Nocturnal hypoglycemia is associated with next day cognitive performance in adults with type 1 diabetes: Pilot data from the GluCog study.

OBJECTIVE:  Individuals with type 1 diabetes (T1D) have increased risk for cognitive dysfunction and high rates of sleep disturbance. Despite associations between glycemia and cognitive performance using cross-sectional and experimental methods few studies have evaluated this relationship in a naturalistic setting, or the impact of nocturnal versus daytime hypoglycemia. Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) may provide insight into the dynamic associations between cognition, affective, and physiological states. The current study couples EMA data with continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) to examine the within-person impact of nocturnal glycemia on next day cognitive performance in adults with T1D. Due to high rates of sleep disturbance and emotional distress in people with T1D, the potential impacts of sleep characteristics and negative affect were also evaluated. METHODS:  This pilot study utilized EMA in 18 adults with T1D to examine the impact of glycemic excursions, measured using CGM, on cognitive performance, measured via mobile cognitive assessment using the TestMyBrain platform. Multilevel modeling was used to test the within-person effects of nocturnal hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia on next day cognition. RESULTS:  Results indicated that increases in nocturnal hypoglycemia were associated with slower next day processing speed. This association was not significantly attenuated by negative affect, sleepiness, or sleep quality. CONCLUSIONS:  These results, while preliminary due to small sample size, showcase the power of intensive longitudinal designs using ambulatory cognitive assessment to uncover novel determinants of cognitive fluctuation in real world settings, an approach that may be utilized in other populations. Findings suggest reducing nocturnal hypoglycemia may improve cognition in adults with T1D.

Examining Alcohol-Related Blackouts and Drinking Motives Over Time Among College Women.

OBJECTIVE: Excessive alcohol consumption and its consequences among college women continues despite prevention efforts. One common consequence, alcohol-related blackouts (ARBs), are periods of alcohol-activated anterograde amnesia. The purpose of the current project is to extend the ARB and drinking motive literature by examining their relationship over time. METHOD: A sample of 424 women (88.9% White) completed online surveys assessing their ARBs and drinking motives weekly for 10 weeks. A series of hierarchical generalized linear models were estimated to examine the between-person and within-person effects of each drinking motive on repeated measures of experiencing a blackout across the time points. RESULTS: Women who report higher levels of drinking motives compared with others were more likely to report having blackout experiences. College women who reported higher levels of conformity motives did not have increased odds of experiencing a blackout. In weeks when they reported elevated levels of drinking motives, they were also more likely to experience an ARB. CONCLUSIONS: In general, college women who reported higher levels of social, coping, or enhancement motives experienced more blackouts than students who reported lower levels of these motives. Women who were underage were more likely to experience a blackout compared with women who were 21 or older. In a given week, 52.6% to 70.7% of the students consumed alcohol, and among women who drank in a given week, the prevalence of blackouts ranged from 8.5% to 14.6%. The results suggest that changes in motivational levels might provide a possible intervention point for ARBs risk.

Stress Monitoring in Free-Living Environments.

Stress monitoring is an important area of research with significant implications for individuals' physical and mental health. We present a data-driven approach for stress detection based on convolutional neural networks while addressing the problems of the best sensor channel and the lack of knowledge about stress episodes. Our work is the first to present an analysis of stress-related sensor data collected in real-world conditions from individuals diagnosed with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) and undergoing treatment to abstain from alcohol. We developed polynomial-time sensor channel selection algorithms to determine the best sensor modality for a machine learning task. We model the time variation in stress labels expressed by the participants as the subjective effects of stress. We addressed the subjective nature of stress by determining the optimal input length around stress events with an iterative search algorithm. We found the skin conductance modality to be most indicative of stress, and the segment length of 60 seconds around user-reported stress labels resulted in top stress detection performance. We used both majority undersampling and minority oversampling to balance our dataset. With majority undersampling, the binary stress classification model achieved an average accuracy of 99% and an f1-score of 0.99 on the training and test sets after 5-fold cross-validation. With minority oversampling, the performance on the test set dropped to an average accuracy of 76.25% and an f1-score of 0.68, highlighting the challenges of working with real-world datasets.

