Search

OBJECTIVE: Fear of negative evaluation (FNE) is a key trait of social anxiety and has been linked to isolation and low self-esteem. Impulsivity has been shown to amplify the risk of socially anxious individuals engaging in risky behaviors such as suicidal behaviors; yet little research has examined associations between FNE and suicidality nor the relationship between FNE and impulsivity. PARTICIPANTS/METHODS: This study tested whether FNE was associated with suicidal ideation in a sample of 1,816 college students from 10 universities. Analyses also examined whether impulsivity-like traits moderated the relationship between FNE and suicidal ideation. RESULTS: Results showed that FNE was significantly associated with suicidal ideation and the positive association between FNE and suicidal ideation was strongest among individuals with higher negative urgency and lower perseverance. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight FNE as an important risk factor of suicidal ideation in college students and illuminates potential influence of impulsivity on this relationship.

Belief in an American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) specific biological vulnerability (BV) to alcohol problems (aka the “firewater myth”) has been found to be associated with worse alcohol outcomes among AI/AN college students who drink, despite also being associated with greater attempts to reduce drinking. In the current study, we examined the associations of belief in a BV and belief that AI/AN people have more alcohol problems with the use of alcohol protective behavioral strategies (PBS) among AI/AN college students. PBS examined, as measured by the Protective Behavioral Strategies Scale-20, included manner of drinking, limiting/stopping drinking, and serious harm reduction strategies. Participants were college students who identified being AI/AN (n = 137) and had drank in the past month, and were selected from a larger multi-site study on PBS. Mediation models revealed that greater belief in a BV and belief that AI/AN people have more alcohol problems were both negatively associated with manner of drinking, which in turn was associated with greater past month alcohol use and alcohol consequences. These beliefs were not significantly associated with other PBS. Consistent with prior research with other student populations, both manner of drinking and limiting/stopping drinking were associated with less alcohol use and all three domains of PBS were directly associated with fewer alcohol consequences. The results suggest that these beliefs regarding AI/AN people and alcohol negatively affect the use of strategies aimed at avoiding drinking behavior that can lead to rapid drinking and a higher blood alcohol content, contributing to alcohol consequences.

Separately, research has identified use of marijuana protective behavioral strategies and marijuana refusal self-efficacy to be protective factors associated with less marijuana use and associated harms. To date, these factors have not been examined together. Using a large sample of college students recruited from 10 U.S. universities (n = 1,123), we examined the extent to which use of marijuana protective behavioral strategies and marijuana refusal self-efficacy have redundant, independent, or interactive effects on a wide range of marijuana-related outcomes using cross-sectional data. Across 9 marijuana-related outcomes, we found 1 significant buffering interaction (length of typical intoxication), 1 significant synergistic interaction (peak subjective intoxication), and 7 nonsignificant interactions (past month frequency, typical frequency, typical quantity, typical subjective intoxication, frequency of peak intoxication, negative consequences, and cannabis use disorder symptoms). Despite variability across distinct outcomes, on 8 of 9 of these outcomes, we found that individuals who reported high use of marijuana protective behavioral strategies and high levels of marijuana refusal self-efficacy demonstrated the lowest rates of marijuana use/harms. Our findings suggest that both of these factors are promising intervention targets, and future studies should examine distinct intervention strategies to modify use of marijuana protective behavioral strategies and marijuana refusal self-efficacy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

OBJECTIVE: Among college samples, both alcohol and marijuana protective behavioral strategies (PBS) have been shown to mediate the effects of known risk factors (i.e., sex, age at substance use onset, college substance use beliefs, substance use motives, and impulsivity-like traits) on alcohol and marijuana outcomes. However, it is unknown whether PBS use would operate similarly for both substances among concurrent users. The present study examined which risk factors relate to alcohol/marijuana outcomes via alcohol/marijuana PBS use among a large group of concurrent alcohol/marijuana users. METHOD: Participants were college students who consumed both alcohol and marijuana at least 1 day in the previous month (n = 2,034; 69.08% female). RESULTS: Across both substances, PBS use significantly mediated the effects of sex (women reported higher PBS use), age at first use (having an older age at first use was associated with more PBS use), and college substance use beliefs (higher beliefs was associated with lower PBS use). Unique to alcohol outcomes, alcohol PBS use significantly mediated the effects of negative urgency, social motives, and enhancement motives (all associated with lower PBS use). Unique to marijuana outcomes, marijuana PBS use mediated the effects of coping, expansion (both associated with lower PBS use), and conformity motives (associated with more PBS use). CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that PBS for both alcohol and marijuana can help explain why some risk factors are associated with alcohol/marijuana outcomes. Taken together, PBS use seems to be an important intervention target for alcohol/marijuana concurrent users.

