Kristen G. Anderson

On the sins of short-form development

The empirical short-form literature has been characterized by overly optimistic views of the transfer of validity from parent form to short form and by the weak application of psychometric principles in validating short forms. Reviewers have thus opposed constructing short forms altogether, implying researchers are succumbing to an inappropriate temptation by trying to abbreviate measures. The authors disagree. The authors do not oppose the development of short forms, but they do assert that the validity standards for short forms should be quite high. The authors identify 2 general and 9 specific methodological sins characterizing short-form construction and offer methodological suggestions for the sound development of short forms. They recommend a set of 6 a priori steps researchers should consider and 9 methodological procedures researchers can use to develop valid abbreviated forms of clinical-assessment procedures.

Coping with distress by eating or drinking: role of trait urgency and expectancies.

The authors propose that trait urgency (the tendency to act rashly when distressed) is a risk factor for both alcohol abuse and bulimic symptoms, that disorder-specific expectancies influence whether one engages in one behavior or the other, and that expectancies moderate urgencys influence on those behaviors. Cross-sectional findings were consistent with the model. Problems from alcohol use were comorbid with binge eating and purging. Trait urgency was associated with both behaviors. Alcohol expectancies were associated with drinking levels and with problem drinking, but not with eating. Eating expectancies were associated with binge eating, but not with alcohol use or problems. Urgencys effect on binge eating was moderated by expectancies, but its effect on alcohol use and problem drinking was not.

Comparability of the Eating Disorder Inventory-2 Between Women and Men

Researchers studying eating disorders in men often use eating-disorder risk and symptom measures that have been validated only on women. Using a sample of 215 college women and 214 college men, this article reports on the validity the Eating Disorder Inventory–2 (EDI-2), one of the best-validated among women and the most widely used risk and symptom measure for women. The EDI-2 had the same, standard eight-factor structure for both genders, and tests of invariance showed that factor loadings, factor variances, and factor intercorrelations were equivalent across gender. The EDI-2 scales correlated with questionnaire measures of bulimic and anorexic symptomatology equivalently across gender. However, the EDI-2 scales were generally less reliable for men, leading to slightly lower Pearson-based estimates of correlations among the measures for men.

Testing the Level of Response to Alcohol: Social Information Processing Model of Alcoholism Risk—A 20‐Year Prospective Study

BACKGROUND The low level of response (LR) to alcohol is a genetically influenced characteristic associated with an enhanced risk for alcohol use disorders (AUDs). An optimal understanding of how this intermediate phenotype relates to the AUD risk requires evaluation of the milieu in which LR operates, and this study tested an LR/social information processing model in adult men. METHODS Almost 300 Caucasian males (97% of those eligible, to date) from the San Diego Prospective Study participated in an alcohol challenge at approximately age 20 and were evaluated with a structural equation model regarding their expectations of the effects of alcohol, drinking among peers, use of alcohol to cope with stress, and alcohol-related problems during follow-up. RESULTS The direct paths in the structural equation model in these 40-year-old men explained 58% of the variance of the alcoholic outcome at age 40 and 35% at age 35 while demonstrating good fitness characteristics. The LR to alcohol was related to the family history of AUDs and to the alcoholic outcome; the latter primarily operated through the use of alcohol to cope with stress. Although drinking in peers and expectations of the effects of alcohol both contributed to the model in these 40-year-old men, they were not directly related to LR. CONCLUSIONS The results continue to support the importance of the low LR to alcohol as a predictor of AUDs, even when evaluated in the context of additional relevant characteristics. Future evaluations of adolescent and young adult subjects will also explore the potential importance of expectations of the effects of alcohol and drinking among peers as mediators or moderators of alcoholism risk among subjects with a low LR.

Expectancy influences the operation of personality on behavior.

The authors investigated the moderating effect of expectancies on personality for 2 different addictive behavior processes: (a) drinking and (b) binge eating and purging characteristic of bulimia nervosa. Study 1 found that positive expectancies for social facilitation from drinking moderated the effect of extraversion on drinking behavior among undergraduate men and women. Study 2 found that the expectancy that eating will help manage negative affect moderated the effect of trait urgency on bulimic symptoms among undergraduate women. Thus, the relationships of the trait risk factors to these 2 addictive behaviors are stronger if one also holds certain expectancies for reinforcement from those behaviors.

Life Stress, Coping and Comorbid Youth: An Examination of the Stress-Vulnerability Model for Substance Relapse

Abstract The stress-vulnerability model of addiction relapse states that the impact of life stress on alcohol and other drug use is influenced by several types of psychosocial risk and protective factors. Coping skills have been shown to be protective against alcohol or other drug use in adolescents and adults. To date, the influence of life stress and coping on addiction relapse has not been investigated among substance use disordered youth with comorbid Axis I psychopathology. In the present study, 80 adolescents, ages 13 to 17, were followed six months after treatment for substance use and Axis I disorders. Participants completed measures of psychopathology, substance use, life stressors and coping during treatment and at three and six months following treatment. Coping ability best predicted youth substance use at six months. Negative life events moderated the relation between coping and frequency of substance use. These results suggest that coping is a protective factor for return to substance involvement post-treatment, particularly for comorbid youth who have experienced high levels of life stress.

