Drinking like everyone else: trait self-control moderates the association between peer and personal heavy episodic drinking

Alcohol Use and Abstinence throughout Adolescence: The Changing Contributions of Perceived Risk of Drinking, Opportunities to Drink, and Self-Control

Objective: Adolescence is characterized by psychosocial and cognitive changes that can alter the perceived risk of negative effects of alcohol, opportunities to drink, and self-control. Few studies have investigated whether these factors change in their contribution to adolescent drinking over time. This study examined associations between perceived risk, opportunities to drink, self-control, and past-year drinking and investigated whether self-control buffers the effect of lower perceived risk and frequent drinking opportunities on the probability of past-year drinking. Method: Data from a four-wave longitudinal study (2015-2020) of 2,104 North Carolina adolescents (Mage = 12.36, SDage = 1.12, at Time 1) were used to assess changes in associations between self-control, perceived risk of drinking, and drinking opportunities on the frequency of past-year drinking. Hypotheses were tested using latent trajectory models. Results: At all timepoints, greater perceived risk, fewer drinking opportunities, and higher self-control were associated with drinking abstinence in the past year. Self-control buffered the impact of frequent drinking opportunities and lower perceived risk on the probability of alcohol use at Times 1-3. Conclusions: Despite expectations that adolescents' ability to navigate their environments improves as they age, associations between risk, protective factors, and past-year drinking were relatively stable over time. Nevertheless, self-control protected against frequent drinking opportunities and lower perceived risk. Strategies that support or relieve the need for self-control (e.g., situation modification) may protect against alcohol use throughout adolescence.

Mapping the complex causal mechanisms of drinking and driving behaviors among adolescents and young adults

BACKGROUND

The proportion of motor vehicle crash fatalities involving alcohol-impaired drivers declined substantially between 1982 and 1997, but progress stopped after 1997. The systemic complexity of alcohol-impaired driving contributes to the persistence of this problem. This study aims to identify and map key feedback mechanisms that affect alcohol-impaired driving among adolescents and young adults in the U.S.

METHODS

We apply the system dynamics approach to the problem of alcohol-impaired driving and bring a feedback perspective for understanding drivers and inhibitors of the problem. The causal loop diagram (i.e., map of dynamic hypotheses about the structure of the system producing observed behaviors over time) developed in this study is based on the output of two group model building sessions conducted with multidisciplinary subject-matter experts bolstered with extensive literature review.

RESULTS

The causal loop diagram depicts diverse influences on youth impaired driving including parents, peers, policies, law enforcement, and the alcohol industry. Embedded in these feedback loops are the physical flow of youth between the categories of abstainers, drinkers who do not drive after drinking, and drinkers who drive after drinking. We identify key inertial factors, discuss how delay and feedback processes affect observed behaviors over time, and suggest strategies to reduce youth impaired driving.

CONCLUSION

This review presents the first causal loop diagram of alcohol-impaired driving among adolescents and it is a vital first step toward quantitative simulation modeling of the problem. Through continued research, this model could provide a powerful tool for understanding the systemic complexity of impaired driving among adolescents, and identifying effective prevention practices and policies to reduce youth impaired driving.

Working memory moderates the association between perceived norms and heavy episodic drinking among college students

Heavy episodic drinking (4+/5+ drinks/occasion for females/males) is highly prevalent among college students and is influenced by social factors. Among these social risk factors, perceived peer drinking norms have been shown to significantly predict heavy episodic drinking across a number of studies. However, there is little known about which students may be most and least susceptible to these influences or why individual differences may moderate the impact of norms on heavy drinking. Recent work has suggested self-control may be an important individual difference factor in this regard. Working memory (WM) is a central component of self-control that has been shown to buffer the effect of social influence variables. This study examined whether WM, as measured by memory span tasks, moderates the relationship between perceived drinking norms and alcohol use among college students reporting one or more past month drinking occasions (n = 98). Hierarchical linear regression analyses were used to examine whether WM significantly moderated the relationship between perceived norms and heavy drinking episodes (HDEs) as well as number of drinking days in the past month. Analyses revealed a significant WM x norms interaction for both drinking indices. Simple slopes analyses suggested a buffering effect of WM as higher perceived norms predicted more HDEs and drinking days at low (-1SD) and mean WM scores but not high (+1SD) WM. These results suggest WM serves as a protective factor for the influence of norms such that individuals high in WM may be more able to inhibit the impact of norms on alcohol use.

Resistance to peer influence moderates the relationship between perceived (but not actual) peer norms and binge drinking in a college student social network

INTRODUCTION

Adolescent and young adult binge drinking is strongly associated with perceived social norms and the drinking behavior that occurs within peer networks. The extent to which an individual is influenced by the behavior of others may depend upon that individual's resistance to peer influence (RPI).

