Adolescents who experienced negative alcohol-related consequences are willing to experience these consequences again in the future.

Alcohol use and risky single occasion drinking are common among adolescents and are associated with a higher risk of various negative social, physical, academic, or sexual consequences. Studies have shown that among college students, willingness to experience negative consequences is associated with a higher likelihood of experiencing these consequences in the future. However, it remains unclear how experiencing negative consequences influences adolescents' willingness to experience them again. Based on a representative sample of 1,333 alcohol-using 14- to 15-year-olds (47.9% female), a path model was used to examine the associations between risky drinking, negative social and physical consequences, and willingness to experience the specific consequence in the future. As hypothesized, more frequent risky drinking was positively associated with experiencing negative consequences (i.e., saying or doing embarrassing things, regretted sexual experiences, impairment of schoolwork, problems with parents/friends, accident or injury, hangover, vomiting, memory lapses). Contrary to our second hypothesis, adolescents who experienced a negative consequence were also consistently willing to experience it in the future. Findings suggest that adolescents may see the experience of negative consequences as a necessary evil to attain the positive consequences. Prevention efforts may benefit from focusing on ways of attaining positive consequences by promoting alternatives to engaging in risky drinking practices, as well as reducing negative consequences (e.g., by promoting protective behavioral strategies). (PsycINFO Database Record

Does smoking within an individual's peer group affect intervention effectiveness? An evaluation of the Smoke-Free Class Competition among Swiss adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to test whether participation in the Smoke-Free Class Competition (SFC), a classroom-based smoking prevention program, reduced smoking and increased smoking-related knowledge among those with and without smoking peers compared to control groups. METHOD: Including smoking peers as a moderator in multilevel models, a quasi-experimental design with a post-test at seven months was used to analyze data from 1035 students in Switzerland (2011; mean age 13.3, 53.2% female). RESULTS: Completing the SFC decreased smoking prevalence (OR=0.7; CI=0.5-1.0; ns) and increased smoking-related knowledge (b=1.0; p<.01) compared to control classes. However, the former effect was only significant among those without smoking peers (OR=0.3; CI=0.2-0.5; p<.001). With smoking peers, smoking prevalence was even higher at post-test (OR=3.7; CI=1.7-8.2; p<.01) in the classes that completed SFC compared to controls. No effect was found in classes that started SFC but had to pull out. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that SFC should be applied early in adolescence, when individuals are less likely to have classmates who smoke and are therefore less likely to have to pull out of the program. This is particularly important because SFC was only effective among those who completed the program and did not have smoking peers.

Do offenders and victims drink for different reasons? Testing mediation of drinking motives in the link between bullying subgroups and alcohol use in adolescence.

OBJECTIVES: Previous studies have reported inconsistent evidence on associations between adolescents involved in different bullying subgroups (victims, offenders and offender-victims) and alcohol use. In addition, little is known about the underlying mechanisms between these bullying subgroups and alcohol use. The aim of this study was to clarify the association between the different bullying subgroups and alcohol use by investigating whether it is mediated by drinking motives. METHODS: Structural equation models were estimated based on a nationally representative sample of 2548 alcohol-experienced 12 to 17-year-olds who participated in the 2010 Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children survey in Switzerland. RESULTS: Consistent for both alcohol outcomes (drunkenness and drinking volume), male and female offenders presented higher levels of alcohol use than those not involved in bullying, not only per se (direct link) but also due to higher levels of enhancement and social drinking motives (indirect link). Victims, meanwhile, presented lower levels of alcohol use through an indirect link, with lower levels of enhancement (boys and girls) and social motives (boys). The higher levels of alcohol use among offender-victims were mediated by all four drinking motives among girls, and in particular by coping motives among boys. CONCLUSIONS: In most cases, different levels of alcohol use in the bullying subgroups are due to differences in drinking motives. For prevention, it is important to take account of the differences in drinking motives and problems of offenders, victims and offender-victims.

Time-course of motor inhibition during hypnotic paralysis: EEG topographical and source analysis.

Cognitive hypotheses of hypnotic phenomena have proposed that executive attentional systems may be either inhibited or overactivated to produce a selective alteration or disconnection of some mental operations. Recent brain imaging studies have reported changes in activity in both medial (anterior cingulate) and lateral (inferior) prefrontal areas during hypnotically induced paralysis, overlapping with areas associated with attentional control as well as inhibitory processes. To compare motor inhibition mechanisms responsible for paralysis during hypnosis and those recruited by voluntary inhibition, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to record brain activity during a modified bimanual Go-Nogo task, which was performed either in a normal baseline condition or during unilateral paralysis caused by hypnotic suggestion or by simulation (in two groups of participants, each tested once with both hands valid and once with unilateral paralysis). This paradigm allowed us to identify patterns of neural activity specifically associated with hypnotically induced paralysis, relative to voluntary inhibition during simulation or Nogo trials. We used a topographical EEG analysis technique to investigate both the spatial organization and the temporal sequence of neural processes activated in these different conditions, and to localize the underlying anatomical generators through minimum-norm methods. We found that preparatory activations were similar in all conditions, despite left hypnotic paralysis, indicating preserved motor intentions. A large P3-like activity was generated by voluntary inhibition during voluntary inhibition (Nogo), with neural sources in medial prefrontal areas, while hypnotic paralysis was associated with a distinctive topography activity during the same time-range and specific sources in right inferior frontal cortex. These results add support to the view that hypnosis might act by enhancing executive control systems mediated by right prefrontal areas, but does not produce paralysis via direct motor inhibition processes normally used for the voluntary suppression of actions.