Using ecological momentary assessments of negative affect and craving during residential opioid use disorder treatment to predict patients' relapse to substance use.

BACKGROUND: Negative affect (NA) and craving are often independently examined as precipitators of relapse among individuals with substance use disorders, including opioid use disorder (OUD). Recent ecological momentary assessment (EMA) research has revealed that NA and craving frequently co-occur within individuals. Yet we know little about the general patterns of, and variability in, within-person associations between NA and craving, as well as whether the nature and degree of within-person NA-craving coupling predicts post-treatment time-to-relapse. METHODS: Seventy-three patients (77 % male, Mage = 30.10, Range = 19-61) in residential treatment for OUD took part in a 12-day, 4× daily smartphone-based EMA study. Linear mixed-effects models tested within-person, day-level associations between self-reported NA and craving during treatment. The study used Person-specific slopes (i.e., average within-person NA-craving coupling for each participant) estimated from the mixed-effects model in survival analyses with Cox proportional hazards regression models to determine if between-person differences in the within-person coupling predicted post-treatment time-to-relapse (operationalized as the return to problematic use of any substance except tobacco), and whether this prediction was similar across patients' average levels of NA and craving intensity. The study monitored relapse through a combination of hair samples and reports from patients or alternative contacts via a voice response system twice a month for up to 120 days or more following discharge. RESULTS: Among the 61 participants with time-to-relapse data, those with stronger positive within-person NA-craving coupling on average during residential OUD treatment had a lower hazard of relapsing (slower time to relapse) post-treatment than participants with weaker NA-craving slopes. The significant association held after controlling for interindividual differences in age, sex, and average levels of NA and craving intensity. Average NA and craving intensity did not moderate the association between NA-craving coupling and time-to-relapse. CONCLUSIONS: Interindividual differences in average within-person, day-level NA-craving coupling during residential treatment predict OUD patients' post-treatment time-to-relapse.

Glycemic Variability and Fluctuations in Cognitive Status in Adults With Type 1 Diabetes (GluCog): Observational Study Using Ecological Momentary Assessment of Cognition.

BACKGROUND: Individuals with type 1 diabetes represent a population with important vulnerabilities to dynamic physiological, behavioral, and psychological interactions, as well as cognitive processes. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA), a methodological approach used to study intraindividual variation over time, has only recently been used to deliver cognitive assessments in daily life, and many methodological questions remain. The Glycemic Variability and Fluctuations in Cognitive Status in Adults with Type 1 Diabetes (GluCog) study uses EMA to deliver cognitive and self-report measures while simultaneously collecting passive interstitial glucose in adults with type 1 diabetes. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to report the results of an EMA optimization pilot and how these data were used to refine the study design of the GluCog study. An optimization pilot was designed to determine whether low-frequency EMA (3 EMAs per day) over more days or high-frequency EMA (6 EMAs per day) for fewer days would result in a better EMA completion rate and capture more hypoglycemia episodes. The secondary aim was to reduce the number of cognitive EMA tasks from 6 to 3. METHODS: Baseline cognitive tasks and psychological questionnaires were completed by all the participants (N=20), followed by EMA delivery of brief cognitive and self-report measures for 15 days while wearing a blinded continuous glucose monitor. These data were coded for the presence of hypoglycemia (<70 mg/dL) within 60 minutes of each EMA. The participants were randomized into group A (n=10 for group A and B; starting with 3 EMAs per day for 10 days and then switching to 6 EMAs per day for an additional 5 days) or group B (N=10; starting with 6 EMAs per day for 5 days and then switching to 3 EMAs per day for an additional 10 days). RESULTS: A paired samples 2-tailed t test found no significant difference in the completion rate between the 2 schedules (t17=1.16; P=.26; Cohen dz=0.27), with both schedules producing >80% EMA completion. However, more hypoglycemia episodes were captured during the schedule with the 3 EMAs per day than during the schedule with 6 EMAs per day. CONCLUSIONS: The results from this EMA optimization pilot guided key design decisions regarding the EMA frequency and study duration for the main GluCog study. The present report responds to the urgent need for systematic and detailed information on EMA study designs, particularly those using cognitive assessments coupled with physiological measures. Given the complexity of EMA studies, choosing the right instruments and assessment schedules is an important aspect of study design and subsequent data interpretation.