METHODS

Students in their first semester of college (N=1323; 54.7% female, 57% White, 15.1% Hispanic) reported on their own binge drinking, and the perceived binge drinking of up to 10 important peers in the first-year class. Using network autocorrelation models, we investigated cross-sectional relationships between participant's binge drinking frequency and the perceived and actual binge drinking frequency of important peers. We then tested the moderating role of RPI, expecting that greater RPI would weaken the relationship between perceived and actual peer binge drinking on participant binge drinking.

RESULTS

Perceived and actual peer binge drinking were statistically significant predictors of participant binge drinking frequency in the past month, after controlling for covariates. RPI significantly moderated the association between perceptions of peer binge drinking and participant's own binge drinking; this association was weaker among participants with higher RPI compared to those with lower RPI. RPI did not interact with the actual binge drinking behavior of network peers.

CONCLUSIONS

RPI may function to protect individuals from the effect of their perceptions about the binge drinking of peers, but not from the effect of the actual binge drinking of peers.

Binge drinking: Health impact, prevalence, correlates and interventions

OBJECTIVE

Binge drinking (also called heavy episodic drinking, risky single-occasion drinking etc.) is a major public health problem. This paper provides an overview of recently published evidence concerning the definition and measurement, prevalence rates, health impact, demographic and psychosocial correlates of, and interventions for, binge drinking.

DESIGN

Narrative review.

RESULTS

Mostly occurring among young people at weekends, binge drinking increases the risk of both acute (e.g. injuries) and long-term negative consequences (e.g. alcohol disorders). Binge drinkers tend to be extrovert, impulsive and sensation-seeking. Stress, anxiety, traumatic events and depression are also related to binge drinking. Both alcohol-related behaviour of parents and general parenting (e.g. parenting styles, monitoring) are also important. Other major risk factors for binge drinking are frequently spending time with friends who drink, and the drinking norms observed in the wider social environment (e.g. school, community, culture). Emergency departments, birthday parties, fraternities and the workplace serve as settings for interventions; these are increasingly delivered via digital and mobile technology. There is evidence of small-sized effects across approaches (brief interventions, personalised normative feedback, protective behavioural strategies etc.) and populations.

CONCLUSION

A more consistent terminology, investigating multi-level influences and identifying the most effective intervention components are challenges for future research.

Social imitation of alcohol consumption and ingratiation motives in young adults

Across 2 studies we tested the hypothesis that social ingratiation motives may be an important factor explaining social imitation of alcohol consumption. In Study 1, participants drank alcohol with a heavy versus light drinking confederate under conditions that were designed to heighten or reduce (participants believed they would not be judged) motivation for ingratiation. In Study 2 we manipulated the degree to which participants believed they had already successfully ingratiated themselves with a heavy or no (alcohol) drinking confederate. In Study 1, participants' alcohol consumption was most strongly influenced by the confederate's drinking behavior when they believed that they would later be judged by the confederate. In Study 2, participants' alcohol consumption was influenced by the confederate's drinking behavior and this effect was particularly pronounced if participants were unsure if the confederate had accepted them. The desire for social ingratiation may in part explain why people imitate the drinking behavior of those around them. (PsycINFO Database Record

Sweetened ethanol drinking during social isolation: enhanced intake, resistance to genetic heterogeneity and the emergence of a distinctive drinking pattern in adolescent mice

With its ease of availability during adolescence, sweetened ethanol ('alcopops') is consumed within many contexts. We asked here whether genetically based differences in social motivation are associated with how the adolescent social environment impacts voluntary ethanol intake. Mice with previously described differences in sociability (BALB/cJ, C57BL/6J, FVB/NJ and MSM/MsJ strains) were weaned into isolation or same-sex pairs (postnatal day, PD, 21), and then given continuous access to two fluids on PDs 34-45: one containing water and the other containing an ascending series of saccharin-sweetened ethanol (3-6-10%). Prior to the introduction of ethanol (PDs 30-33), increased water and food intake was detected in some of the isolation-reared groups, and controls indicated that isolated mice also consumed more 'saccharin-only' solution. Voluntary drinking of 'ethanol-only' was also higher in a subset of the isolated groups on PDs 46-49. However, sweetened ethanol intake was increased in all isolated strain × sex combinations irrespective of genotype. Surprisingly, blood ethanol concentration (BEC) was not different between these isolate and socially housed groups 4 h into the dark phase. Using lickometer-based measures of intake in FVB mice, we identified that a predominance of increased drinking during isolation transpired outside of the typical circadian consumption peak, occurring ≈8.5 h into the dark phase, with an associated difference in BEC. These findings collectively indicate that isolate housing leads to increased consumption of rewarding substances in adolescent mice independent of their genotype, and that for ethanol this may be because of when individuals drink during the circadian cycle.