Richard P. Wiebe

The Moderation of Adolescent-to-Peer Similarity in Tobacco and Alcohol Use by School Levels of Substance Use.

Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study examined the impact of school-level smoking and drinking on adolescent-peer similarity for smoking and drinking. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed that adolescent-peer similarity was significantly moderated by school-level substance use for both tobacco and alcohol use. For tobacco, similarity between adolescent and peer use increased from .18 in the lower quartile of tobacco-using schools to .44 in the upper quartile of tobacco-using schools. Corresponding similarities for alcohol use ranged from .25 to .34. These results suggest that schools with relatively few substance-using peers provide less opportunities for adolescents to pick niches that expose them to risk factors that correspond to their own substance-use behaviors.

Does the Effect of Impulsivity on Delinquency Vary by Level of Neighborhood Disadvantage

The authors examine the importance of the person-context nexus in adolescent deviance. Using the nationally representative National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) data set of more than 20, 000 male and female adolescents, the authors are interested in testing whether the relationship between impulsivity and a variety of deviance measures varies as a function of neighborhood disadvantage. Results suggest that whereas levels of impulsivity and deviance vary by level of neighborhood disadvantage, relationships between impulsivity and deviance do not. This same finding is made for both male and female study participants, though there is some modest evidence of moderation in female youth. Together, these results have important implications for social disorganization theory, the general theory of crime, and for personality research on the etiology of crime and deviance.

Reconciling Psychopathy and Low Self-Control

Although both reflect a self-centered, antisocial personality, psychopathy and low self-control have seldom been examined together. This study created scales reflecting both common and unique elements of both constructs, investigated their factor structure, and explained variance in delinquency. Four alternative hypotheses were tested: that low self-control and psychopathy constitute a single construct, that they constitute primary and secondary psychopathy or interpersonal and intrapersonal traits, or that they constitute Antisociality—the tendency to perform antisocial acts—and (low) Self-Direction—the tendency to act in ones long-term beneft. Models containing Antisociality and Self-Direction fit better than alternatives and accounted for substantial variance in offending.

Behavior Problems among Children from Different Family Structures: The Influence of Genetic Self-Selection

To examine both genetic and environmental influences on childrens behavior problems in households defined by marital status and sibling relatedness, this study applied behavioral genetic methodology to four groups totalling 1524 sibling pairs drawn from 796 households: (1) two-parent full siblings, (2) two-parent half siblings, (3) mother-only full siblings, and (4) mother-only half siblings. Model-fitting procedures found that within-group variation on four subscales from the Behavior Problems Index was best explained by a model including both genetic and shared environmental factors. This model was then fit to the behavior problems means of the four groups. Its successful fit to these mean structures suggested that mean-level differences between groups were explained with the same influences that accounted for within-group variation. Genetic influences accounted for 81% to 94% of the mean-level difference in behavior problems between the two-parent, full sibling and the mother-only, half sibling groups. In contrast, shared environmental influences accounted for 67% to 88% of the mean-level difference in behavior problems between the two-parent, full sibling and mother-only, full sibling groups. The genetic influences are interpreted in terms of genetic self-selection into family structures.

Harnessing the Undiscovered Resource of Student Research Projects

This article suggests that undergraduate research can help advance the science of psychology. We introduce a hypothetical “question-list paradigm” as a mechanism to do this. Each year, thousands of undergraduate projects are completed as part of the educational experience. Although many of these studies may not contain sufficient contributions for publication, they provide a good test of the replicability of established findings across populations at different institutions and geographic locations. Thus, these projects could meet the needs of recent calls for increased replications of psychological studies while simultaneously benefiting the student researchers, their instructors, and the field in general.

Using an expanded measure of self-control to predict delinquency

Abstract Self-control theory claims that the tendency to pursue short-term, immediate pleasure, called low self-control, is the only important intrapersonal correlate of crime and delinquency. Low self-control is considered a general tendency comprising several subsidiary traits. The question is whether the subsidiary traits traditionally considered to constitute the individual elements of low self-control – impulsivity, risk-seeking, shortsightedness, low frustration tolerance, self-centeredness, and a preference for physical activities – accurately reflect the essence of self-control theory. The present paper provides theoretical and empirical support for the incorporation of two additional characteristics – diligence and the tendency to neutralize ones guilt for wrongdoing – into the overall self-control construct. Empirical support is provided by the results of two studies in which diligence and neutralization significantly and substantially improve the ability of traditional low self-control to account for variance in offending. A third additional trait, deception, did not enhance the explanatory power of traditional low self-control.

An Idiographic Examination of Day-to-Day Patterns of Substance Use Craving, Negative Affect, and Tobacco Use among Young Adults in Recovery.

Psychological constructs, such as negative affect and substance use cravings that closely predict relapse, show substantial intraindividual day-to-day variability. This intraindividual variability of relevant psychological states combined with the “one day at a time” nature of sustained abstinence warrant a day-to-day investigation of substance use recovery. This study examines day-to-day associations among substance use cravings, negative affect, and tobacco use among 30 college students in 12-step recovery from drug and alcohol addictions. To account for individual variability in day-to-day process, it applies an idiographic approach. The sample of 20 males and 10 females (mean age = 21) was drawn from members of a collegiate recovery community at a large university. Data were collected with end-of-day data collections taking place over an average of 26.7 days. First-order vector autoregression models were fit to each individual predicting daily levels of substance use cravings, negative affect, and tobacco use from the same 3 variables 1 day prior. Individual model results demonstrated substantial interindividual differences in intraindividual recovery process. Based on estimates from individual models, cluster analyses were used to group individuals into 2 homogeneous subgroups. Group comparisons demonstrate distinct patterns in the day-to-day associations among substance use cravings, negative affect, and tobacco use, suggesting the importance of idiographic approaches to recovery management and that the potential value of focusing on negative affect or tobacco use as prevention targets depends on idiosyncratic processes.

The Need for College Recovery Services

For too many college students, college represents the last bastion of adolescent irresponsibility. On most college campuses, drugs and alcohol are widely available, and students are loudly exhorted by peers and other social and cultural influences to drink and use drugs, with excessive substance use often seen as a rite of passage (National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University [CASA], 2007).

Integrating Criminology Through Adaptive Strategy and Life History Theory

Criminological theories tend to explain street crime as either a reaction to personal deficiencies or a reaction to inequality and injustice. Using adaptive strategy and life history theory, this article seeks to unite these explanations of crime under the biosocial umbrella. It incorporates the psychology of crime, tying traits implicated in low self-control, psychopathy, and mating effort to antisocial strategies and discusses how strategies based on low self-control and psychopathy may be promoted or controlled. It further applies adaptive strategy theory to nonstreet crime, with the aim of bringing critical and biosocial criminology closer together.

Maintaining Abstinence in College: Temptations and Tactics

As the previous chapter notes, the Collegiate Recovery Community (CRC) at Texas Tech University maintains an impressive relapse rate of only 4.4% per semester, which means that more than 95% of the community members continue their successful recovery each semester. Although one of bedrock beliefs of the Center for Study of Addiction and Recovery is that young men and women who are part of the Collegiate Recovery Community that the center supports should be striving for a “recovery” that goes far beyond day-to-day sobriety, it is important to recognize that in the midst of building a higher level of recovery, members must sometimes draw upon various strategies, ranging from the psychological to the physical to make it through their day, and their hard-won states of sobriety have to be defended against temptations that differ from member to member.