Janice G. Williams

From Abusive Household to Dating Violence

Social scientists have theorized about the cycle of domestic violence in family abuse. Little research has addressed dating violence as a consequence to the experience of domestic violence by children. This article deals with the self-reported experience of dating violence by high school students from abusive and nonabusive households. A survey was conducted of 1,353 students in a rural area of North Dakota. Results indicated that students from abusive households showed significantly higher incidence of dating violence than those from homes where no abuse was evident. However, less than one in five of the students from abusive home reported dating violence, providing little support for the cycle of violence hypothesis. Students from abusive homes viewed violence as negatively as students from nonabusive homes. Thus, while there are significant differences between the two groups, there are also important similarities. Although there is apparently a greater risk of dating violence among students who have experienced violence at home, these data do not support the idea of an inescapable pattern of violence among adolescents who have experienced violence themselves.

Alcohol and other drug use among adolescents: family and peer influences.

The relationships among age, gender, involvement in family activities, involvement in peer activities, and teenage alcohol and other drug use were examined. Data from a random sample of South Carolina public school 7th through 12th graders were analyzed. Consistent with previous research, it was found that older subjects reported greater substance use than younger subjects, whites reported greater use of alcohol and other drugs than blacks, boys reported greater use than girls, and less involvement in family activities and greater involvement in peer activities was associated with greater reported alcohol and other drug use. Interactions among these variables also were examined. Multiple regressions indicated that 74% of the variance in alcohol use, 80% of the variance in marijuana use, and 85% of the variance in use of other drugs were predicted by these variables.

Liver function tests and neuropsychologic impairment in substance abusers

The relationship between residual neuropsychologic dysfunction in alcoholics and subtle changes in liver function during acute phases of treatment was examined. Noncirrhotic alcoholics who exhibited extreme elevations in the liver enzyme gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) were found to have greater impairments in tasks of visuoperceptual and conceptual abilities when compared to alcoholics with normal or only mild elevations in GGT. The relationship between acute liver dysfunction and residual neuropsychologic impairment appeared to be independent of age and patterns of drinking. The implications of these findings in relation to treatment planning and prognosis of alcoholics are discussed.

MEASURING DRINKING PATTERNS AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS

Alcohol use among college students is of interest to clinicians and researchers. The results of such studies depend on the quality and nature of the measures used. The literature includes a wide variety of operational definitions of drinking patterns, making difficult comparisons across studies. For 109 men and 83 women attending college this paper provides data on the Drinking Practices Questionnaire, a self-report measure of drinking patterns designed specifically for use with college students. The three subscales, Negative Affect, Positive Expectancies, and Negative Consequences, have good internal consistency reliabilities, and scores correlate significantly with measures of problems associated with alcohol use. Appropriate uses of the measure are discussed.

Experience with alcohol and ability to discriminate legal intoxication status : a field study

The research on blood alcohol level (BAL) discrimination training indicates that normal social drinkers can be taught to estimate successfully their level of intoxication. These studies show, however, that prior to training, skills for estimating intoxication are poor. The current study was undertaken to demonstrate that a sample of individuals in an actual drinking setting would have difficulty in estimating their blood alcohol level. It was expected that greater experience with alcohol would be associated with poorer abilities to discriminate legal intoxication. Subjects were 99 volunteers selected from the patrons of two bars. Participants completed a brief questionnaire assessing their typical alcohol use, the number of drinks consumed on this particular occasion, and whether they believed that they were currently over the legal limit for intoxication. A breathalyzer was used to determine actual level of intoxication. Results generally supported the hypotheses. Situational factors, including experimenter and drinking location, affected accuracy of estimations. Actual BAL also had a significant effect on accuracy. Errors in estimation were most often in the direction of overestimating intoxication. There was also a sex of subject effect, with males being heavier drinkers and estimating intoxication more poorly than females. Results are discussed in terms of situation and expectancy effects.

Knowing when you're drunk: a cluster analysis of cues to intoxication.

The present study was conducted to determine what cues to intoxication untrained subjects report using and how subjects see relationships among these cues. One hundred subjects were asked to list 5 cues that they use to determine their level of intoxication. These responses were tabulated, and the 18 most frequent responses were retained for further analyses. To assess the relationships among cues, all possible pairs of cues were rated for similarity. Mean similarity ratings were collapsed across subjects to form a mean similarities matrix that was subjected to cluster analysis. A taxonomy of cues to intoxication is discussed.