Watching and drinking: Expectancies, prototypes, and friends’ alcohol use mediate the effect of exposure to alcohol use in movies on adolescent drinking.

Objective: To investigate the psychological processes that underlie the relation between exposure to alcohol use in media and adolescent alcohol use. Design: The design consisted of a structural equation modeling analysis of data from four waves of a longitudinal, nationally representative, random-digit dial telephone survey of adolescents in the United States. Main Outcome Measures: The main outcome measures were adolescent alcohol consumption and willingness to use alcohol. Tested mediators were alcohol-related norms, prototypes, expectancies, and friends’ use. Results: Alcohol prototypes, expectancies, willingness, and friends’ use of alcohol (but not perceived prevalence of alcohol use among peers) were significant mediators of the relation between movie alcohol exposure and alcohol consumption, even after controlling for demographic, child, and family factors associated with both movie exposure and alcohol consumption. Conclusion: Established psychological and interpersonal predictors of alcohol use mediate the effects of exposure to alcohol use in movies on adolescent alcohol consumption. The findings suggest that exposure to movie portrayals may operate through similar processes as other social influences, highlighting the importance of considering these exposures in research on adolescent risk behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does drinking lead to sex? Daily alcohol–sex behaviors and expectancies among college students.

A within-person multilevel approach was used to model the links between alcohol use and sexual behavior among first-year college students, using up to 14 days of data for each person with occasions (Level 1, N = 2879 days) nested within people (Level 2, N = 218 people; 51.4% male). Between-persons (Level 2) effects were gender, relationship status, person means of alcohol use, and alcohol-sex expectancies for sexual affect and sexual drive. Within-person (Level 1) effects were weekend days, number of drinks consumed, and the interaction between drinks consumed and alcohol-sex expectancies. Independent of average alcohol use, consuming more drinks on a given day was associated with a greater likelihood of oral sex and with experiencing more positive consequences of sex that day. Significant Alcohol Use × Alcohol-Sex Expectancies interactions were found for oral sex and total sex behaviors, indicating that individuals with more positive expectancies were more likely to have sex after drinking. The negative association between drinks and condom use was at a trend level of significance. Results support the potential for promoting sexual health by focusing on cross-behavior expectancies among late adolescents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer and adolescent substance use among 6th–9th Graders: Latent growth analyses of influence versus selection mechanisms.

This study analyzed peer-influence versus peer-selection mechanisms in adolescent tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use. Participants were surveyed 3 times, with 1-year intervals, about peers' substance use and their own use; Sample 1 had 1,190 participants (initial mean age?=?12.4 years), Sample 2 had 1,277 participants (initial mean age?=?11.5 years). Latent growth analyses that were based on composite scores indicated that initial peer use was positively related to rate of change in adolescent use, supporting the influence mechanism; there was little evidence for a selection mechanism. Difficult temperament, poor self-control, and deviance-prone attitudes were related to initial levels for both peer and adolescent use. It is concluded that peer influence is the primary mechanism during middle adolescence. Temperament related attributes may be predisposing to early experimentation and deviant-peer affiliations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Did lifetime rates of alcohol use disorders increase by 67% in 10 years? A comparison of NLAES and NESARC.

Two nationally representative epidemiological samples (the National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiological Survey and the National Epidemiological Survey of Alcohol and Related Conditions) have been used to track changes in the prevalence of alcohol use disorders (AUDs) between 1992 and 2002 in the United States. Strikingly, estimates from these two data sets suggest that the lifetime prevalence of AUD increased by approximately 67% (from 18.2% to 30.3%) during this time frame. This article explores potential reasons for these discrepant estimates. Analyses indicated that a vast majority of change in lifetime AUD occurred with respect to alcohol abuse and not alcohol dependence. Most of this increase in abuse was attributable to self-reported changes in hazardous use that did not track with other archival measures of outcomes related to hazardous use in the population. Key methodological differences regarding the frequency requirements for prior-to-past-year alcohol abuse appeared to explain most of the discrepancy in lifetime AUD estimates. These findings, in conjunction with the relative lack of differences in the 12-month prevalence of AUDs, suggest that the discrepant lifetime estimates are likely due to methodological differences between the two surveys. These findings have important implications for substance use and other psychiatric surveillance and epidemiology where meaningful cross-temporal comparisons are desired. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does contact reduce prejudice or does prejudice reduce contact? A longitudinal test of the contact hypothesis among majority and minority groups in three european countries.

A widely researched panacea for reducing intergroup prejudice is the contact hypothesis. However, few longitudinal studies can shed light on the direction of causal processes: from contact to prejudice reduction (contact effects) or from prejudice to contact reduction (prejudice effects). The authors conducted a longitudinal field survey in Germany, Belgium, and England with school students. The sample comprised members of both ethnic minorities (n = 512) and ethnic majorities (n = 1,143). Path analyses yielded both lagged contact effects and prejudice effects: Contact reduced prejudice, but prejudice also reduced contact. Furthermore, contact effects were negligible for minority members. These effects were obtained for 2 indicators of prejudice: negative intergroup emotions and desire for social distance. For both majority and minority members, contact effects on negative emotions were stronger when outgroup contacts were perceived as being typical of their group. Contact effects were also mediated by intergroup anxiety. This mediating mechanism was impaired for minority members because of a weakened effect of anxiety on desire for social distance. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)