Abstract Aims Self-reports remain the most common means of assessing alcohol consumption despite concern for their validity. The objective of this research is to assess the extent to which social ...desirability biases relate to self-reported consumption, hazardous use, and harms. Methods In each of two studies presented, undergraduate students ( N = 391 and N = 177) who reported that they had consumed alcohol in the past year completed online confidential surveys. Results Both studies show consistent associations between impression management bias and self-reported consumption such that high impression managers report 20 to 33% less consumption and are about 50% less likely to report risky drinking. No significant correlations involving consumption were found for self-deception bias. Study 2 also indicated that high impression managers report 30–50% fewer acute harms following a drinking episode, and that these effects are maintained after controlling statistically for trait impulsivity/constraint. Conclusions Impression management bias represents a significant threat to the validity of self-reported alcohol use and harms. Such bias may lead to misspecification of models and under-estimates of harmful or hazardous use.
Alcohol and cannabis use are prevalent among young adults in Canada. Additionally, heavier substance use is associated with an increased likelihood of experiencing negative consequences resulting ...from use. Given the potential for harmful consequences resulting from alcohol and cannabis use, it is important to understand why people use these substances. Childhood maltreatment has been identified as an important predictor of alcohol and cannabis use. However, less is known about the mechanisms underlying this relationship, though it seems emotion regulation may play an important role. This study explores the relationship between maltreatment and emotion dysregulation, in addition to the relationship between maltreatment and affective motives for using alcohol and marijuana. Results indicate that drinking to cope mediates the relationship between all measured forms of maltreatment and alcohol consequences. However, none of the motives individually significantly mediated the relationship between maltreatment and marijuana use consequences. Results, limitations, and future directions are discussed.
Adolescents involved with child welfare are at particular risk for the development of alcohol problems due to their histories of child maltreatment. Based on an emotion dysregulation-maladaptive ...coping model of alcohol problems, the current study explored whether drinking to cope with negative affect (coping motives) moderated the relationship between emotional distress (i.e., anxiety and depression symptoms) and alcohol problems in a sample of adolescents involved with child welfare. Participants were 202 adolescents (54.4% females, ages 14-17) from the Maltreatment and Adolescent Pathways (MAP) Longitudinal Study who completed measures of childhood maltreatment, alcohol use and alcohol problems, drinking motives, and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Controlling for gender, age, alcohol use, and child maltreatment, coping motives were signifi cantly associated with alcohol problems, and the Anxiety × Coping and Depression × Coping interaction were also signifi cant. Increased anxiety symptoms were associated with more alcohol problems for adolescents with high coping motives, whereas increased depression symptoms were associated with fewer alcohol problems among those with high coping motives. We discuss the implications of these fi ndings for the development of interventions addressing anxiety in the context of using alcohol to cope among adolescents involved with child welfare.
Abstract It is well established that childhood maltreatment is an important predictor of marijuana use, but few studies have examined the mechanisms underlying this relationship. The current study ...examines marijuana motives as mediators of the relationship between childhood maltreatment and marijuana use in a sample of young adults. In addition, pathways from childhood maltreatment to emotion dysregulation, coping motives, and marijuana use were explored. Participants were 125 young adults (ages 19–25, 66.9% female) recruited through online community advertising. All participants completed questionnaires assessing childhood maltreatment, emotion dysregulation, marijuana motives, past year and past three-month marijuana use, and marijuana problems. Correlational analyses revealed bivariate relationships between childhood maltreatment, emotion dysregulation, marijuana motives and marijuana problems ( rs = .24–.50). Mediation analyses revealed that coping motives mediated the relationship between childhood maltreatment and marijuana problems, and emotion dysregulation was associated with marijuana problems both directly and indirectly via coping motives. The present findings highlight emotion dysregulation and coping motives as important underlying mechanisms in the relationship between childhood maltreatment and marijuana problems.
One of the central pathways to problem gambling (PG) is gambling to cope with negative moods, which is a cardinal feature of depression. Insecure attachment styles are also etiologically related to ...depression; and, therefore, by extension, those who are insecurely attached may engage in excessive gambling behaviors to cope with depression. In this study, we aimed to evaluate this and to this end predicted that depression severity and coping motives for gambling would conjointly mediate the relations between insecure attachment styles and PG. Data came from a larger investigation of PG within mood disorders. Participants exhibited a lifetime depressive or bipolar disorder and endorsed a mood episode within the past ten years. Participants (N=275) completed self-report measures during a two-day assessment. Path analysis supported two main indirect effects. First, anxious attachment predicted elevated depression, which in turn predicted increased coping motives for gambling, which subsequently predicted greater PG severity. Second, this double mediational pathway was also observed for avoidant attachment. Results suggest that insecure attachment relates to PG via depressive symptoms and coping-related gambling motives. Mood symptoms and associated gambling motives are malleable and are promising targets of gambling interventions for insecurely attached individuals.
•We test the associations between insecure attachment styles and gambling problems.•A clinical sample with mood disorders was used.•Depression and coping motives mediated attachment-gambling associations.•Insecure attachment increases problem gambling risk in adults with mood disorders.
To date, there is a lack of research on psychological factors associated with young adult online gambling. The current study examined differences between young adult online and non-online gamblers, ...using information gathered at baseline and over 30 days during which participants reported on their moods, gambling behaviors, and reasons for initiating and discontinuing gambling. Methods: Participants were 108 young adult regular gamblers (i.e., gambling four or more times in the past month) who participated in a 30-day daily diary study. Results: Male gender, baseline coping motives for gambling and negative affect averaged across the 30 days emerged as significant correlates of online gambling, over and above other background variables. Online gamblers also scored higher on a baseline measure of pathological gambling. Over the 30 days of self-monitoring, online gamblers spent more time gambling, and won more money gambling, whereas non-online gamblers consumed more alcohol while gambling. Online gambling was more often initiated to make money, because of boredom and to demonstrate skills, whereas non-online gambling was more often initiated for social reasons and for excitement. Online gambling was more often discontinued because of boredom, fatigue or distress, whereas non-online gambling was discontinued because friends stopped gambling or mood was improved. Discussion and conclusions: This study provides preliminary evidence that coping strategies may be particularly important to reduce risks for online gamblers, whereas strategies for non-online gamblers should focus on the social aspects of gambling.
