College men's use of protective behavioral strategies for sexual aggression, risky sexual behavior, and heavy episodic drinking.

OBJECTIVE: Sexually aggressive behavior (SAB), risky sexual behavior (RSB), and heavy episodic drinking (HED) are serious behavioral health problems among college men. The present study substantially revises and validates protective behavioral strategies (PBS) measures in the SAB and RSB domains; evaluates the relations among PBS usage in the SAB, RSB, and HED domains; and determines whether college men with SAB, RSB, or HED histories report lower PBS usage. METHOD: College students who identified as men (n = 1,121) completed measures of PBS, SAB, RSB, HED, rape-supportive attitudes, sociosexuality, and bar/party attendance. RESULTS: Factor analyses resulted in three PBS scales (SAB, RSB-General, and RSB-Protection) that showed good fit and cross-validated well. Average scores for all four PBS measures converged moderately to strongly. Men reporting histories of SAB, RSB, or HED reported much lower domain-specific PBS use, and domain-specific PBS predicted concurrent SAB, RSB, or HED in the presence of other established predictors. CONCLUSIONS: Four well-developed and validated PBS measures now provide an expanded set of potential harm-reduction strategies for college men who drink and engage in sexual activity. Given the strong concurrent associations between PBS use and problems, as well as the interrelatedness of PBS use across domains, future research should examine the impact of simultaneous personalized normative feedback on PBS use across alcohol and sexual domains. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Exploring the relationships between adolescent alcohol misuse and later life health outcomes.

BACKGROUND: We sought to clarify the impact of adolescent alcohol misuse on adult physical health and subjective well-being. To do so, we investigated both the direct associations between adolescent alcohol misuse and early midlife physical health and life satisfaction and the indirect effects on these outcomes attributable to subsequent alcohol problems. METHOD: The sample included 2733 twin pairs (32% monozygotic; 52% female) from the FinnTwin16 study. Adolescent alcohol misuse was a composite of frequency of drunkenness, frequency of alcohol use, and alcohol problems at ages 16, 17, and 18.5. The early midlife outcomes included somatic symptoms, self-rated health, and life satisfaction at age 34. The mediators examined as part of the indirect effect analyses included alcohol problems from the Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index at ages 24 and 34. Serial mediation and co-twin comparison models were applied and included covariates from adolescence and early midlife. RESULTS: There were weak direct associations between adolescent alcohol misuse and early midlife physical health and life satisfaction. However, there was stronger evidence for indirect effects, whereby young adult and early midlife alcohol problems serially mediated the relationship between adolescent alcohol misuse and early midlife somatic symptoms (ß = 0.03, 95% CI [0.03, 0.04]), self-rated health (ß = -0.02, 95% CI [-0.03, -0.01]), and life satisfaction (ß = -0.03, CI [-0.04, -0.02]). These serial mediation effects were robust in co-twin comparison analyses. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide evidence that alcohol problems are a primary driver linking adolescent alcohol misuse and poor health outcomes across the lifespan.

BDSM Proclivity Among College Students.

Bondage/discipline, dominance/submission, and sadism/masochism (BDSM) proclivity among college students is poorly characterized, in part because existing measures of BDSM proclivity highlight the consensual nature of BDSM and are appropriate for use with non-community members (e.g., those who may not understand BDSM jargon). The current study introduces such a measure, the BDSM Proclivity Scale, which characterizes BDSM proclivity among college students and evaluates relations of BDSM proclivity with other sexual attitudes and behaviors. College students (n = 552) completed measures of BDSM proclivity, sociosexual attitudes and behaviors, rape-supportive attitudes, lifetime sexual partners, and consent-seeking behavior. Two factors mapping onto attitudes and experiences related to BDSM were identified and cross-validated. Average endorsements of BDSM attitudes and experiences on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = strong disagreement, 7 = strong agreement) were 5.61 and 4.44, respectively. Structural models revealed that lifetime sexual contact and gender significantly positively correlated with BDSM attitudes and experiences, sociosexual attitudes positively correlated with BDSM attitudes, and rape-supportive attitudes positively correlated with BDSM experiences. Consent-seeking was unrelated to BDSM experiences or attitudes. College student BDSM proclivity was evident for both attitudes and experiences, highlighting the need to characterize the development of BDSM proclivity and its correlates, the sources of students' knowledge, and the nature of students' experiences. The observed associations between BDSM proclivity and relevant sexual attitudes and behaviors support its construct validity and suggest that BDSM proclivity may prove to be an important addition to the broader constructs assessed in sexual attitudinal and behavioral domains.

