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While there is evidence that histories of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are common in university students and are associated with an increased risk of mental health difficulties, current research has limited geographic and cross-cultural representation. Comparing ACEs across diverse contexts using a standardized measure can illuminate geographic and sociocultural similarities or differences in exposure. The present study aimed to assess ACE exposure and its relationship with mental health symptoms in university students from seven countries. We sampled 5945 university students from the United States, Canada, England, South Africa, Spain, Argentina, and Uruguay. Participants completed the Adverse Childhood Experiences International Questionnaire (ACE-IQ) and the Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms (IDAS). Most participants (94.8%) reported exposure to at least one type of ACE and 61% reported exposure to four or more types. Repeated exposure to at least one ACE was reported by 70.2% and repeated exposure to at least four ACEs was reported by 21.2%. Spanish students had significantly lower ACE exposure than other students. Cumulative ACE exposure was significantly higher among students in lower income countries, but when repeated exposure was considered these differences fell away. For the total sample, cumulative ACE exposure was significantly associated with severity of depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and suicidality. Findings indicate that universities globally should be guided by a trauma-informed approach that recognizes students as a psychologically vulnerable group carrying a long-standing burden of childhood adversity., Author(s): Debra Kaminer [sup.1] , Adrian J. Bravo [sup.2] , Laura Mezquita [sup.3] [sup.4] , Angelina Pilatti [sup.5] [sup.6] , Adrian J. Bravo, Christopher C. Conway, James M. Henson, Lee [...]

Individualism and collectivism are dimensions of cultural variation thought to shape differences in emotion regulation tendencies, yet research to date has examined these cultural dimensions as country-level features, emphasizing variability across nations. The present study takes the approach of examining cultural differences within nations as predictors of emotion regulation strategies, shifting the perspective instead to individual differences. This present study aimed to address how individual endorsement of individualism-collectivism (i.e. prioritizing individual versus group goals) and vertical-horizontal attitudes (preference for hierarchy versus equality) are associated with use of emotion regulation strategies (i.e., reappraisal and suppression) among college students from seven countries (n = 5,900; female = 70.80%). Overall, we found that individual differences in individualism-collectivism and vertical-horizontal attitudes had strong connections with young adults' emotion regulation styles. Results of our multivariate (i.e., all variables were simultaneously examined) regression model revealed: a) higher endorsement of horizontal individualism and horizontal collectivism were associated with higher use of reappraisal strategies; b) higher endorsement of horizontal individualism and vertical collectivism were associated with higher use of suppression strategies; while higher endorsement of horizontal collectivism was associated with lower use of suppression strategies. A multi-group model supported the generalizability of these associations across countries. These findings demonstrate the value of approaching cultural differences in emotion regulation from an individual differences framework, and not assuming country-level differences are representative of individuals' affective experiences. Further work is needed examining models within-country to examine cultural variation in individualism vs collectivism compared to country-level norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heinz et al. (2024) recently criticised habit/compulsion theory of human addiction but nevertheless concluded that 'habit formation plays a significant role in drug addiction'. To challenge this causal claim, the current article develops four further methodological criticisms, that publications supporting the habit/compulsion account of human addiction: (1) under‐report contradictory observations; (2) exaggerate the process purity of positive observations; (3) under‐emphasise the low quality of epidemiological support for a causal hypothesis; (4) recapitulate the social injustice of racial intelligence era by prematurely attributing lower task performance to drug user group membership (endophenotype) without having adequately tested social, psychological, economic and environmental inequalities. Methodological guidelines are recommended to address each concern, which should raise evidence standards, incorporate social justice and improve accuracy of estimating any specific effect of addiction history on task performance. Given that construing drug users as intellectually impaired could promote stigma and reduce their recovery potential, it is recommended that scientific discourse about habit/compulsive endophenotypes underpinning addiction is avoided until these higher evidence standards are met. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 15-item Distress Tolerance Scale (DTS) is a widely used psychometric measure with evidence generally supporting its reliability and validity. However, limitations related to its ordinal response format and lack of cross-cultural comparisons have yet to be investigated using appropriate methods. The Partial Credit Rasch model was used to evaluate and enhance the psychometric properties of the DTS using responses from 2550 adult participants from the United States of America (USA), England, Canada, South Africa, Spain, and Argentina. The initial poor fit of the DTS to the Rasch model was improved by removing one item and combining locally dependent items into three testlets. These modifications resulted in the best fit of the 14-item DTS to the Rasch model for all the countries in our study, providing evidence of unidimensionality, high reliability and invariance across countries, meditation practice, and gender. Meeting the expectations of the Rasch model permitted the development of ordinal-to-interval conversion algorithms