives (i.e., social order, conformity, enhancement, coping) in the emergence of binge drinking among 144 adolescents (56.3% girls) from the community, who were assessed for alcohol consumption and drinking motives at two times (T1/T2), with a 1-year interval. After data checking, 101 adolescents (12-15 years old; 56.4% girls) constituted the final sample.

RESULTS

Strong relationships were found between drinking motives and binge drinking. Regression analyses were computed to determine how drinking motives at T1 predicted binge drinking at T2, while controlling for global alcohol use. The statistical model explained 60% of the binge-drinking variance. In particular, enhancement motivation (i.e., the search for the enjoyable sensations felt when drinking) constituted the unique predictor of future binge drinking. Conversely, social motives did not predict binge drinking.

CONCLUSION

These findings highlight the central role of enhancement motivation (e.g., focusing on the positive expectancies towards alcohol) in youths' alcohol consumption and call for the development of preventive interventions. The previously reported relationship between social motives and college drinking does not seem to play a key role in the early steps of binge drinking.

Emotion regulation and alcohol abuse in second-generation immigrant adolescents: The protective role of cognitive reappraisal

The individual predictors of drinking behaviors among second-generation immigrant adolescents are still understudied. This study investigated emotion regulation strategies and alcohol abuse in 472 adolescents (86 second-generation immigrants and 386 Italian natives; age range: 17–18). The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test were used to assess cognitive reappraisal, emotional suppression, and alcohol abuse, respectively. Immigrants reported lower alcohol abuse than natives. A negative relationship between cognitive reappraisal and alcohol abuse was found for immigrants, but not for natives. Specifically, cognitive reappraisal was a protective factor against alcohol abuse only for immigrant adolescents. Clinical and research implications are discussed.