Social Cognitive Processes Underlying Normative Misperception of Sexual Judgments.

Acquaintance-initiated sexually aggressive behavior (SAB) is a widespread problem on college campuses, and intervention strategies thus far have not produced sustained reductions in SAB. Peer-related social norms and cognitive processes underlying sexual decision-making have separately been implicated in SAB. The present study integrates this work by examining the effect of perspective (self vs. typical college male referent) on college men's judgments of the justifiability of unwanted sexual advances, determining the cognitive processes underlying men's misperceptions, and evaluating rape-supportive attitudes (RSA) as a correlate of the implicated processes. College men attracted to women (n = 217) completed the Heterosocial Perception Survey-Revised, in which they judged the justifiability of a man's increasingly intimate sexual advances as a woman responds increasingly negatively. Participants completed the Heterosocial Perception Survey-Revised from their own perspective and from the typical college male perspective. Participants also completed questionnaires assessing RSA and demographics. Undergraduate men, and particularly those endorsing more RSA, greatly overestimated how much the typical college male perceives increasingly nonconsensual behavior as justified. Three cognitive processes were strongly implicated in this misperception. When responding from the self-perspective, RSA correlated significantly with all cognitive processes. These findings illustrate the utility of integrating work on social norms and cognitive processing to document the global effect of perspective on average justifiability ratings and the perspective effect on cognitive processes underlying the ratings. Future work should evaluate personalized normative feedback and cognitive-training approaches to target misperceptions of peers' sexual judgments, given the well-established relation between sexual misperception and SAB risk.

Association of lifetime major depressive disorder with enhanced attentional sensitivity measured with P3 response in young adult twins.

Major depression is associated with alterations in the auditory P3 event-related potential (ERP). However, the persistence of these abnormalities after recovery from depressive episodes, especially in young adults, is not well known. Furthermore, the potential influence of substance use on this association is poorly understood. Young adult twin pairs (N = 177) from the longitudinal FinnTwin16 study were studied with a psychiatric interview, and P3a and P3b ERPs elicited by task-irrelevant novel sounds and targets, respectively. Dyadic linear mixed-effect models were used to distinguish the effects of lifetime major depressive disorder from familial factors and effects of alcohol problem drinking and tobacco smoking. P3a amplitude was significantly increased and P3b latency decreased, in individuals with a history of lifetime major depression, when controlling the fixed effects of alcohol abuse, tobacco, gender, twins' birth order, and zygosity. These results suggest that past lifetime major depressive disorder may be associated with enhanced attentional sensitivity.

Predicting Alcohol Dependence Symptoms by Young Adulthood: A Co-Twin Comparisons Study.

Co-twin comparisons address familial confounding by controlling for genetic and environmental influences that twin siblings share. We applied the co-twin comparison design to investigate associations of adolescent factors with alcohol dependence (AD) symptoms. Participants were 1286 individuals (581 complete twin pairs; 42% monozygotic; and 54% female) from the FinnTwin12 study. Predictors included adolescent academic achievement, substance use, externalizing problems, internalizing problems, executive functioning, peer environment, physical health, relationship with parents, alcohol expectancies, life events, and pubertal development. The outcome was lifetime AD clinical criterion count, as measured in young adulthood. We examined associations of each adolescent domain with AD symptoms in individual-level and co-twin comparison analyses. In individual-level analyses, adolescents with higher levels of substance use, teacher-reported externalizing problems at age 12, externalizing problems at age 14, self- and co-twin-reported internalizing problems, peer deviance, and perceived difficulty of life events reported more symptoms of AD in young adulthood (ps < .044). Conversely, individuals with higher academic achievement, social adjustment, self-rated health, and parent-child relationship quality met fewer AD clinical criteria (ps < .024). Associations between adolescent substance use, teacher-reported externalizing problems, co-twin-reported internalizing problems, peer deviance, self-rated health, and AD symptoms were of a similar magnitude in co-twin comparisons. We replicated many well-known adolescent correlates of later alcohol problems, including academic achievement, substance use, externalizing and internalizing problems, self-rated health, and features of the peer environment and parent-child relationship. Furthermore, we demonstrate the utility of co-twin comparisons for understanding pathways to AD. Effect sizes corresponding to the associations between adolescent substance use, teacher-reported externalizing problems, co-twin-reported internalizing problems, peer deviance, and self-rated health were not significantly attenuated (p value threshold = .05) after controlling for genetic and environmental influences that twin siblings share, highlighting these factors as candidates for further research.

