Search

Parenting style refers to the emotional climate in which parents nurture and guide their child’s social development. Despite the prominence of parenting style research, many studies still create their own psychometrically untested measures of parenting styles, use measures that do not capture the uninvolved parenting style, or use median splits to convert dimensional assessments into parenting style typologies. To address these measurement issues, the current studies developed the Parenting Styles Circumplex Inventory (PSCI) which is rooted in Contemporary Integrative Interpersonal Theory and provides a framework to unite typology and dimensional parenting style measurement approaches. The current article describes the development and initial validation of the PSCI across three samples of college students (Ns = 571, 361, 385). The 32-item PSCI consists of eight octant scales which each assess unique combinations of parental responsiveness and demandingness. The measure asks respondents to answer each question about their mother- and/or father-figure. The circumplex structure of the PSCI was confirmed and replicated across studies and the PSCI demonstrated meaningful associations with indicators of parenting practices, relationship functioning, psychopathology symptoms, and substance use. Results from this study provide initial support for the PSCI as a path forward for measuring parenting styles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There are mixed findings in the literature regarding the association between parental alcohol communication and offspring alcohol use. To clarify this association, this study tested a prospective mediated moderation model in which the association between parental communication about the risks of alcohol use and emerging adult offspring drinking was mediated by offspring perceived parental approval of drinking. Parental alcohol expectancies and use were tested as moderators of the link between communication and perceived approval. Method: The community sample of 378 emerging adult and caregiver dyads completed 3 annual assessments (first assessment mean age = 19.13). The sample was 54% female and majority White/non‐Hispanic (76%). Caregivers reported on their own alcohol expectancies and use, and emerging adult offspring reported on parental communication of alcohol risks, perceived parental approval of drinking, and their own alcohol use. Multilevel modeling was used to test hypotheses. Results: Mediated moderation was largely supported. More frequent communication about the risks of drinking was prospectively associated with low levels of perceived parental approval of alcohol use, which in turn was associated with low levels of offspring drinking. This pathway depended on parental alcohol expectancies. Conclusions: Findings suggest that including mediators (e.g., perceived approval of drinking) helps to clarify the mixed literature on parental communication about alcohol and that parental attitudes about alcohol can impact the effectiveness with which parents convey the risk of alcohol to offspring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The preference for immediate rewards and high sensation seeking are both potent risk factors for alcohol use disorder (AUD), but how they interact during intoxication is poorly understood. To model decision making linked to AUD risk, we tested heavy drinkers for impulsive choice (delay discounting with alcohol:money or money:money) and behavioral sensation seeking using a novel odor choice task. Laboratory tasks measured actual behavior with real contingencies. Our goals were to determine, in heavy drinkers, (i) alcohol's effects on delay discounting, and (ii) how AUD risk factors relate to delay discounting, and (iii) how delay discounting with alcohol choices compares with strictly monetary choices. Methods: Thirty‐five heavy drinkers (≥2 binges per month; age = 22.8 ± 2.2; 20 male; 5.8 ± 2.3 drinks/drinking day) performed cross‐commodity discounting (CCD) of immediate alcohol vs. delayed money, a monetary delay discounting (DD), and behavioral sensation‐seeking tasks. CCD and DD were performed while sober and during controlled alcohol infusion targeting 0.08 g/dl. The behavioral sensation‐seeking task presented binary choices of odorants varying in intensity and novelty, and the risk of exposure to a malodorant. Results: CCD and DD behaviors were highly correlated across conditions, mean r = 0.64. Alcohol increased delayed reward preference in DD, p = 0.001, but did not alter mean CCD, p > 0.16. However, alcohol‐induced changes in CCD correlated with behavioral sensation seeking, such that higher sensation seekers' immediate alcohol preference increased when intoxicated, p = 0.042; self‐reported sensation seeking was uncorrelated, ps > 0.08. Behavioral sensation seeking also correlated with "want" alcohol following a priming dose targeting 0.035 g/dl, p = 0.021. CCD and DD did not correlate with self‐reported drinking problems or other personality risk traits. Conclusions: Alcohol increased impulsive alcohol choice in high sensation seekers, suggesting an interaction that may underlie impaired control of drinking, at least in a subset of heavy drinkers—consistent with models highlighting high novelty/sensation‐seeking AUD subtypes. Discounting behavior overall appears to be a generalized process, and relatively stable across methods, repeated testing, and intoxication. These findings further support the utility of behavioral tasks in uncovering key behavioral phenotypes in AUD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our goal was to develop a behavioral measure of sensation seeking (SS). The Aroma Choice Task (ACT) assesses preference for an intense, novel, varied, and risky (exciting) option versus a mild, safe (boring) option using real-time odorant delivery. A total of 147 healthy young adults completed 40 binary choice trials. We examined (1) intensity and pleasantness of odorants, (2) stability of responding, (3) association with SS self-report, and (4) association with self-reported illicit drug use. Participants' preference for the "exciting" option versus the safe option was significantly associated with self-reported SS (p <.001) and illicit drug use (p =.041). Odorant ratings comported with their intended intensity. The ACT showed good internal, convergent, and criterion validity. We propose that the ACT might permit more objective SS assessment for investigating the biological bases of psychiatric conditions marked by high SS, particularly addiction. The ACT measures SS behaviorally, mitigating some self-report challenges and enabling real-time assessment, for example, for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Implicit cannabis associations (ICAs) inconsistently predict cannabis use (CU), and little is known about their formation. Personality, behavioral approach and inhibition, were tested as predictors of ICAs, which in turn, was expected to predict CU (mediation). Peer context was tested as a moderator., Method: Data were taken from three annual assessments of a larger longitudinal study. The community sample (314 emerging adults, mean age = 19.13, 54% female, 76% White/non-Hispanic at the first assessment) completed an ICA task and questionnaire assessments of CU, personality, and peer norms., Results: ICAs were positively associated with CU at high but not low levels of perceived peer approval/use. Behavioral inhibition was negatively associated ICAs, which in turn, predicted infrequent CU at high levels of peer approval/use (moderated mediation). Behavioral approach was marginally associated with ICAs., Conclusions: Peer context and personality are important for understanding the formation of ICAs and their association with CU., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting Interests The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.