To drink or not to drink: Motives and expectancies for use and nonuse in adolescence

Drinking motives have a prominent role in cognitive models of adolescent and adult alcohol decision-making (Cooper, Russell, Skinner, & Windle, 1992; Cooper, 1994). The complementary construct of motivation not to drink has received less attention (Epler, Sher & Piasecki, 2009). We examined how abstinence motives interacted with drinking motives and alcohol expectancies to predict alcohol consumption in samples of US high school students (N>2500). Nondrinking motives predicted lower rates of lifetime and current alcohol use. Motives not to drink interacted with specific drinking motives, like social and coping motives, and alcohol expectancies to predict certain aspects of drinking behavior. For example, motives not to drink had the greatest impact on youth with weaker social motivations. Findings highlight the distinction between motives not to drink and other alcohol-related cognitions in predicting adolescent alcohol consumption. This work not only supports the utility of this construct in developing models of youth alcohol-related decision-making but also has implications for prevention programming.

Relapse in alcohol- and drug-disordered adolescents with comorbid psychopathology: changes in psychiatric symptoms.

This study examined reciprocal relationships between posttreatment substance use and psychiatric symptoms in adolescents with both a substance use disorder and an Axis I mental health disorder. Participants (13-18 years old) were recruited from inpatient treatment centers and interviewed during treatment and monthly for 6 months. Participants who relapsed (N=103; 48% female) reported the incidence and severity of psychiatric symptoms experienced before and after their 1st posttreatment substance use. The number of symptoms and depression symptoms experienced were related to use of stimulants and other drugs during relapse. There was evidence for both self-medication (symptom reduction) and rebound (symptom exacerbation) effects of substance use on symptom severity. These results demonstrate that, for adolescents with both substance use and mental health disorders, psychiatric symptoms are 1 factor influencing posttreatment substance use.

Alcohol and drug involvement after adolescent treatment and functioning during emerging adulthood

This study identified patterns of alcohol and other drug (AOD) involvement during the decade following adolescent AOD treatment and developmental outcomes in emerging adulthood. AOD and psychosocial variables were assessed at eight time points from adolescence into adulthood (n=153; 41.2% women) in an inpatient treatment sample of alcohol and other drug dependent teens. Latent class growth analysis identified six trajectories based on alcohol and substance use frequency which were consistent with developmental transitions and validated by measures of dependency symptoms. While few differences were evident at intake, the educational, occupational and interpersonal attainments were differentially associated with the alcohol/drug trajectories as youth transitioned into adulthood. High rates of high school graduation (71.1%), professional occupations (45.2%), marriage/cohabitation (48.5%), and financial responsibility for children (F[5,27]=2.75, p=.02) were evident for those with the least alcohol and drug involvement. More severe drug use trajectories were associated with higher rates of dependence, incarceration and more treatment at the final period of assessment. Outcomes of the trajectory of frequent alcohol involvement were distinct from combined alcohol and drug use. These findings highlight the long-term diversity of substance use outcomes following adolescent treatment and suggest that identification of these patterns of use following treatment can help clarify the developmental impact of youth alcohol and drug use on outcomes in young adulthood.

Thinking and drinking: alcohol-related cognitions across stages of adolescent alcohol involvement.

Alcohol-related cognitions, particularly expectancies for drinking and nondrinking and motives for nondrinking, are involved in the initiation, maintenance, and cessation of alcohol use and are hypothesized to play key roles in adolescent decision making. This study explored (a) the relationships between alcohol use expectancies, nondrinking expectancies, and nondrinking motives; (b) the roles of these cognitions across hypothesized developmental stages of adolescent alcohol use; and (c) the relationships between these cognitions and recent or intended future changes in drinking behavior in a cross-sectional sample. Surveys assessing alcohol use behaviors and attitudes were administered to 1,648 high school students. Heavier drinkers reported more positive alcohol use expectancies and fewer nondrinking motives than did lighter drinkers or nondrinkers; however, nondrinking expectancies only differed between nondrinkers and rare drinkers and all subsequent drinking classes. Alcohol use expectancies, nondrinking expectancies, and nondrinking motives differentiated students who recently initiated alcohol from those who had not, while nondrinking expectancies and nondrinking motives differentiated binge-drinking students who had made recent efforts to reduce/stop their drinking from those who had not. Intentions to initiate or reduce drinking in the coming month were also associated with these alcohol-related cognitions. Drinking and nondrinking expectancies and motives for not drinking may play critical roles in decisions to alter alcohol-use behavior during adolescence. Future exploration of temporal relationships between changes in alcohol-related cognitions and behavioral decision making will be useful in the refinement of effective prevention and intervention strategies.