Variations in acceptability of heavy alcohol use and gender double standards across drinking cultures. A U.S.A. - Italy study.

Focus group data from 92 youths from Italy and the U.S.A. indicate that Italians and Americans differ in perceived threshold of acceptability of drinking to excess. Youth from the U.S.A. were more accepting of intoxication than Italian youth, reflecting features of each respective dominant drinking culture. Alcohol gender double standards existed in both countries and were conceptually connected to sexuality. However, the social construction behind such connections differed across the two groups: focusing on harms to the woman in the U.S.A. and the respectability of her social group in Italy.

Stressalyzer: Convolutional Neural Network Framework for Personalized Stress Classification.

Stress detection and monitoring is an active area of research with important implications for an individual's personal, professional, and social health. Current approaches for stress classification use traditional machine learning algorithms trained on features computed from multiple sensor modalities. These methods are data and computation-intensive, rely on hand-crafted features, and lack reproducibility. These limitations impede the practical use of stress detection and classification systems in the real world. To overcome these shortcomings, we propose Stressalyzer, a novel stress classification and personalization framework from single-modality sensor data without feature computation and selection. Stressalyzer uses only Electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor data while providing competitive results compared to the state-of-the-art techniques that use multiple sensor modalities and are computationally expensive due to the calculation of large number of features. Using the dataset collected in a laboratory setting from 15 subjects, our single-channel neural network-based model achieves a classification accuracy of 92.9% and an f1 score of 0.89 for binary stress classification. Our leave-one-subject-out analysis establishes the subjective nature of stress and shows that personalizing stress models using Stressalyzer significantly improves the model performance. Without model personalization, we found a performance decline in 40% of the subjects, suggesting the need for model personalization.

Promoting Social and Emotional Learning in Middle School: Intervention Effects of Facing History and Ourselves.

There are fewer evidence-based social and emotional learning programs for middle school students compared to younger grades. This randomized controlled trial tests the effectiveness of Facing History and Ourselves (hereafter, Facing History) with a sample of 694 (Facing History n = 437; Comparison n = 257) students from a low-resourced school district. Youth self-identified as female (59%), Black/African American (61%), Hispanic/Latinx (18%), White (2%), and multi-racial or some other race/ethnicity (19%). Intervention students perceived their classrooms as more caring and democratic than students in the comparison group. They reported higher levels of empathy, prosocial behavior, and stronger participatory citizenship beliefs. This study expands the evidence-based of effective SEL programs available to schools.

Patterns of Alcohol Use Among Italian Young Adults Before and During a COVID-19 Lockdown: A Latent Class Analysis Study.

Two not mutually exclusive theories explain the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on alcohol use. The Availability hypothesis contends that reduced opportunities to drink due to the closure of outlets and consumption sites should lead to decreases in alcohol use, whereas the Stress and Coping hypothesis argues that those exposed to stressful situations may increase drinking. The primary aim of this study was to examine changes-separately by gender-in the prevalence of drinking patterns among Italian young adults (18-34 years) before and during a COVID-19 lockdown. Study design was a repeated cross-sectional study, whereby data collected in 2015 and 2020 from nationally representative samples were analyzed. Latent class analysis identified five, fully invariant for women and partially invariant for men, drinking pattern classes among both cohorts: current non-drinkers (CND), weekend risky (WRD) and weekend non-risky drinkers (WnRD), daily non-risky (DnRD) and daily risky drinkers (DRD). In support of the Availability hypothesis, increases in abstaining and moderate drinking women and men were observed from 2015 to 2020. Concomitantly, among men only there were also increases in the prevalence of patterns characterized by risky drinking, coping drinking motives and related harm (Stress and Coping hypothesis). The pandemic and the three-tier lockdown imposed by the Italian government likely reduced overall alcohol use in the general population who drink moderately. However, there was a substantial increase in the prevalence of a small but significant group of men who drank daily and heavily to cope. Outreach and prevention efforts should target primarily this group, but also consider the opportunities that the exceptional circumstances of a quarantine offer to any individuals to reshape their lifestyle and health-related behaviors.

