Alexandra Loukas

Parental alcoholism and co-occurring antisocial behavior: prospective relationships to externalizing behavior problems in their young sons.

The hypothesis that parental alcoholism and co-occurring antisocial behavior would be indirectly linked to child externalizing behavior problems through child lack of control, current levels of parent depression, family conflict, and parent–child conflict was tested using manifest variable regression analysis. Participants were a community sample of 125 families with an alcoholic father and 83 ecologically matched but nonsubstance abusing families involved in the first 2 waves of an ongoing longitudinal study (with 3 years between each wave). All families had a biological son who was 3–5 years old at study onset. Results revealed that child lack of control mediated the relation between paternal alcoholism and the sons subsequent externalizing behavior problems. Family conflict was a significant mediator of maternal and paternal lifetime antisocial behavior effects and father–son conflict mediated paternal lifetime antisocial behavior effects. Study implications are discussed within the context of parental socialization of antisocial behavior.

The Relation of Personality to Alcohol Abuse/Dependence in a High‐Risk Sample

The current study had two goals. The first goal was to test the mediational role of young adult personality in the relation between parental alcoholism and young adult alcoholism. The second was to examine the associations between personality and alcohol use motives and reasons to limit drinking in order to explore possible mechanisms by which personality may influence alcohol abuse/dependence. Multilevel modeling techniques were used to analyze data obtained from a community sample of young adult children of alcoholics and demographically matched controls. Results revealed that young adult neuroticism and agreeableness each, in part, mediated the effect of parental alcoholism on young adult alcoholism. Moreover, individuals high in neuloticism reported stronger coping motives to use alcohol, individuals low in agreeableness reported stronger coping motives and weaker upbringing reasons to limit drinking, and individuals low in conscientiousness reported stronger coping and enhancement motives to use alcohol, and weaker performance reasons to limit drinking.

Examining Temporal Associations Between School Connectedness and Early Adolescent Adjustment

This study examined (a) the associations between school connectedness and early adolescent adjustment problems over a 1 year period and (b) the equivalence of these associations across gender. Five hundred middle school students (53.4% female), initially in the 6th and 7th grades, participated in the two-wave study. Results from two-group cross-lagged panel analyses were consistent across boys’ and girls’ data. After controlling for baseline levels of adjustment problems, school connectedness predicted lower levels of early adolescent conduct problems 1 year later. Regarding the opposite direction of associations, and even after baseline levels of school connectedness were taken into account, conduct problems predicted lower levels of subsequent school connectedness. There were no cross-lagged associations between depressive symptoms and school connectedness, although elevated levels of baseline depressive symptoms predicted higher levels of subsequent conduct problems. Findings elaborate previous research by demonstrating that early adolescents actively shape the middle school environment.

Externalizing and Internalizing Problems in Low-Income Latino Early Adolescents Risk, Resource, and Protective Factors

The current investigation examined the role of cumulative risk, family routines, maternal monitoring, mother-child relationship quality, and youth socioemotional competence in adjustment outcomes of 521 10- to 14-year-old low-income Latino early adolescents. Results showed that, as the number of risk factors increased, levels of externalizing and internalizing problems also increased. Furthermore, findings indicated that socio-emotional competence was predictive of fewer externalizing and internalizing problems for females independent of the level of cumulative risk. Maintenance of family routines protected females exposed to elevated levels of cumulative risk from heightened levels of externalizing problems. Despite exposure to multiple risk factors, boys high in socio-emotional competence and those boys reporting a good quality mother-son relationship were protected from elevated levels of adjustment problems. Results underscore the importance of examining within-group variability among young Latino adolescents.

Social Anxiety and Aggression in Early Adolescents: Examining the Moderating Roles of Empathic Concern and Perspective Taking

Guided by a social information processing perspective, this study examined the unique and interactive contributions of social anxiety and two distinct components of empathy, empathic concern and perspective taking, to subsequent relational and overt aggression in early adolescents. Participants were 485 10- to 14-year old middle school students (54% female; 78% European-American) involved in two waves of a study with one year between each wave. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that higher levels of empathic concern were directly associated with decreases in subsequent relational and overt aggression one year later and buffered the impact of social anxiety on subsequent relational aggression. Although perspective taking did not moderate the impact of social anxiety on either form of aggression, it was a unique predictor of increased relational aggression one year later. Findings call for future research to assess both components of empathy separately as they relate to relational and overt aggression.

Texas College Students' Opinions of No-Smoking Policies, Secondhand Smoke, and Smoking in Public Places

The authors examined college student opinions of no-smoking policies, secondhand smoke, and smoking in public places. A convenience sample of 1,188 (66.4% female; 26.9% White, 64.1% Black, and 9.0% Hispanic) students attending 5 Texas colleges volunteered to complete a 60-item anonymous survey on tobacco attitudes and behaviors. Results of our study showed that women, Black students, and nonsmoking students reported the most favorable attitudes toward no smoking. Male students, white students, and students who smoked in the past 30 days (current smokers) reported the least favorable attitudes. The lowest level of agreement by all subgroups was provided for prohibiting smoking everywhere on campus (inside and outside of buildings). Implications for tobacco control on college campuses are discussed.

