Objective: To evaluate the effect of a campus-wide social norms marketing intervention on alcohol-use perceptions, consumption, and blackouts at a large, urban, public university. Participants: 4,172 ...college students (1,208 freshmen, 1,159 sophomores, 953 juniors, and 852 seniors) who completed surveys in Spring 2015 for the Spit for Science Study, a longitudinal study of students' substance use and emotional health. Methods: Participants were e-mailed an online survey that queried campaign readership, perception of peer alcohol use, alcohol consumption, frequency of consumption, and frequency of blackouts. Associations between variables were evaluated using path analysis. Results: We found that campaign readership was associated with more accurate perceptions of peer alcohol use, which, in turn, was associated with self-reported lower number of drinks per sitting and experiencing fewer blackouts. Conclusions: This evaluation supports the use of social norms marketing as a population-level intervention to correct alcohol-use misperceptions and reduce blackouts.
Based on data from a sample of 120 first-generation Mexican immigrant couples collected at the start of the Great Recession in the United States, this study tested an actor-partner interdependence ...mediation model (APIMeM) in which spouses' perceptions of stress related to economic pressure and cultural adaptation were linked to their own and their partners' reports of marital satisfaction through spouses' depressive symptoms and marital negativity. As hypothesized, results supported indirect links between economic and cultural adaptation stressors and spouses' marital negativity and satisfaction: (1) contextual stress was associated with depressive symptoms, (2) depressive symptoms were positively associated with marital negativity for both husbands and wives and negatively associated with marital satisfaction for wives only, and (3) marital negativity was inversely associated with marital satisfaction for both spouses. Two partner effects emerged: (a) husbands' depressive symptoms were positively associated with wives' reports of marital negativity and (b) husbands' marital negativity was inversely related to wives' marital satisfaction. From these findings, we can infer that the psychological distress that arises for Mexican-origin spouses as they respond to the challenges of making ends meet during difficult economic times while they simultaneously navigate adapting to life in a new country is evidenced in their marital quality. Specifically, this study found that contextual stress external to the marital relationship was transmitted via spouses' psychological distress and negative marital exchanges to spouses' marital satisfaction. Wives' marital satisfaction was shown to be uniquely vulnerable to their own and their husbands' depressive symptoms and marital negativity.
Higher parental educational attainment is associated with higher offspring educational attainment. In this study, we incorporated genotypic and phenotypic information from fathers, mothers, and ...offspring to disentangle the genetic and socioenvironmental pathways underlying this association. Data were drawn from a sample of individuals of European ancestry from the collaborative study on the genetics of alcoholism (n = 4,089; 51% female). Results from path analysis indicated that paternal and maternal educational attainment genome-wide polygenic scores were associated with offspring educational attainment, above and beyond the effect of offspring education polygenic score. Parental educational attainment, income, and parenting behaviors served as important socioenvironmental pathways that mediated the effect of parental education polygenic score on offspring educational attainment. Our study highlights the importance of using genetically informed family studies to disentangle the genetic and socioenvironmental pathways underlying parental influences on human development.
The extent to which indices of maternal physiological arousal (skin conductance augmentation) and regulation (vagal withdrawal) while parenting predict infant attachment disorganization and behavior ...problems directly or indirectly via maternal sensitivity was examined in a sample of 259 mothers and their infants. Two covariates, maternal self-reported emotional risk and Adult Attachment Interview attachment coherence were assessed prenatally. Mothers' physiological arousal and regulation were measured during parenting tasks when infants were 6 months old. Maternal sensitivity was observed during distress-eliciting tasks when infants were 6 and 14 months old, and an average sensitivity score was calculated. Attachment disorganization was observed during the Strange Situation when infants were 14 months old, and mothers reported on infants' behavior problems when infants were 27 months old. Over and above covariates, mothers' arousal and regulation while parenting interacted to predict infant attachment disorganization and behavior problems such that maternal arousal was associated with higher attachment disorganization and behavior problems when maternal regulation was low but not when maternal regulation was high. This effect was direct and not explained by maternal sensitivity. The results suggest that maternal physiological dysregulation while parenting places infants at risk for psychopathology.
The purpose of this article was to examine whether recollections of mothers’ emotion socialization practices during childhood are linked to adult emotional well-being as indexed by depression, trait ...anger, and cardiac vagal tone, and whether these effects vary for African American and European American women. Participants included 251 women (128 European American, 123 African American) who ranged in age from 18 to 44 years (M = 25 years). Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses indicated strong measurement and factor invariance across African American and European American participants. Remembered nonsupportive emotion socialization was linked with elevated depressive symptoms for European American women but not African American women and with elevated trait anger for both groups. Remembered supportive emotion socialization was linked with higher resting vagal tone for both groups. The results provide some support for the view that nonsupportive emotion socialization may be more detrimental for European Americans than African Americans.