Gambling self-reports may be subject to several types of bias, including social desirability bias, which may undermine their utility for capturing gambling behaviour in both research and clinical ...practice. Retrospective self-reports of gambling are frequently used to assess patterns of behaviour over specific periods of time, but may not be as reliable as experience sampling (ES) methods, which involve multiple assessments of gambling over the course of several days. The purpose of the current study was to examine the impact of two aspects of social desirability, impression management (IM) and self-deceptive enhancement (SDE), on the correspondence between reports of gambling assessed via ES and retrospective recall using the Gambling Timeline Followback (G-TLFB; Weinstock et al.
Psychological Assessment
,
16
, 72–80,
2004
). Participants were 81 emerging adult gamblers who completed a 30-day ES study and a retrospective assessment of their gambling. Although the overall association between social desirability and gambling reports was minimal, the correspondence between retrospective and ES reports was lower for those with higher scores on IM (for money won-lost) and SDE (for money intended to risk). Gamblers who wish to present themselves in a favourable way – either intentionally (IM) or unintentionally (SDE) – may be less reliable in their reports of gambling when asked to reflect on an extended period of time compared to when asked to provide an in-the-moment account of their gambling behaviour. These findings have important implications for understanding the circumstances under which individuals bias their retrospective self-reports of gambling and highlight the utility of more fine-grained assessments of gambling behaviour.
Emerging adulthood (ages 18-25) is an important developmental stage marked by identity exploration, transitions, and instability. In particular, the first year of university is an important life ...transition for many emerging adults and is often associated with the development of new personal goals in addition to increased alcohol use and alcohol problems. Recent research has highlighted the value of using personal projects analysis (PPA) to examine links between personal goals and alcohol use and related-problems. However, few studies have examined a comprehensive model of alcohol use and alcohol problems using a PPA framework in conjunction with other well-established correlates of alcohol use (i.e., alcohol expectancies and drinking motives). Alcohol expectancies pertain to beliefs individuals have about how alcohol use will impact them and drinking motives are the reasons individuals choose to use alcohol. This dissertation is comprised of two studies. Study one utilizes a cross-sectional design to examine the relationship between project content (e.g., whether a project is academic, health/body, or interpersonal in nature) in conjunction with project appraisals (e.g., how important or difficult the project is) and alcohol use and alcohol problems. In addition, this study included alcohol expectancies as possible moderators of these relationships. Study two examines changes in appraisals of projects over a period of three months and the relationship between these changes and alcohol problems. In addition, drinking motives are examined as mediators of this relationship. Results indicate that both alcohol expectancies and drinking motives are important variables in considering how personal projects are related to subsequent alcohol use and alcohol problems. In addition, personal projects and their related appraisals, alcohol expectancies, and drinking motives are important targets in considering future prevention and intervention efforts to reduce alcohol use and related-problems among emerging adults in their first year of university.
Adolescents involved with child welfare are at particular risk for the development of alcohol problems due to their histories of child maltreatment. Based on an emotion dysregulation-maladaptive ...coping model of alcohol problems, the current study explored whether drinking to cope with negative affect (coping motives) moderated the relationship between emotional distress (i.e., anxiety and depression symptoms) in a sample of adolescents involved with child welfare. Participants were 202 adolescents (54.4% females, ages 14-19) from the Maltreatment and Adolescents Pathways (MAP) Longitudinal Study who completed measures of childhood maltreatment, alcohol use and alcohol problems, drinking motives, and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Controlling for gender, age, alcohol use, and child maltreatment, coping motives was significantly associated with alcohol problems, and the anxiety x coping and depression x coping interaction were also significant. Increased anxiety symptoms were associated with more alcohol problems for adolescents with high coping motives, whereas increased depression symptoms were associated with fewer problems among those with high coping motives. We discuss the implications of these findings for the development of interventions addressing anxiety in the context of using alcohol to cope among adolescents involved with child welfare.
Vector-borne transmission of Chagas disease has become an urban problem in the city of Arequipa, Peru, yet the debilitating symptoms that can occur in the chronic stage of the disease are rarely seen ...in hospitals in the city. The lack of obvious clinical disease in Arequipa has led to speculation that the local strain of the etiologic agent, Trypanosoma cruzi, has low chronic pathogenicity. The long asymptomatic period of Chagas disease leads us to an alternative hypothesis for the absence of clinical cases in Arequipa: transmission in the city may be so recent that most infected individuals have yet to progress to late stage disease. Here we describe a new method, epicenter regression, that allows us to infer the spatial and temporal history of disease transmission from a snapshot of a population's infection status. We show that in a community of Arequipa, transmission of T. cruzi by the insect vector Triatoma infestans occurred as a series of focal micro-epidemics, the oldest of which began only around 20 years ago. These micro-epidemics infected nearly 5% of the community before transmission of the parasite was disrupted through insecticide application in 2004. Most extant human infections in our study community arose over a brief period of time immediately prior to vector control. According to our findings, the symptoms of chronic Chagas disease are expected to be absent, even if the strain is pathogenic in the chronic phase of disease, given the long asymptomatic period of the disease and short history of intense transmission. Traducción al español disponible en Alternative Language Text S1/A Spanish translation of this article is available in Alternative Language Text S1.
PDF