Prevalence and harm perceptions of various tobacco products among college students

INTRODUCTION Although use of non-cigarette alternative tobacco products (ATPs) is increasingly prevalent in the United States, little is known about the varying patterns of tobacco use among college students. This study examined prevalence of ATP use and differences across 4 groups of students (nontobacco, cigarette-only, polytobacco, and ATP-only users) on perceptions of danger and beliefs about government safety evaluation of tobacco products. METHODS An online survey was administered to 5,028 students attending 7 public universities within a larger university system (M age = 20.5 years, 59.6% female, 54.6% Hispanic/Latino). Multivariate analyses were conducted to investigate differences between the 4 groups on perceived danger of tobacco products and beliefs regarding government safety evaluation of these products. RESULTS Prevalence of ATP use among the sample ranged from 0.4% for dissolvable tobacco to 10.8% for hookah. Group membership was significantly associated with perceived danger of each tobacco product, whereby cigarette-only and ATP-only users reported significantly higher levels of perceived danger for most ATPs than did polytobacco users. Furthermore, cigarette-only, polytobacco, and ATP-only users were significantly more likely than nonusers to believe that the government evaluates some tobacco products for safety. CONCLUSIONS ATP use among young adult college students is prevalent. Furthermore, students who use ATPs in conjunction with cigarettes (i.e., polytobacco users) appear to be at highest risk for the continuation and subsequent dependence on nicotine, given their danger perceptions and beliefs of government evaluation. Future research examining trajectories of use, particularly among polytobacco users, is needed.

Family Environment, Effortful Control, and Adjustment among European American and Latino Early Adolescents.

The present study examined the independent and interactive relations of effortful control and two family environment variables (parent-adolescent conflict and negative family relations) on the subsequent conduct problems and depressive symptoms of 459 European American and Latino adolescents between the ages of 10 and 14. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that even after baseline levels of conduct problems were taken into account, lower levels of effortful control and poorer family relations were uniquely predictive of more conduct problems 1 year later. A three-way interaction among effortful control, negative family relations, and ethnicity indicated that among European Americans only, effortful control moderated the negative family relations effect. High levels of effortful control protected European American adolescents living in homes characterized by negative family relations from elevated levels of subsequent conduct problems. Contrary to findings for the conduct problems outcome, only baseline levels of depressive symptoms predicted subsequent depressive symptoms.

Parental ratings of son's behavior problems in high-risk families: Convergent validity, internal structure, and interparent agreement

In this research, we examined the convergent validity, internal structure, and interparent agreement of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach, 1991a) using data from a community sample of 317 high-risk families. The sample consisted of 218 families with alcoholism (biological mother, father, and son) and 99 matched comparison families without alcoholism; all families were intact and included a 3- to 5-year-old son at first contact. Evidence was found for the convergent validity of the CBCL. In addition, although interparent agreement was low, the internal structure was confirmed, and structural invariance was high between mothers and fathers and in families with and without alcoholism. The effects of parental psychological and cognitive functioning on parent agreement were examined and found to have a minimal effect on parent agreement. These results demonstrate the validity of the CBCL for use by parent raters with alcoholism and their sons and emphasize the importance of including both versus only 1 parent in research using the CBCL.

Flavored e-cigarette use: Characterizing youth, young adult, and adult users.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the use of flavored e-cigarettes varies between youth (12–17 years old), young adults (18–29 years old), and older adults (30 + years old). Cross-sectional surveys of school-going youth (n = 3907) and young adult college students (n = 5482) in Texas, and young adults and older adults (n = 6051) nationwide were administered in 2014–2015. Proportions and 95% confidence intervals were used to describe the percentage of e-cigarette use at initiation and in the past 30 days that was flavored, among current e-cigarette users. Chi-square tests were applied to examine differences by combustible tobacco product use and demographic factors. Most e-cigarette users said their first and “usual” e-cigarettes were flavored. At initiation, the majority of Texas school-going youth (98%), Texas young adult college students (95%), and young adults (71.2%) nationwide said their first e-cigarettes were flavored to taste like something other than tobacco, compared to 44.1% of older adults nationwide. Fruit and candy flavors predominated for all groups; and, for youth, flavors were an especially salient reason to use e-cigarettes. Among adults, the use of tobacco flavor at initiation was common among dual users (e-cigarettes + combustible tobacco), while other flavors were more common among former cigarette smokers (P = 0.03). Restricting the range of e-cigarette flavors (e.g., eliminating sweet flavors, like fruit and candy) may benefit youth and young adult prevention efforts. However, it is unclear what impact this change would have on adult smoking cessation.