Protective behavioral strategies for sexual aggression and risky sexual behavior.

Sexual aggression (SA) is a serious public-health problem on college campuses, and there is a pressing need for basic research fostering the development of novel prevention strategies. The current study (a) developed measures of protective behavioral strategies (PBS) for sexual aggression (SA) and risky sex (RS); (b) characterized college men's PBS use; and (c) evaluated whether those who reported engaging in SA and RS showed lower PBS use. Undergraduate men from two universities (n = 567) who endorsed sexual attraction toward women completed measures of PBS, SA, RS, rape-supportive and sociosexual attitudes, and alcohol consumption. On average, participants reported using PBS for SA and RS fairly often, but a sizeable number indicated that they seldom or never used the strategies. Men who reported SA engagement in the last year, relative to their peers, endorsed sharply lower reliance on SA PBS and RS PBS. Men who reported at least one RS behavior in the last year used RS PBS far less often than their peers. The PBS measures converged as expected with other attitudinal and behavioral measures. The new PBS measures reference cognitive-behavioral approaches that a large percentage of college men use on a regular basis, making them potentially acceptable prevention targets. Further, men at greater risk of exhibiting SA are much less likely to take steps to reduce the risks associated with sexual behavior, in comparison with their peers. Thus, future work could evaluate the potential usefulness of incorporating PBS for SA and RS into primary prevention programming in both domains.

Bifactor Structure of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire Across the Schizotypy Spectrum.

Despite widespread use in schizophrenia-spectrum research, uncertainty remains around an empirically supported and theoretically meaningful factor structure of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). Current identified structures are limited by reliance on exclusively nonclinical samples. The current study compared factor structures of the SPQ in a sample of 335 nonpsychiatric individuals, 292 schizotypy-spectrum individuals (schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or schizotypal personality disorder), and the combined group (N = 627). Unidimensional, correlated, and hierarchical models were assessed in addition to a bifactor model, wherein subscales load simultaneously onto a general factor and a specific factor. The best-fitting model across samples was a two-specific factor bifactor model, consistent with the nine symptom dimensions of schizotypy as primarily a direct manifestation of a unitary construct. Such findings, for the first time demonstrated in a clinical sample, have broad implications for transdiagnostic approaches, including reifying schizotypy as a construct underlying diverse manifestations of phenomenology across a wide range of severity.

Which adolescent factors predict alcohol misuse in young adulthood? A co-twin comparisons study.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Research on adolescent predictors of later alcohol misuse is typically conducted on samples of singletons, and associations may be confounded by between-family differences. To address potential confounding, we applied a co-twin comparison design to evaluate whether differences between co-twins in a wide array of adolescent risk factors predicted differences in young adult alcohol misuse. DESIGN: Longitudinal study in which associations between characteristics of the sample as adolescents were used to predict young adult alcohol misuse in individual-level analyses and co-twin comparisons. SETTING: Finland. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 3402 individuals (1435 complete twin pairs; 36% monozygotic; 57% female) from the FinnTwin12 study. MEASUREMENTS: The young adult alcohol misuse outcome was a composite score of alcohol use and intoxication frequency. Adolescent predictors included factor scores representing academic performance, substance use, externalizing problems, internalizing problems, peer environment, physical health and relationship with parents; and single measures tapping alcohol expectancies, life events and pubertal development. FINDINGS: In individual-level analyses, individuals with higher adolescent substance use, externalizing problems, time with friends, peer deviance, sports involvement, sleeping difficulties, parental discipline, positive alcohol expectancies and difficulty of life events reported higher alcohol misuse in young adulthood (Ps < 0.019, R2  = 0.0003-0.0310%). Conversely, those with higher adolescent internalizing problems, parent-child relationship quality and time with parents reported lower alcohol misuse (Ps < 0021, R2  = 0.0018-0.0093%). The associations with adolescent substance use and alcohol expectancies remained significant in co-twin comparisons (Ps < 0.049, R2  = 0.0019-0.0314%). Further, academic performance emerged as a significant predictor, such that individuals with higher grades compared with their co-twin reported higher young adult alcohol misuse (Ps < 0.029, R2  = 0.0449-0.0533%). CONCLUSIONS: Adolescent substance use, positive alcohol expectancies and higher academic performance appear to be robust predictors of later alcohol misuse.