Youth risk profiles and their prediction of distal cannabis and tobacco co-use in the Population Assessment of Tobacco Health (PATH).

Background: Co-use of cannabis and tobacco is common and increases negative behavioral, physical and mental health consequences. This study aimed to describe latent profiles of youth internalizing and externalizing problems, sensation seeking, and family environment in the US and their relationships with substance co-use. Methods: Data come from the Population Assessment of Tobacco Health (PATH). Using latent profile analysis with a distal outcome, we conducted a secondary data analysis examining relationships between latent profiles and the distal outcome of cannabis/tobacco use and co-use one year later. Participants were a nationally representative sample of youth ages 12-17 (N = 13,651). Results: We identified five youth subgroups: (1;11%) Family Risk, (2;32%) Family Protection with Very Low Internalizing, (3;21%) Family Protection with High Youth Risk, (4;24%) Family Protection with Moderate Youth Risk, (5;12%) Family Risk with High Youth Risk. Relationships between group membership and tobacco/cannabis outcomes, one year later, indicated that the least likely tobacco/cannabis users were the Family Protection with Very Low Internalizing class (no lifetime use probability (PR)=0.86, standard error (SE)=0.007; no 30-day use PR = 0.96, SE = 0.004). In contrast, the Family Risk with High Youth Risk class had the highest probability of both co-use (lifetime co-use PR = 0.33; SE = 0.014; 30-day co-use PR = 0.10; SE = 0.010) and single substance use (probability of lifetime single substance use PR = 0.30; SE = 0.013; 30-day single substance use PR = 0.24; SE = 0.014). Conclusions: A "protective but reactive" risk buffering pattern effect of family factors on youth factors was observed in that the lowest rates of co-use were observed in the three classes with family protection. These findings highlight the need for interventions addressing multiple domains and focusing on youth and family risk factors.

An Ecological Momentary Assessment of College Women's Decisions to Use Protective Behavioral Strategies.

Protective behavioral strategies (PBS) have been associated with reduced risk for sexual assault victimization in college women. Sexual assault risk reduction programs have had limited success increasing PBS use, particularly among heavy drinkers, suggesting a need for additional research on the malleable predictors of PBS use. Whereas longitudinal studies show women's decisions to use PBS can be both planned and reactive, little is known about the decision-making processes that affect PBS use on drinking days, when sexual assault risk may be elevated. The current study used ecological momentary assessment to examine variability in the associations between decision-making and PBS use within and across drinking days in first-semester college women. Participants (56 female drinkers) completed a 14-day protocol with three daily measures of intentions and willingness to use PBS, and once-daily diaries of PBS use. Multilevel models examined between-day and within-day effects of intentions and willingness to use PBS with regards to sexual assault PBS (e.g., communicating sexual boundaries) and drinking PBS (e.g., limiting alcohol consumption), respectively. On days when sexual assault PBS willingness increased throughout the day, women tended to use more sexual assault PBS. This association was strongest among women who were typically less willing to use these PBS. Among women who were the least willing to use drinking PBS, their drinking PBS use decreased on days when they reported increased willingness to use them. Decisions to use sexual assault and drinking PBS on drinking days were qualified by women's typical levels of willingness to use the different PBS. This suggests the need for a multi-faceted intervention strategy that targets both typical and event-level risk. Individual-level alcohol and sexual assault risk reduction approaches could be enhanced with event-level PBS messaging and evaluation.

Associations Between Physiological Signals Captured Using Wearable Sensors and Self-reported Outcomes Among Adults in Alcohol Use Disorder Recovery: Development and Usability Study.

