Jasmina Burdzovic Andreas

Behavioral Couples Therapy When Both Partners Have a Current Alcohol Use Disorder

Although behavioral couples therapy (BCT) has considerable support in treating alcohol use disorder (AUD), studies have not examined BCT for dual-problem couples in which both partners have current AUD. This study compared outcomes after BCT for dual-problem couples (n = 20) with outcomes for single-problem couples in which only one partner had AUD (n = 386). Results showed that dual-problem and single-problem couples did not differ significantly on degree of improvement in abstinence following BCT. A case example illustrates the application of BCT when both partners have a current AUD.

Social Media Use and Episodic Heavy Drinking Among Adolescents

Objectives Little is known about the consequences of adolescent social media use. The current study estimated the association between the amount of time adolescents spend on social media and the risk of episodic heavy drinking. Methods A school-based self-report cross-sectional study including 851 Norwegian middle and high school students (46.1% boys). Measures: frequency and quantity of social media use. Frequency of drinking four or six (girls and boys, respectively) alcoholic drinks during a single day (episodic heavy drinking). The MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status, the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale – Brief, the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 items for Adolescents, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire Peer Relationship problems scale, gender, and school grade. Results Greater amount of time spent on social media was associated with greater likelihood of episodic heavy drinking among adolescents (OR = 1.12, 95% CI (1.05, 1.19), p = 0.001), even after adjusting for school grade, impulsivity, sensation seeking, symptoms of depression, and peer relationship problems. Conclusion The results from the current study indicate that more time spent on social media is related to greater likelihood of episodic heavy drinking among adolescents.

Depressive Symptomatology among Norwegian Adolescent Boys and Girls: The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) Psychometric Properties and Correlates

This study explored the potential contribution of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-IV)-based Patient Health Questionnaire-9 item (PHQ-9) instrument to the developmental epidemiology research in Norway, by examining depressive symptoms in a school sample of adolescents (N = 846). The average PHQ-9 scores were 6.89 (SD = 5.13) for girls, and 4.57 (SD = 3.98) for boys; 8.5% of girls and 2.6% of boys were classified into the originally proposed categories indicative of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD; PHQ-9 scores ≥ 15). Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed a single-factor structure for the PHQ-9 with solid psychometric properties and high internal consistency for both genders. However, even though configural equality was observed, there was no evidence for metric or scalar equality across genders, warranting further investigation of measurement equivalence for the current Norwegian version of the PHQ-9. We observed no major associations between the PHQ-9 scores and adolescent religion or immigrant background. Further, school grade, not living together with both biological parents, and diagnosed chronic illness were differently associated with elevated depressive symptoms for boys and girls. Finally, high residential instability, perceived low SES, school dissatisfaction, lack of close friendships, history of suicide attempts and self-harm, and elevated emotional problems were all significantly and consistently associated with greater depression for both genders. Overall, the PHQ-9 appears to be a promising research tool, potentially offering clinically-relevant classification of adolescent self-reported depressive symptomatology in addition to the symptom severity captured by continuous scores. Nevertheless, further investigation concerning the observed measurement non-equivalence, as well as the comprehensive validation and comparison against the gold standard is required before the PHQ-9 is to be used for diagnostic screening in Norway.