Polygenic risk for alcohol misuse is moderated by romantic partnerships.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Previous twin research suggests relationship status can moderate underlying genetic liability towards alcohol misuse. This paper examined: (1) whether genome-wide polygenic scores (GPS) for alcohol consumption are associated with alcohol misuse; (2) whether these GPS are moderated by romantic relationships (gene-environment interaction; G × E) and (3) whether G × E results are consistent across sex. DESIGN: Linear mixed-effects models were used to test associations between genome-wide polygenic scores, relationship status and alcohol use/misuse. SETTING: Finnish twins born between 1983 and 1987 identified through Finland's central population registry. PARTICIPANTS: An intensively studied subset of Finnish Twin Study (FinnTwin12) during the young adult phase (aged 20-26 years). The analytical sample includes those with complete interview and genetic data (n = 1201). MEASUREMENTS: Key measurements included involvement in a romantic partnership, drinking frequency, intoxication frequency and DSM-IV alcohol dependence (AD) symptoms. Genome-wide polygenic scores (GPS) were created from available summary statistics from a large genome-wide association study (GWAS) of drinks per week. RESULTS: GPS predicted drinking frequency [b = 0.109; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.050, 0.168], intoxication frequency (b = 0.111; 95% CI = 0.054, 0.168) and AD symptoms (b = 0.123; 95% CI = 0.064, 0.182). Having a romantic relationship negatively influenced the association between GPS and drinking frequency (b = -0.105; 95% CI = -0.211, -0.001), intoxication frequency (b = -0.118; 95% CI = -0.220, -0.016) and AD symptoms (b = -0.119; 95% CI = -0.229, -0.009). There was a three-way interaction between sex, relationship status and GPS for intoxication frequency (b = 0.223; 95% CI = 0.013, 0.433), such that the reduced association between GPS and intoxication frequency for those in a relationship was only apparent in males. We found no evidence of three-way interactions for drinking frequency or AD symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Being in a romantic relationship reduced the association between genetic predisposition and drinking, high-risk drinking and alcohol problems. However, for high-risk drinking the protective effect was limited to males, mapping onto earlier findings suggesting that males benefit more from romantic partnerships.

Birth cohort effects on the quantity and heritability of alcohol consumption in adulthood: a Finnish longitudinal twin study.

AIMS: To estimate birth cohort effects on alcohol consumption and abstinence in Finland and to test differences between birth cohorts in genetic and environmental sources of variation in Finnish adult alcohol use. DESIGN: The Older Finnish Twin Cohort longitudinal survey study 1975-2011. SETTING: Finland. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 26 121 same-sex twins aged 18-95 years (full twin pairs at baseline n = 11 608). MEASUREMENTS: Outcome variables were the quantity of alcohol consumption (g/month) and abstinence (drinking zero g/month). Predictor variables were 10-year birth cohort categories and socio-demographic covariates. In quantitative genetic models, two larger cohorts (born 1901-20 and 1945-57) were compared. FINDINGS: Multi-level models in both sexes indicated higher levels of alcohol consumption in more recent birth cohorts and lower levels in earlier cohorts, compared with twins born 1921-30 (all P < 0.003). Similarly, compared with twins born 1921-30, abstaining was more common in earlier and less common in more recent cohorts (all P < 0.05), with the exception of men born 1911-20. Birth cohort differences in the genetic and environmental variance components in alcohol consumption were found: heritability was 21% [95% confidence interval (CI) = 0-56%] in the earlier-born cohort of women [mean age 62.8, standard deviation (SD) = 5.3] and 51% (95% CI = 36-56%) in a more recent cohort (mean age 60.2, SD = 3.7) at the age of 54-74. For men, heritability was 39% (95% CI = 27-45%) in both cohorts. In alcohol abstinence, environmental influences shared between co-twins explained a large proportion of variation in the earlier-born cohort (43%, 95% CI = 23-63%), whereas non-shared environmental (54%, 95% CI = 39-72%) and additive genetic influences (40%, 95% CI = 13-61%) were more important among more recent cohorts of men and women. CONCLUSION: The contribution of genetic and environmental variability to variability in alcohol consumption in the Finnish population appears to vary by birth cohort.