BACKGROUND: Previous research has highlighted the role of stress in substance misuse and addiction, particularly for relapse risk. Mobile health interventions that incorporate real-time monitoring of physiological markers of stress offer promise for delivering tailored interventions to individuals during high-risk states of heightened stress to prevent alcohol relapse. Before such interventions can be developed, measurements of these processes in ambulatory, real-world settings are needed. OBJECTIVE: This research is a proof-of-concept study to establish the feasibility of using a wearable sensor device to continuously monitor stress in an ambulatory setting. Toward that end, we first aimed to examine the quality of 2 continuously monitored physiological signals-electrodermal activity (EDA) and heart rate variability (HRV)-and show that the data follow standard quality measures according to the literature. Next, we examined the associations between the statistical features extracted from the EDA and HRV signals and self-reported outcomes. METHODS: Participants (N=11; female: n=10) were asked to wear an Empatica E4 wearable sensor for continuous unobtrusive physiological signal collection for up to 14 days. During the same time frame, participants responded to a daily diary study using ecological momentary assessment of self-reported stress, emotions, alcohol-related cravings, pain, and discomfort via a web-based survey, which was conducted 4 times daily. Participants also participated in structured interviews throughout the study to assess daily alcohol use and to validate self-reported and physiological stress markers. In the analysis, we first used existing artifact detection methods and physiological signal processing approaches to assess the quality of the physiological data. Next, we examined the descriptive statistics for self-reported outcomes. Finally, we investigated the associations between the features of physiological signals and self-reported outcomes. RESULTS: We determined that 87.86% (1,032,265/1,174,898) of the EDA signals were clean. A comparison of the frequency of skin conductance responses per minute with previous research confirmed that the physiological signals collected in the ambulatory setting were successful. The results also indicated that the statistical features of the EDA and HRV measures were significantly correlated with the self-reported outcomes, including the number of stressful events marked on the sensor device, positive and negative emotions, and experienced pain and discomfort. CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrated that the physiological data collected via an Empatica E4 wearable sensor device were consistent with previous literature in terms of the quality of the data and that features of these physiological signals were significantly associated with several self-reported outcomes among a sample of adults diagnosed with alcohol use disorder. These results suggest that ambulatory assessment of stress is feasible and can be used to develop tailored mobile health interventions to enhance sustained recovery from alcohol use disorder.

Examining the time-varying association of negative affect and covariates with craving during treatment for prescription opioid dependence with two types of mixed models.

Opioid use disorders are chronic and relapse is common. Both negative affect and craving have been suggested antecedents of relapse and have been shown to demonstrate within- and between-person variability, as well as association with each other. The present study extends previous research by examining the covariation of negative affect and craving both within-day and at the person-level during 12 days of treatment among opioid-dependent patients. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) data were collected from 73 participants starting between 10 and 14 days after admission to an inpatient treatment facility. These data were analyzed using multivariate multilevel models and time-varying effect models. Results demonstrated strong association between negative affect and craving. Within-day, negative affect and craving were most associated in the early afternoon. At the person-level, association between negative affect and craving declined during the first week of data collection. Following this initial decline in association, negative affect and craving increasingly covaried during days 8-12 of data collection. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report a lagged increase in the association between negative affect and craving among patients during inpatient treatment for opioid dependence. Implications for research and treatment providers are discussed.

Research: Replacing Overhead Paging with Smartphones to Reduce Hospital Noise.

