Parental monitoring, family conflict, and adolescent alcohol use: A longitudinal latent class analysis.

This study examined relationships among parental monitoring, family conflict, and subgroups of adolescent alcohol use identified through longitudinal latent class analyses (LLCA). Differences in these subgroups across sex and race/ethnicity were also examined. The present study used data (N = 4,067; 51% male, 49% female) collected during a longitudinal study in which adolescents completed questionnaires each semester for seven semesters, beginning in spring of their freshman year of high school until spring of their senior year. LLCA demonstrated three classes of drinking over time (low, increasing, and moderate use). The majority of adolescents were increasing-use drinkers. Moderate drinkers were more likely to be male than female; nondrinkers were most likely to be African American; and increasing-use drinkers were more likely to be Mexican American. Adolescents who received less maternal monitoring and experienced more family conflict were more likely to be identified in the class of moderate alcohol use compared to nonuse. These results highlight the importance of encouraging parental monitoring and decreasing family conflict to reduce the likelihood of adolescent alcohol use throughout the high school years (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

MIRRORS program: Helping pregnant and postpartum women and families with substance use problems.

Background: Pregnant and postpartum women with substance use disorders are a highly vulnerable population, especially when this is compounded by homelessness or unstable housing, justice involvement, and/or co-occurring mental health challenges. The MIRRORS (Maternal Initiative for Reflective Recovery-Oriented Residential Services) program provided expanded and enhanced residential substance use disorder treatment, prevention and recovery support for women and children through integrated, trauma-informed care and services strengthened by a comprehensive and coordinated family systems approach. This paper describes the program and provides evaluation of the outcomes. Methods: Pregnant and postpartum women (n = 215) were assessed at 3 time points: intake, discharge and 6-months post-intake using standardized measures of family functioning, parenting, recovery capital, and other outcomes. Multilevel modeling was employed to examine individual differences in trends over time. Results: Over 80% of participants reported that the MIRRORS program enhanced their recovery treatment experience. Women reported significant improvements in general family functioning, problem solving, behavioral control, affective responsiveness, and communication. Participants also reported increased recovery capital and improved parental monitoring over time. Conclusions: Outcomes indicate that the MIRRORS program was effective in improving family functioning and reducing substance use, thus enhancing women's functioning and recovery.

COVID-19 pandemic stresses and relationships in college students.

Objective: The goal of this study was to understand how intergenerational intimacy and individuation associate with COVID-19 pandemic-related stresses and changes to relationship qualities, and consequentially, with substance use indicators, happiness, and life satisfaction. Background: Intergenerational family systems theory suggests that dysfunctional relationship patterns in one's family of origin contribute to greater stress, and consequentially, to poorer health outcomes. We examined how these patterns emerge for young adults during a pandemic. Method: A sample (N = 501) of young adults at a large university in Texas completed an online questionnaire about health and happiness. Results: More intergenerational intimacy was associated with more positive COVID-19 pandemic-related changes in relationship quality with family and friends, and with more happiness and life satisfaction. More intergenerational individuation was associated with less COVID-19 pandemic-related stress, fewer coping motives for alcohol use, and with more happiness and life satisfaction. Less COVID-19 pandemic-related stress and more positive COVID-19 pandemic-related changes in relationship qualities with family and friends were associated with more positive outcomes. Conclusion: More positive intergenerational relationships are associated with more positive outcomes in regards to COVID-19 pandemic-related stress and relationship changes. Implications: Promoting positive intergenerational relational qualities between young adults and their parents can buffer against pandemic-related consequences in health and happiness. Family health practitioners should promote these intergenerational qualities in families, which in turn should increase positive psychosocial and health outcomes in the context of a pandemic.

Detachment, peer pressure, and age of first substance use as gateways to later substance use.

BACKGROUND: Prior research using psychosocial developmental models have identified emotional detachment from family and susceptibility to peer pressure as predictors of adolescent substance use. Despite mixed support for the gateway hypothesis, less is known about how these psychosocial developmental factors facilitate adolescent substance use. The purpose of this study was to examine how age of first substance use, emotional detachment from parents, and susceptibility to peer pressure influence the progression from alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco use to other illicit substance use (e.g., cocaine, hallucinogens). METHOD: Data (N = 5792) were collected from high school students across seven semesters. Latent growth curve modeling was used to examine how age of first use of alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco predicted initial levels and changes in emotional detachment, peer pressure, and other illicit substance use. RESULTS: Earlier age of first use of alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco predicted detachment, peer pressure, and a greater likelihood of initial use of other illicit substances. More initial emotional detachment was associated with increases in other illicit substance use. Earlier ages of first use of alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco had indirect effects on initial use of other illicit substances through initial emotional detachment. CONCLUSION: Emotional detachment from parents and peer pressure impact the likelihood of other illicit substance use across the high school years. Prevention programs may benefit by focusing on delaying the onset of first use of substance use and by preventing emotional detachment from parents and peer pressure.

An Evaluation of Two Stimulus Equivalence Training Sequences on the Emergence of Novel Intraverbals.

Researchers have begun to investigate the emergence of novel intraverbals using equivalence-based instruction (EBI) in typically developing children (Carp & Petursdottir, 2012; Pérez-González, Herszlikowicz, & Williams, 2008). We sought to replicate and extend the previous research by investigating two stimulus equivalence training sequences (e.g., linear series-LS and one to many-OTM) in the emergence of novel intraverbals in a two-part study with college students. Experiment 1 was designed to partially replicate the previous research by training intraverbals using an LS arrangement and then testing for the emergence of novel intraverbals. Novel intraverbals did not emerge after baseline training alone for the majority of participants. Experiment 2 investigated whether a different training sequence (i.e., OTM) would result in the emergence of novel intraverbals. Novel intraverbals did emerge following baseline training alone for the majority of participants. Overall, these results suggest that training intraverbals in an OTM training sequence may establish conditional discriminations during training, which may make it a more advantageous sequence, in that following training, more novel intraverbals emerge.