Background: Most people often consume alcohol cumulatively and gradually. Yet almost scientific knowledge about alcohol’s acute effects on cognition, behavior, and affect stems from laboratory studies that employ a single beverage administration procedure. Objective: This study tests the hypothesis that alcohol’s acute effects depend on both methods of administration and alcohol blood level. We introduce a new laboratory procedure for studying cumulative alcohol drinking and examine alcohol’s effects on emotion recognition as a function of both alcohol administration method and alcohol blood level. Methods: Participants were recruited for one of two studies. One study employed a between-subject design using a single alcoholic dose. Participants were randomly assigned to drink either placebo (0.00%), low (0.03%), moderate (0.06%), or high (0.09%) alcohol levels. The second study employed a within-subject design using a cumulative alcoholic administration method, in which each participant drank four drinks (placebo, followed by three alcoholic drinks). Both groups reached similar breath alcohol concentrations. In both studies, participants attended a single study session, in which emotion recognition was examined following alcohol administration. Results: Single alcoholic beverage administration method caused greater impairment in emotion recognition ability, specifically for anger, happiness, and fear, as compared with cumulative administration method, even though breath alcohol levels were similar in both conditions. Conclusions: This paper presents questions concerning the internal validity of previous laboratory studies that use a single beverage administration procedure. Insights into the effects of alcohol on behavior, as well as regarding our knowledge about models of addiction are presented.
This study examines the role of acculturation, perceived discrimination, and self-esteem in predicting the mental health symptoms and risk behaviors among 1.5 and second generation non-Jewish adolescents born to migrant families compared with native-born Jewish Israeli adolescents in Israel. Participants included n = 65 1.5 migrant adolescents, n = 60 second generation migrant adolescents, and n = 146 age, gender, and socioeconomic matched sample of native-born Jewish Israelis. Participants completed measures of acculturation pattern, perceived discrimination, and self-esteem as well as measures of mental health symptoms and risk behaviors. Results show that migrant adolescents across generations reported worse mental health symptoms compared with native-born Jewish Israelis. However, only the 1.5 generation migrants reported higher engagement in risk behaviors compared with second generation migrants and native-born Jewish Israelis. Our findings further showed that acculturation plays an important role in predicting the mental health status of migrant youth, with those characterized with integrated acculturative pattern reporting lower mental health symptoms compared with assimilated acculturation pattern. Importantly, contextual factors, such as higher perception of discrimination in the receiving culture as well as individual factors such as lower self-esteem and female gender were strongly associated with worse mental health symptoms. The findings manifest the complex relationship between contextual factors and individual level variables in the acculturative process of migrants as well as the importance of examining the effect of migration generation on mental health outcomes.
Little is known about the experiences of displaced individuals en route to destination countries. We investigated the reported prevalence of exposure to traumatic experiences during migration among a consecutive sample of adult asylum seekers (n = 895 Eritrean, n = 149 Sudanese) who sought health services in the Physicians for Human Rights Open-Clinic in Israel. Percentage of Eritrean and Sudanese men and women who reported witnessing violence (Eritrea: men: 41.3 %, women: 29.3 %; Sudan: men: 16.8 %, women: 22.2 %) and/or being a victim of violence (Eritrea: men: 56.0 %, Women: 34.9 %; Sudan: men: 51.9 % women: 44.4 %) during migration varied by gender and country of origin. Findings highlight the need for a well-coordinated international cooperation to document and prevent these transgressions.
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