Hospital noise is associated with adverse effects on patients and staff. Communication through overhead paging is a major contributor to hospital noise. Replacing overhead paging with smartphones through a clinical mobility platform has the potential to reduce transitory noises in the hospital setting, though this result has not been described. The current study evaluated the impact of replacing overhead paging with a smartphone-based clinical mobility platform on transitory noise levels in a labor and delivery unit. Transitory noises were defined as sound levels greater than 10 dB above baseline, as recorded by a sound level meter. Prior to smartphone implementation, 77% of all sound levels at or above 60 dB were generated by overhead paging. Overhead pages occurred at an average rate of 3.17 per hour. Following smartphone implementation, overhead pages were eliminated and transitory noises decreased by two-thirds (P < 0.001). The highest recorded sound level decreased from 76.54 to 57.34 dB following implementation. The percent of sounds that exceeded the thresholds recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency and International Noise Council decreased from 31.2% to 0.2% following implementation (P < 0.001). Replacement of overhead paging with a clinical mobility platform that utilized smartphones was associated with a significant reduction in transitory noise. Clinical mobility implementation, as part of a noise reduction strategy, may be effective in other inpatient settings.

The intergenerational transmission of harsh parenting, substance use, and emotional distress: Impact on the third-generation child.

The current study evaluated the intergenerational transmission of harsh parenting, substance use, and emotional distress across generations and the association with child aggression. The study included 218 Generation 1 (G1) mothers and fathers, their adolescent (Generation 2; G2) who participated from middle adolescence through adulthood, and the 3rd-generation (G3) child between ages 3-5 years and 6-10 years. G1 behavior was examined when G2 was 16 and 18 years old; G2 alcohol problems and marijuana use were assessed when G2 was 19 and 21 years old. G2 emotional distress and harsh parenting were examined when the G3 child was between 3 and 5 years old. Finally, G3 aggression was assessed between 6 and 10 years old. Results showed continuity of G1 behavior when G2 was in adolescence to G2 behavior in adulthood. G1 alcohol problems and G1 harsh parenting were both associated with G3 aggression through G2 alcohol problems, G2 emotional distress, and G2 harsh parenting. Results suggest that G1 problem behavior as experienced by G2 adolescents in the family of origin plays an important role in G2 alcohol problems in emerging adulthood, which leads to G2 emotional distress and G2 harsh parenting in adulthood, which is related to G3 aggression in the early elementary school years. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Do Party Schools Report Higher Rates of Violence Against Women in Their Clery Data? A Latent Class Analysis.

The current study examined violent crimes against women among 1,384 four-year private and public college campuses using Clery Act data from 2014-2016 (i.e., rape, domestic and dating violence, stalking, and fondling). Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify five types of campuses: smaller (22%), liberal arts (25%), satellite (16%), private (19%), and party schools (18%). Smaller schools reported the lowest rates of violence against women (VAW), whereas private schools had significantly higher reported rapes. These findings have important implications for the types of campuses seem to be abiding by Clery law and reporting crimes that involve VAW.

A Mixed Methods Cross-Cultural Study to Compare Youth Drinking Cultures in Italy and the USA.

AIMS: To compare the drinking cultures of youth in the USA and in Italy. METHOD: Sequential explanatory mixed method design. Phase 1: Multigroup latent class analysis was used to identify subgroups of drinkers from samples of 424 (61.3% female) Italian and 323 American college students (57.3% female). Phase 2: Focus group interviews with 41 Italian and 47 American youth were used to collect narratives on features of the two drinking cultures. RESULTS: Four partially invariant subgroups of drinkers were found. Most participants (>75%) in both countries concentrated drinking during weekends. Overall, US drinkers displayed greater probabilities to report risky drinking behaviors and experience negative consequences as compared to comparable subgroups of Italian drinkers. Discrepancies in terms of socialisation processes during childhood (i.e. permissiveness) and underlying cultural assumptions with regard to alcohol consumption (i.e. purposes of alcohol use) may explain differences in how alcohol is used in the two countries. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that there are crucial differences in societal schema of beliefs, informal social norms, practices, and values attached to alcoholic beverages across the USA and Italy. These results demonstrate the need for culturally tailored alcohol preventive interventions and clinical practice targeted to young people that capitalise on such differences.

Short- and Long-Term Effects of Cannabis on Headache and Migraine.