The purpose of the present study was to examine tests of interaction effects between cannabis protective behavioral strategies use and a range of risk/protective factors for negative cannabis-related consequences. We recruited 2,226 college students (M(age) = 20.28, SD = 3.37; 68.8% female; 75.4% white) from 10 universities throughout the U.S. who reported using cannabis in the past month to complete an online survey. Measures assessed cannabis use, negative cannabis-related consequences, cannabis protective behavioral strategies use, and 35 risk/protective factors (including socio-demographic characteristics). Cannabis protective behavioral strategies use was negatively correlated with negative cannabis-related consequences while including the risk/protective factors as covariates. Most importantly, 33% and 54% of the interaction effects tested were statistically significant, depending on the covariates entered into the model. The interaction effects had a consistent pattern such that the positive association between greater risk and negative cannabis-related consequences was weaker as cannabis protective behavioral strategies use increased. Findings suggest that the nature of these interaction effects are not specific for any given risk/protective factor. We draw parallels to research on alcohol protective behavioral strategies and offer suggestions for moving the cannabis protective behavioral strategies field forward.

The purpose of the present study was to replicate and extend tests of interaction effects between cannabis protective behavioral strategies use and a wide range of risk/protective factors for cannabis-related consequences. We recruited 2,226 college students (Mage = 20.28, SD = 3.37; 68.8% female; 75.4% white) from 10 universities throughout the U.S. who reported using cannabis in the past month to complete an online survey. Measures included in the survey assessed cannabis use, cannabis-related consequences, cannabis protective behavioral strategies use, and 35 risk/protective factors (including socio-demographic characteristics [e.g., biological sex]). Cannabis protective behavioral strategies use was negatively correlated with cannabis-related consequences while controlling for the risk/protective factors. Most importantly, 33% and 54% of the interaction effects tested were statistically significant, depending on the covariates entered into the model. The interaction effects had a consistent pattern such that the positive association between greater risk and cannabis-related consequences was weaker as cannabis protective behavioral strategies use increased. These findings suggest that none of these interaction effects are particularly specific for any given risk/protective factor. We draw parallels to research on alcohol protective behavioral strategies and offer suggestions for moving the cannabis protective behavioral strategies field forward.

Findings from national surveys demonstrate that cannabis use peaks in young adulthood and that the annual prevalence of marijuana use among young adults (34.0%) is the highest it has been in decades (Johnston et al., 2016). We developed a 13 item measure designed to characterize the 11 symptoms of CUD as described in the DSM 5 (APA, 2013). To evaluate the performance of this Self Reported Symptoms of Cannabis Use Disorder (SRSCUD) measure, we examined its associations with other measures of CUD symptoms, negative cannabis related consequences, and other known risk factors for CUD (i.e., coping motives). Colleges students (n =7000) recruited from 9 universities in 9 states throughout the U.S. Our analyses focus on past month cannabis users (n = 2077). We split our sample in half to conduct exploratory factor analysis (EFA,n = 1011) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA, n = 1012). All items loaded saliently on a single factor of CUD symptoms in both EFA (.553 = λ = 805) and CFA models (.524 = λ = 830) (see Table 1). In our final model, we allowed correlated errors between the two indicators of tolerance (items 10 and 11) and the two indicators of withdrawal (items 12 and 13), and obtained acceptable model fit across most indices: CFI = .941, TLI = .927, RMSEA = .059, SRMR = .042. As shown in Table 2, the total score of the SRSCUD was strongly correlated with other CUD symptoms measures (.617 < r s < .697), demonstrating convergent validity. SRSCUD was moderately positively correlated with a well known risk factor for CUD (coping motives) and moderately negative correlated with a well known protective (cannabis protective behavioral strategies). We conducted receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analyses to identify well how our continuous measure of CUD symptoms could identify individuals who exceed the cutoffs for probable CUD on these other symptom measures. For the most well validated measure (CUDIT R), we had excellent sensitivity/specificity (mean score of 1.5 on SRSCUD) for predicting probable CUD. Although more research evaluating performance of the SRSCUD compared to a clinical diagnosis is needed, we have preliminary evidence for construct validity of this measure.