Sexual-perception processes in acquaintance-targeted sexual aggression.

This study analyzes data from seven published studies to examine whether three performance-based indices of men's misperception of women's sexual interest (MSI), derived from a self-report questionnaire, are associated with sexual-aggression history, rape-supportive attitudes, sociosexuality, problem drinking, and self-reported MSI. Almost 2000 undergraduate men judged the justifiability of a man's increasingly unwanted advances toward a woman on the Heterosocial Perception Survey-Revised. Participants self-reported any sexual-aggression history, and some completed questionnaires assessing rape-supportive attitudes, sociosexuality, problem drinking, and self-reported MSI. A three-parameter logistic function was fitted to participants' justifiability ratings within a non-linear mixed-effects framework, which provided precise participant-specific estimates of three sexual-perception processes (baseline justifiability, bias, and sensitivity). Sexual-aggression history and rape-supportive attitudes predicted: (a) reduced sensitivity to women's affect; (b) more liberal biases, such that the woman's affect had to be more negative before justifiability ratings dropped substantially; and (c) greater baseline justifiability of continued advances after a positive response. Sexual-aggression history and attitudes correlated more strongly with sensitivity than baseline justifiability; remaining variables showed the opposite pattern. This work underscores the role of sexual-perception processes in sexual aggression and illustrates the derivation of performance-based estimates of sexual-perception processes from questionnaire responses.

Sexual Attitudes Moderate the Effects of Alcohol Intoxication on Women's Risk Judgments.

This study evaluated the effects of alcohol intoxication, sexual attitudes, and sexual victimization history on the cognitive processes underlying undergraduate women's risk judgments. Participants were 116 unmarried, undergraduate women between the ages of 21 and 29. The sample was diverse ethnically and composed primarily of heterosexual women. Stimuli were written vignettes describing social situations that varied on dimensions of sexual victimization risk and potential impact on women's popularity. Participants were assigned randomly to an alcohol or a no-alcohol condition, and completed an explicit classification task in which they rated how risky each situation was in terms of their having an unwanted sexual experience. They then completed the Sexual Experiences Survey (SES) and the Sociosexuality Scale (SS); SES responses were used to quantify the severity of victimization experiences, and SS responses were used to measure endorsement of positive attitudes toward casual, impersonal sex. Although there was no main effect for condition, higher sociosexuality predicted use of higher thresholds for judging situations as risky. Importantly, sociosexuality interacted with condition such that higher sociosexuality predicted lower sensitivity to risk information in the alcohol condition but not in the no-alcohol condition. More severe victimization history predicted increased use of popularity impactwhen judging risk. This study emphasizes the importance of identifying specific cognitive processes affected by alcohol that may explain why women have difficulty processing contextual cues signaling risk in social situations. It demonstrates also the relevance of examining individual difference factors that may exacerbate the relationship between intoxication and cognitive processing of risk-relevant information.

Social Relationships Moderate Genetic Influences on Heavy Drinking in Young Adulthood.

OBJECTIVE: Social relationships, such as committed partnerships, limit risky behaviors like heavy drinking, in part, because of increased social control. The current analyses examine whether involvement in committed relationships or social support extend beyond a main effect to limit genetic liability in heavy drinking (gene-environment interaction) during young adulthood. METHOD: Using data from the young adult wave of the Finnish Twin Study, FinnTwin12 (n = 3,269), we tested whether involvement in romantic partnerships or social support moderated genetic influences on heavy drinking using biometric twin modeling for gene-environment interaction. RESULTS: Involvement in a romantic partnership was associated with a decline in genetic variance in both males and females, although the overall magnitude of genetic influence was greater in males. Sex differences emerged for social support: increased social support was associated with increased genetic influence for females and reduced genetic influence for males. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate that social relationships are important moderators of genetic influences on young adult alcohol use. Mechanisms of social control that are important in limiting genetic liability during adolescence extend into young adulthood. In addition, although some relationships limit genetic liability equally, others, such as extensive social networks, may operate differently across sex.