Background and Aims
Parental alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and parental separation are associated with increased risk for early use of alcohol in offspring, but whether they increase risks for early ...use of other substances and for early sexual debut is under‐studied. We focused on associations of parental AUDs and parental separation with substance initiation and sexual debut to (1) test the strength of the associations of parental AUDs and parental separation with time to initiation (age in years) of alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use and sexual debut and (2) compare the strength of association of parental AUD and parental separation with initiation.
Design
Prospective adolescent and young adult cohort of a high‐risk family study, the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA).
Setting
Six sites in the United States.
Participants
A total of 3257 offspring (aged 14–33 years) first assessed in 2004 and sought for interview approximately every 2 years thereafter; 1945 (59.7%) offspring had a parent with an AUD.
Measurements
Diagnostic interview data on offspring substance use and sexual debut were based on first report of these experiences. Parental life‐time AUD was based on their own self‐report when parents were interviewed (1991–2005) for most parents, or on offspring and other family member reports for parents who were not interviewed. Parental separation was based on offspring reports of not living with both biological parents most of the time between ages 12 and 17 years.
Findings
Parental AUDs were associated with increased hazards for all outcomes, with cumulative hazards ranging from 1.19 to 2.71. Parental separation was also an independent and consistent predictor of early substance use and sexual debut, with hazards ranging from 1.19 to 2.34. The strength of association of parental separation with substance initiation was equal to that of having two AUD‐affected parents, and its association with sexual debut was stronger than the association of parental AUD in one or both parents.
Conclusions
Parental alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and parental separation are independent and consistent predictors of increased risk for early alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use and sexual debut in offspring from families with a high risk of parental AUDs.
Alcohol misuse (AM) is highly prevalent and harmful, with theorized subgroups differing on internalizing and externalizing dimensions. Despite known heterogeneity, genome-wide association studies ...(GWAS) are usually conducted on unidimensional phenotypes. These approaches have identified important genes related to AM but fail to capture a large part of the heritability, even with recent increases in sample sizes. This study aimed to address phenotypic heterogeneity in GWAS to aid gene finding and to uncover the etiology of different types of AM. Genetic and phenotypic data from 410,414 unrelated individuals of multiple ancestry groups (primarily European) in the UK Biobank were obtained. Mixture modeling was applied to measures of alcohol misuse and internalizing/externalizing psychopathology to uncover phenotypically homogenous subclasses, which were carried forward to GWAS and functional annotation. A four-class model emerged with "low risk", "internalizing-light/non-drinkers", "heavy alcohol use-low impairment", and "broad high risk" classes. SNP heritability ranged from 3 to 18% and both known AM signals and novel signals were captured by genomic risk loci. Class comparisons showed distinct patterns of regional brain tissue enrichment and genetic correlations with internalizing and externalizing phenotypes. Despite some limitations, this study demonstrated the utility of genetic research on homogenous subclasses. Not only were novel genetic signals identified that might be used for follow-up studies, but addressing phenotypic heterogeneity allows for the discovery and investigation of differential genetic vulnerabilities in the development of AM, which is an important step towards the goal of personalized medicine.
Objective
Research on the natural course of symptoms of atypical anorexia nervosa (AN) relative to AN and bulimia nervosa (BN) is limited yet needed to inform nosology and improve understanding of ...atypical AN. This study aimed to 1) characterize trajectories of eating disorder and internalizing (anxiety, depression) symptoms in college students with and without a history of atypical AN, AN, and BN; and 2) compare sex and race/ethnicity distributions across groups.
Method
United States college students who participated in Spit for Science™, a prospective cohort study, were classified as having a history of atypical AN (n = 125), AN (n = 160), BN (n = 617), or as non‐eating‐disorder controls (NCs, n = 5876). Generalized and linear mixed‐effects models assessed group differences in eating and internalizing symptom trajectories, and logistic regression compared groups on sex and race/ethnicity distributions.
Results
Atypical AN participants demonstrated elevated eating disorder and internalizing symptoms compared to NCs during college, but less severe symptoms than AN and BN participants. Although all eating disorder groups showed signs of improvement in fasting and driven exercise, purging and depression remained elevated. Atypical AN participants showed increasing anxiety and stable binge‐eating trajectories compared to AN and/or BN participants. The atypical AN group comprised significantly more people of color than the AN group.
Discussion
Findings underscore that atypical AN is a severe psychiatric disorder. As atypical AN may present as less severe than AN and BN and disproportionately affects people of color, clinicians should be mindful of biases that could delay diagnosis and care.
Public Significance
College students with histories of atypical AN, AN, and BN demonstrated improvements in fasting and driven exercise and stable purging and depression levels. Atypical AN students showed worsening anxiety and stable binge‐eating trajectories compared to favorable changes among AN and BN students. A higher percentage of atypical AN (vs. AN) students were people of color. Findings may improve the detection of atypical AN in college students.
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