The purpose of the present study was to examine interaction effects between alcohol protective behavioral strategies (PBS) and a variety of risk and protective factors for experiencing negative alcohol-related consequences using data from a large, multi-site sample of college students. We recruited 5090 college students (71.2% female; 77.4% White; Mean Age = 20.89, SD = 4.44) who reported any alcohol use in the past month from psychology department participant pools at 10 universities across the U.S. to complete an online survey. Alcohol PBS use was a statistically significant negative predictor of alcohol-related problems while controlling for each antecedent variable individually. In terms of moderation effects, 26 out of 35 interactions (74.3%) were statistically significant in the models controlling only for sex. When controlling for frequency and quantity of alcohol use, 24 of 33 interactions (72.7%) were statistically significant. The nature of these interaction effects was largely the same: more frequent alcohol PBS use reduced the positive associations between risk factors and alcohol-related problems. The lack of specificity of these interaction effects calls into question the limited contributions of tests of interaction effects between alcohol PBS and individual antecedent variables. Comprehensive tests of interaction effects between alcohol PBS and antecedent variables with large samples are needed to move the field forward, especially replication attempts of interactions effects reported in single studies.

BACKGROUND: Past research with college students has found that substance use motives, particularly coping motives, mediate the relationship between negative affect and alcohol- and marijuana-related outcomes. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate substance use motives of dual users of both substances (past 30-day use; not necessarily simultaneous use) and identify any mediation effects that are either common to both substances or substance-specific. METHODS: The majority of dual users (n=2,034) identified as being White, non-Hispanic (63.8%), female (69.08%), and reported a mean age of 20.24 (SD=3.16) years. To test study aims, path models were conducted such that negative affect (stress, depressive and anxiety symptoms) were independently modeled as predictors of substance use outcomes (i.e., quantity and consequences) via substance use motives. RESULTS: All three negative affect symptoms were indirectly related to both alcohol and marijuana consequences via coping motives, such that higher negative affect was associated with higher coping motives; which in turn were positively associated with consequences. Substance-specific effects were also found: (a) stress was indirectly related to both alcohol and marijuana use quantity via enhancement motives, (b) depressive/anxiety symptoms were indirectly related to alcohol use quantity via expansion motives, and (c) all three negative affect symptoms were indirectly related to both marijuana use quantity and negative consequences via expansion motives. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggests that dual users of alcohol and marijuana with negative affect symptoms engage in substance use for similar reasons as single substance users with negative affect symptoms. Intervention efforts should examine ways to replace substance-related coping and expansion methods with non-substance-related methods.

Background: The present study investigated the mediating role of protective behavioral strategies for marijuana (PBSM) on the relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and marijuana outcomes (i.e. marijuana use frequency, marijuana use quantity, cannabis use disorder (CUD) symptoms, and marijuana-related problems). Methods: Participants were 1,107 traditional age college students ( M age = 20.26, SD = 3.32; 66.5% White, non-Hispanic; 68.8% female), who reported consuming marijuana at least once in the last 30 days and completed measures of PTSD symptoms, PBSM, and marijuana-related outcomes. Results: PBSM significantly mediated the positive relationships between PTSD symptoms and both CUD symptoms and marijuana-related problems. More specifically, PTSD symptoms were negatively associated with PBSM, which in turn was negatively associated with marijuana use frequency and marijuana use quantity, which were in turn positively associated with CUD symptoms and marijuana-related problems. Conclusion: Taken together, the associations between higher PTSD symptoms and greater experience of CUD symptoms and marijuana-related problems may occur because students use fewer PBSM and thus engage in larger quantity and frequency of marijuana use. These findings lend support to the utility of targeting PBSM as a harm reduction effort for students with PTSD symptoms who use marijuana.

Previous research has reported that sleep problems longitudinally predict both onset of cannabis use and cannabis-related problems. However, the mediators of this relationship remain unclear. The present study examined (a) the concurrent relationship between insomnia symptoms and hazardous cannabis use and (b) examined whether use of protective behavioral strategies (PBS) for cannabis mediated this relationship among college student cannabis users. Participants were 984 (69.9% female) college students who reported consuming cannabis at least once in the past month and completed measures of insomnia, cannabis PBS, and cannabis misuse. Data were analyzed by structural equation modeling for binary and count outcomes. The significance of the mediator was evaluated using bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals. Insomnia symptoms were associated with an increase in the odds of hazardous cannabis use and possible cannabis use disorder. Cannabis PBS significantly mediated the relationship between insomnia symptoms and hazardous cannabis use, cannabis use disorder symptoms, and cannabis-related problems. Specifically, higher reports of insomnia symptoms were associated with lower use of cannabis PBS; which in turn was associated with an increase in the odds of hazardous cannabis use and possible cannabis use disorder, as well as a higher report of cannabis-related problems. Implications of these findings on the prevention of cannabis use problems among college students in the United States were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).