Effects of gender, rape-supportive attitudes, and explicit instruction on perceptions of women's momentary sexual interest.

Contemporary models of male-initiated sexual aggression toward female acquaintances implicate misperception of women's sexual interest. This study investigated the effects of gender, rape-supportive attitudes and an instructional manipulation on college students' sexual-interest judgments. Two hundred seventy-six women and 220 men judged the cues of momentary sexual interest expressed by photographed women; half received instruction on the differential validity of nonverbal cues of sexual interest for estimation of women's momentary sexual interest. Participants also completed an assessment of rape-supportive attitudes. Overall, college students' perceptions of women's momentary sexual interest are compromised both nomothetically and idiographically. Both male and female college students relied not only on women's nonverbal affect but also on the provocativeness of women's clothing and attractiveness when judging women's sexual interest. Men and women showed similar average ratings, but women relied more than men on women's affect, whereas men relied more than women on women's attractiveness. Both male and female students who endorsed more rape-supportive attitudes, relative to their peers, relied less on women's affect and more on women's clothing style and attractiveness. Explicit instruction regarding the greater validity of women's affective than nonaffective cues enhanced focus on nonverbal affective cues and decreased focus on clothing style and attractiveness. Although higher rape-supportive attitudes predicted more deficits in processing cues of sexual interest, explicit instruction proved to be effective for both higher-risk and lower-risk participants. These findings highlight the generalizability of the well-established effects of explicit instruction on category learning to sexual perception and may point to procedures that eventually could be incorporated into augmented prevention programs for sexual aggression on college campuses.

Education and alcohol use: A study of gene-environment interaction in young adulthood.

The consequences of heavy alcohol use remain a serious public health problem. Consistent evidence has demonstrated that both genetic and social influences contribute to alcohol use. Research on gene-environment interaction (GxE) has also demonstrated that these social and genetic influences do not act independently. Instead, certain environmental contexts may limit or exacerbate an underlying genetic predisposition. However, much of the work on GxE and alcohol use has focused on adolescence and less is known about the important environmental contexts in young adulthood. Using data from the young adult wave of the Finnish Twin Study, FinnTwin12 (N = 3402), we used biometric twin modeling to test whether education moderated genetic risk for alcohol use as assessed by drinking frequency and intoxication frequency. Education is important because it offers greater access to personal resources and helps determine one's position in the broader stratification system. Results from the twin models show that education did not moderate genetic variance components and that genetic risk was constant across levels of education. Instead, education moderated environmental variance so that under conditions of low education, environmental influences explained more of the variation in alcohol use outcomes. The implications and limitations of these results are discussed.

Men's perceptions of women's sexual interest: Effects of environmental context, sexual attitudes, and women's characteristics.

Men's perceptions of women's sexual interest were studied in a sample of 250 male undergraduates, who rated 173 full-body photos of women differing in expressed cues of sexual interest, attractiveness, provocativeness of dress, and the social-environmental context into which the woman's photo had been embedded. Environmental context significantly influenced men's judgments of sexual interest, independently of the affective cues of sexual interest themselves and of provocativeness of dress and attractiveness. Cue usage was moderated by men's risk for sexual aggression, as measured by a rape-myth inventory, with higher-risk men (relative to lower-risk men) relying significantly less on affective cues, relying significantly more on attractiveness, and showing a non-significant tendency to rely more on environmental cues. Men exhibited a moderate degree of insight into individual differences in their cue usage. Analysis of individual differences in cue usage suggested that men's judgments of women's momentary sexual interest varied along two dimensions: (1) men who relied more on affective cues were less likely to rely on women's attractiveness (r = -0.73); and (2) men who were influenced more by provocativeness of dress were also likely to rely more on environmental context (r = 0.49). Results suggest that variation in contextual variables should be included in cognitive-training programs designed to improve the accuracy of men's judgments of women's affective responses. Ultimately, such training programs may prove useful as an adjunct to prevention programs for sexual aggression.

