The social process of involuntary separation and the search for connection

Placing a loved one in care does not relieve informal caregivers' physical and emotional stresses. This study identified the unique psycho-social-spiritual processes of involuntary separation among spouses following long-term care admission. Participants were 17 spouse-caregivers (12 women and 5 men) with a mean age of 84 years who had been involuntarily separated for an average of 20 months. The basic psycho-social-spiritual process of spouse-caregiver involuntary separation was connecting in disconnection, which had three distinct stages: (1) Initial coping, (2) Adjusting to the new situation, and (3) Moving forward. Movement through the three stages was influenced by individuals' capacity and willingness to reach out for connection and by the abilities of others to extend accurate empathy and practical help. The implications of this study highlight spouse-caregivers' needs for connection and support not only during the crisis of separation, but in the months and years that follow.

The daily association between affect and alcohol use: A meta-analysis of individual participant data

Influential psychological theories hypothesize that people consume alcohol in response to the experience of both negative and positive emotions. Despite two decades of daily diary and ecological momentary assessment research, it remains unclear whether people consume more alcohol on days they experience higher negative and positive affect in everyday life. In this preregistered meta-analysis, we synthesized the evidence for these daily associations between affect and alcohol use. We included individual participant data from 69 studies (N = 12,394), which used daily and momentary surveys to assess affect and the number of alcoholic drinks consumed. Results indicate that people are not more likely to drink on days they experience high negative affect, but are more likely to drink and drink heavily on days high in positive affect. People self-reporting a motivational tendency to drink-to-cope and drink-to-enhance consumed more alcohol, but not on days they experienced higher negative and positive affect. Results were robust across different operationalizations of affect, study designs, study populations, and individual characteristics. These findings challenge the long-held belief that people drink more alcohol following increases in negative affect. Integrating these findings under different theoretical models and limitations of this field of research, we collectively propose an agenda for future research to explore open questions surrounding affect and alcohol use.

Judging an absence: Factors influencing attitudes towards asexuality

We used social identity theory to examine predictors of antiasexual bias in a sample of 1297 adults (48.6% female, 43.2% male, 6.4% nonbinary/other, 0.6% questioning). Multiple regression analysis found that social dominance orientation, right wing authoritarianism, singlism, low relational closeness with asexual individuals, and sexual orientation were significant predictors of antiasexual bias. In support of social identity theory, and consistent with existing research on antiasexual bias, non-LGBTQ+ participants ( n = 576) scored higher on measures of antiasexual attitudes compared to nonasexual LGBTQ+ ( n = 569) and asexual individuals ( n = 143). Shared status as sexual minorities appears to provide common ground between asexuality and other LGBTQ+ identities.