Cécile Mathys

A longitudinal study of cannabis use initiation among high school students: Effects of social anxiety, expectancies, peers and alcohol.

This study identified protective and risk factors of cannabis use initiation, including expectancies and social anxiety. A questionnaire was completed twice by 877 teenagers. Logistic regressions, mediation and moderation analyses were performed. Significant risk factors were alcohol use, peer users, perceptual enhancement, and craving expectancies. Protective factors were negative behavior expectancies and social anxiety. Social anxiety protected from initiation through the mediating role of perceptual enhancement and craving expectancies, whatever the role of peer users and alcohol use. Findings are discussed in terms of risk and protection, in an overall approach including internalizing factors. Results support the identification of an internalizing profile of adolescents for prevention or treatment and the importance of social anxiety and expectancies in intervention.

The value of a safe, connected social climate for adolescents girls in residential care

ABSTRACT This article described adolescent girls’ (n = 153) perceptions of the social climate that prevailed in their residential care unit and explored to what extent these perceptions related to their pre-treatment individual characteristics. Social climate was examined with a gender-responsive approach and through empathetic interactions with practitioners, healthy connections with the peer group, and just and collaborative practices within the residential care setting. Results indicated that adolescent girls’ configuration of risks and needs impact how they perceive their program environment. We conclude the article with specific recommendations for enhancing gender-responsive programs in residential care setting in regard to non-programmatic features.

Is Social Anxiety Associated With Cannabis Use? The Role of Cannabis Use Effect Expectancies in Middle Adolescence

ABSTRACT This study investigated the mediating/moderating role of cannabis use expectancies in/on the relationship between social anxiety (SA) and cannabis use in adolescence. Linear/logistic regressions and mediation/moderation analyses were performed in a sample of 1,343 Belgian teenagers (15 to 16 years old). SA was negatively related to lifetime cannabis use. Relaxation, social facilitation, and high-order positive expectancies moderated the relation between SA and lifetime cannabis use, whereas negative behavioral and high-order negative expectancies mediated the link. The potential protective nature of SA on lifetime cannabis use and the diverging involvement of negative and positive expectancies are discussed. Results support the importance of expectancies in prevention.

Validation of the Marijuana Effect Expectancies Questionnaire (MEEQ) in a Non-Clinical French-Speaking Adolescent Sample

Teenagers commonly use cannabis. Expectancies related to the effects of cannabis play an important role in its consumption and are frequently measured with the Marijuana Effect Expectancies Questionnaire (MEEQ). This study aims to assess the psychometric properties (factor structure, internal consistency reliability, criterion validity) of the French MEEQ. A sample of 1,343 non-clinical teenagers (14–18 years) were recruited to answer a self-report questionnaire; 877 of them responded twice (one-year interval). A four-factor structure was obtained: Cognitive Impairment and Negative, Relaxation and Social Facilitation, Perceptual Enhancement and Craving and Negative Behavioral Effect Expectancies. It is concluded that the French MEEQ constitutes an appropriate tool to measure cannabis effect expectancies among adolescents.

Grade Retention at the Transition to Secondary School: Using Propensity Score Matching to Identify Consequences on Psychosocial Adjustment

This study tested whether grade retention at the transition into secondary school had a significant impact on adolescent psychosocial adjustment. A quasi-experimental design was used in which propensity score matching was implemented. Univariate ANCOVAs were subsequently run on a subsample of 181 students enrolled in one typical secondary school in the French-speaking region of Belgium (M = 12.91 years, 55.8% girls). These analyses revealed that retained students experienced decreases in self-esteem, perceived parental support for competence and involvement in the relationships with their parents, and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation variables. Retained students also failed to show the decrease in delinquent and aggressive behaviors and social withdrawal that was observed in matched promoted students. In sum, grade retention appears to be detrimental to early-adolescence psychosocial adjustment. To decrease rates of grade retention among adolescents, change is needed in parents’, school staff’s, and policymakers’ preconceptions that the practice has overall positive outcomes.