Contextual Influences on Men's Perceptions of Women's Sexual Interest.

The current study evaluated whether the sexual relevance of the social environment potentiated men's judgments of women's sexual interest, particularly among men reporting more frequent misperception of a potential partner's sexual interest. Twenty-eight scenes were constructed depicting social environments that were either lower or higher in sexual relevance (e.g., office vs. bar). A full-body photograph of one of 14 college-aged women was inserted into each scene; the women all expressed neutral-to-positive affect and varied in provocativeness of dress and attractiveness. A total of 237 undergraduate males viewed each scene and judged how sexually interested and friendly each woman felt. Sexually relevant social environments potentiated men's judgments of women's sexual interest far more than their friendliness. This effect was stronger among more conservatively dressed women and among men reporting more frequent experiences of misperceiving a woman's sexual interest. The findings highlight the contextualized nature of emotional perception, whereby perception of emotion is potentiated in congruent, relative to incongruent, contexts.

Heritability of usual alcohol intoxication and hangover in male twins: the NAS-NRC Twin Registry.

BACKGROUND: Alcohol consumption is influenced by heritable factors. The genetic influence on usual high-density drinking, including alcohol intoxication and hangover, is unknown. We aim to estimate the heritability of usual high-density drinking. METHODS: A total of 13,511 male twins in this cross-sectional study were included from the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council (NAS-NRC) Twin Registry. Data on the frequency of alcohol intoxication and alcohol hangover over the past year, that is, usual high-density drinking (phenotypes), were collected through a self-administered questionnaire when twins were middle-aged in 1972. Structural equation modeling was used to estimate the variance components of phenotypes. RESULTS: The mean of the frequency of usual high-density drinking in the entire twin population was 0.16 times per month for intoxication and 0.18 times per month for hangover. The heritability of usual alcohol intoxication was 50.7% (95% confidence interval [CI] 46.2 to 55.0) before and 49.9% (95% CI 45.3 to 54.2) after the body mass index (BMI) adjustment. The heritability of usual hangover was 55.4% (95% CI 51.2 to 58.6) before and 54.8% (95% CI 50.6 to 58.8) after adjustment for BMI. Unshared environmental factors between co-twins explained the remaining variance in alcohol intoxication and in hangover. CONCLUSIONS: Both genetic and unshared environmental factors have important influences on usual alcohol intoxication and hangover. These findings are important in understanding the occurrence of and developing interventions for usual high-density drinking.

Adolescent alcohol abuse and adverse adult outcomes: evaluating confounds with drinking-discordant twins.

BACKGROUND: Adolescent alcohol abuse is associated with adverse outcomes in early adulthood, but differences in familial status and structure and household and community environments correlate with both adolescent drinking and adverse adult outcomes and may explain their association. We studied drinking-discordant twin pairs to evaluate such confounds to ask: Will between-family associations replicate in within-family comparisons? METHODS: With longitudinal data from >3,000 Finnish twins, we associated drinking problems at age 18½ with 13 outcomes assessed at age 25; included were sustained substance abuse, poor health, physical symptoms, early coital debut, multiple sexual partners, life dissatisfaction, truncated education, and financial problems. We assessed associations among twins as individuals with linear regression adjusted for correlated observations; within-family analyses of discordant twin pairs followed, comparing paired means for adult outcomes among co-twins discordant for adolescent problem drinking. Defining discordance by extreme scores on self-reported problem drinking at age 18½ permitted parallel analyses of twins as individuals and discordant twin pairs. Alternate definitions of pair-wise discordance and difference score correlations across the entire twin sample yielded supplementary analyses. RESULTS: All individual associations were highly significant for all definitions of discordance we employed. Depending on definitions of discordance, 11 to 13 comparisons of all drinking-discordant twin pairs and 3 to 6 comparisons of discordant monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs replicated between-family associations. For most outcomes, effect size attenuated from individual-level analysis to that within discordant MZ twin pairs providing evidence of partial confounding in associations reported in earlier research. The exception was the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ); at age 25, GHQ-12 had equivalent associations with age 18½ Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index across all comparisons. CONCLUSIONS: Our analyses control for shared family background, and, partly or fully, for shared genes, to yield within-family replications and more compelling evidence than previously available that adolescent alcohol abuse disrupts transitions into early adulthood.