derived from person estimates of the Rasch model. Using the ordinal-to-interval conversion algorithms published in this article, ordinal DTS scores can be transformed into interval-level data, enhancing the precision of this scale for future research and clinical use across people from the six countries in this study and across the English and Spanish versions of the 14-item DTS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Behavioral and pharmacological smoking cessation treatments are hypothesized to increase patients' reward learning to reduce craving. Identifying changes in reward learning processes that support effective tobacco-dependence interventions among smokers who experience depression may guide patients toward efficient treatment strategies. The objective was to investigate the extent to which adult daily cigarette smokers with current or past major depressive disorder (MDD) learned to seek reward during 12 weeks of treatment combining behavioral activation and varenicline. We hypothesized that a decline in reward learning would be attenuated (least to most) in the following order: (1) behavioral activation integrated with ST (BASC) + varenicline, (2) BASC + placebo, (3) standard behavioral cessation treatment (ST) + varenicline, (4) ST + placebo. Methods We ran a phase IV, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial with 300 participants receiving 12 weeks of one of four conditions across two urban medical centers. Depressive symptoms were measured using the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI). Reward learning was ascertained at weeks 1, 7, and 14 using the Probabilistic Reward Task (PRT), a laboratory task that uses an asymmetric reinforcement schedule to assess (a) learning to seek reward (response bias), (b) differentiate between stimuli, and (c) time to react to cues. Results There was a significant interaction of BDI group × PRT response bias. Response bias declined from weeks 7 to 14 among participants with high baseline depression symptoms. The other two BDI groups showed no change in response bias. Conclusions Controlling for baseline depression, participants showed a decrease in response bias from weeks 1 to 14, and from weeks 7 to 14. Treatment condition and abstinence status were unassociated with change in reward learning. Implications Smokers who report greater depression severity show a decline in reward learning despite their participation in smoking cessation treatments, suggesting that depressed populations pose unique challenges with standard smoking cessation approaches. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02378714. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It is important to identify students who would benefit from early interventions to reduce harmful drinking patterns and associated consequences. the Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire (B-YAACQ) could be particularly useful as a screening tool in university settings. Objectives. The present study examined the utility of the B-YAACQ to distinguish among students at-risk for problematic alcohol use as measured by the AUDIT. Objectives: The present study examined the utility of the B-YAACQ to distinguish among students at-risk for problematic alcohol use as measured by the AUDIT. Methods: A sample of 6382 students (mean age=20.28, SD=3.75, 72.2% females) from seven countries (i.e., U.S., Canada, South-Africa, Spain, Argentina, Uruguay, England) completed the B-YAACQ, the AUDIT and different measures of alcohol use. Results: ROC analyses suggested that a cutoff score of 5 maximized the YAACQ's discrimination utility to differentiate between students at low versus moderate/high risk in the total sample and across countries (except in Canada, where the cutoff was 4). In addition, a cutoff of 7 differentiated between students at low/moderate versus high risk in the total sample, while cutoffs of 10, 9, 8 and 7 differentiate between students at low/moderate versus high risk in Uruguay, U.S and Spain (10), Argentina (9), England (8), and Canada and South-Africa (7), respectively. Students classified at the three risk levels (i.e., low, moderate and high) differed in age (i.e., a younger age was associated with higher risk) and drinking patters (i.e., higher drinking frequency, quantity, binge drinking and AUDIT and B-YAACQ scores in the higher risk groups). Conclusions: This study suggest that the B-YAACQ is a useful tool to identify college students at-risk for experiencing problematic patterns of alcohol use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Prior research has established that Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) predict harmful alcohol use outcomes. However, underlying mechanisms that could explain these associations are less clear. The present study examined if ACEs are indirectly related to alcohol negative consequences through their associations with distress tolerance and drinking to cope. Method: A sample of 3,763 (71.9% female) college students who drink alcohol from seven countries (U.S., Argentina, Canada, Uruguay, Spain, South Africa, and England) completed online surveys. Path analysis was performed within the whole sample testing the serial unique associations between ACEs→distress tolerance→drinking to cope→negative alcohol-related consequences. Multi-group analysis was performed to determine if the proposed pathways were invariant across gender and countries. Results: Both distress tolerance and drinking to cope uniquely accounted for the relationship between ACEs and negative alcohol-related consequences. Additionally, a significant double-mediation effect was found illustrating that a higher endorsement of ACEs was associated with lower distress tolerance, which in turn was associated with higher drinking to cope, which in turn was associated with more negative alcohol-related consequences. These effects were invariant across countries and gender groups. Conclusions: These findings provide support for the relevance of distress tolerance and coping motives as potential factors in linking ACEs to problematic alcohol use across nations. Our data are consistent with the idea that intervening on distress tolerance and drinking motives could mitigate downstream alcohol-related consequences related to ACEs in college student populations around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]