Use of cannabis to alleviate headache and migraine is relatively common, yet research on its effectiveness remains sparse. We sought to determine whether inhalation of cannabis decreases headache and migraine ratings as well as whether gender, type of cannabis (concentrate vs flower), delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, cannabidiol, or dose contribute to changes in these ratings. Finally, we explored evidence for tolerance to these effects. Archival data were obtained from Strainprint, a medical cannabis app that allows patients to track symptoms before and after using different strains and doses of cannabis. Latent change score models and multilevel models were used to analyze data from 12,293 sessions where cannabis was used to treat headache and 7,441 sessions where cannabis was used to treat migraine. There were significant reductions in headache and migraine ratings after cannabis use. Men reported larger reductions in headache than women and use of concentrates was associated with larger reductions in headache than flower. Further, there was evidence of tolerance to these effects. PERSPECTIVE: Inhaled cannabis reduces self-reported headache and migraine severity by approximately 50%. However, its effectiveness appears to diminish across time and patients appear to use larger doses across time, suggesting tolerance to these effects may develop with continued use.

Examining the Roles of Heavy Episodic Drinking, Drinking Venues, and Sociosexuality in College Men's Sexual Aggression.

OBJECTIVE: College men's alcohol consumption is positively associated with sexual aggression perpetration, yet men's drinking does not typically predict later sexual assault after accounting for risk factors, such as impersonal sexuality. In the present study, we tested an indirect effects model whereby college men's impersonal sex orientation and heavy episodic drinking (HED) were hypothesized to contribute to sexual aggression perpetration via more frequent attendance at drinking venues (parties, bars). METHOD: Freshman males (N = 1,043) were recruited to participate in a five-semester study. Key measures included the Sociosexuality Index as a measure of impersonal sex attitudes and behaviors, frequency of HED, and frequency of attending drinking venues (parties, bars). The dichotomous outcome measure was based on the Sexual Strategies Survey, a measure of tactics used to convince a female partner to have sex. Structural equation modeling was used to examine whether sociosexuality attitudes, sociosexuality behaviors, and HED (all measured at Wave 1) would have direct and indirect effects on use of Wave 5 sexual aggression tactics, through effects on Wave 3 venue attendance. RESULTS: The model supported the hypothesized indirect effects of sociosexuality and HED via men's subsequent drinking venue attendance and was preferred over alternative models. CONCLUSIONS: College men who more frequently attended drinking "hot spots" were more likely to perpetrate subsequent sexual aggression, supporting a growing body of evidence on the importance of drinking venues in college sexual assault. Findings also help to explicate the mechanism underlying the robust role of impersonal sex orientation in sexual aggression.

An Examination of Parental Permissiveness of Alcohol Use and Monitoring, and Their Association with Emerging Adult Drinking Outcomes Across College.

BACKGROUND: Studies have shown that parents have a significant influence on emerging adult college students' drinking during the first year of college. Limited research has been conducted to address the question of whether parenting later in college continues to matter in a similar manner. The current study utilized a prospective design to identify associations between parental permissiveness toward alcohol use and monitoring behaviors and student drinking outcomes during the first and fourth years of college. METHODS: Participants (N = 1,429) at 3 large public universities completed surveys during the fall semesters of their first (T1) and fourth years (T2) (84.3% retention). The study employed a saturated autoregressive cross-lag model to examine associations between parental permissiveness of college student alcohol use, parental monitoring, student drinking, and consequences at T1 and T2, controlling for peer norms, sex, and campus. RESULTS: Examination of the association between parenting and student drinking outcomes revealed: (i) parental permissiveness was positively associated with drinking at T1 and again at T2; (ii) parental permissiveness had indirect effects on consequences via the effects on drinking at both times. Specifically, a 1-unit increase in parental permissiveness at T1 resulted in students experiencing 4 to 5 more consequences as a result of their drinking; (iii) parental permissiveness was not directly associated with monitoring at T1 or T2; and (iv) parental monitoring was significantly associated with drinking at T1 but not T2. CONCLUSIONS: The findings provide evidence for the continued importance of parenting in the fourth year of college and parents expressing low permissiveness toward student drinking may be beneficial to reducing risky drinking even as students turn 21.