Although social anxiety (SA) and alcohol use disorders commonly co-occur, the relationship between these variables in college populations has been inconsistent. The present study tested the hypothesized model that negatively reinforcing, but not positively reinforcing, drinking motives (or reasons for drinking) would mediate the association between SA and three aspects of hazardous drinking (quantity/frequency, consequences, and dependence symptoms) in an ethnically diverse sample of college drinkers (N = 817; mean age = 19.9 years, range = 18-29). Structural equation modeling (SEM) results using the asymmetrical distribution of products test indicated that coping motives partially mediated the relationship between SA and negative consequences and dependence symptoms but not the quantity/frequency outcome. Contrary to the hypothesized model, conformity motives did not mediate the association between SA and hazardous drinking. As expected, positive reinforcement motives did not mediate the SA-hazardous drinking association. Multigroup SEM analyses revealed that the mediation models did not differ for men (n = 215) and women (n = 602). Overall, the present findings support extant research and theoretical models regarding the mediating role of coping motives in the relationship between SA and problem drinking, suggesting a potential pathway for the development and maintenance of SA and alcohol use disorder comorbidity. Such findings could contribute to improved intervention programs by targeting coping drinking motives and building coping skills.

Hookups are uncommitted sexual encounters that range from kissing to intercourse and occur between individuals in whom there is no current dating relationship and no expressed or acknowledged expectations of a relationship following the hookup. Research over the last decade has begun to focus on hooking up among adolescents and young adults with significant research demonstrating how alcohol is often involved in hooking up. Given alcohol’s involvement with hooking up behavior, the array of health consequences associated with this relationship, as well as its increasing prevalence from adolescence to young adulthood, it is important to determine the predictors and consequences associated with alcohol-related hooking up. The current review extends prior reviews by adding more recent research, including both qualitative and experimental studies (i.e., expanding to review more diverse methods), research that focuses on the use of technology in alcohol-related hookups (i.e., emerging issues), further develops prevention and intervention potentials and directions, and also offers a broader discussion of hooking up outside of college student populations (i.e., expanding generalization). This article will review the operationalization and ambiguity of the phrase hooking up, the relationship between hooking up and alcohol use at both the global and event levels, predictors of alcohol-related hooking up, and both positive and negative consequences, including sexual victimization, associated with alcohol-related hookups. Throughout, commentary is provided on the methodological issues present in the field, as well as limitations of the existing research. Future directions for research that could significantly advance our understanding of hookups and alcohol use are provided.

The present study is the first ecologically valid, daily level test of the prototype willingness model (PWM), a model previously tested with hypothetical scenarios to investigate the social reaction and reasoned pathways toward engaging in health-risk behavior. The purpose of the present study is to examine whether days with elevated alcohol-favorable PWM cognitions are also associated with greater intentions and willingness to drink and increased drinking behavior on that day. Participants included 15–25-year-olds (N = 124; 57.3% female; Mage =18.7; SD = 2.87) who were part of an ecological momentary assessment study on drinking cognitions (including willingness, intentions, perceived vulnerability, social norms, prototype favorability) and alcohol use, reported across 3 weeks. Analyses accounted for the multilevel structure of the data and the various outcome distributions. Findings supported and advanced the PWM by using real-time, real-world daily data that captured within-person variation of PWM cognitions across days and showed daily level associations between PWM cognitions and alcohol use and negative consequences among adolescents and young adults, thus supporting the social reaction and reasoned pathways at the daily level. Current results may improve interventions by precisely informing the use of technology to bring interventions to adolescents and young adults in moments when they are at highest risk (i.e., days with higher than usual PMW alcohol cognitions).

No abstract

The Prototype Willingness Model is a dual-processing (i.e., intentional and socially reactive) health-risk behavior model. The socially reactive path includes behavioral willingness, descriptive normative perceptions, and favorable images of individuals who engage in health-risk behavior (prototype favorability) as important predictors of health behaviors. Individual differences (such as consideration of future consequences) may potentiate the effects of behavioral willingness on health-risk outcomes, such as marijuana use. Given limited research investigating marijuana use and the Prototype Willingness Model, the goals of the current study were: 1) examine consideration of future consequences and Prototype Willingness Model social reaction pathway variables in relation to behavioral willingness to use marijuana longitudinally; and 2) determine if consideration of future consequences moderated the behavioral willingness-marijuana use relation prospectively. Young adults (N = 769) from a larger longitudinal study completed baseline and 3 follow-up assessments (Months 3, 4, 5). Behavioral willingness was positively related to a higher likelihood of use, more days having used marijuana, and more consequences prospectively, over and above baseline use. Consideration of future consequences moderated the association between behavioral willingness and hours high in a typical week. These findings support the willingness-behavior association of the Prototype Willingness Model and preliminarily demonstrate consideration of future consequences' differential impact on behavioral willingness-future marijuana use relation. Intervention and prevention implications are discussed.

Children with an ocular injury sustained during major trauma (ISS > 15) are more likely to have a basilar skull fracture, orbital wall fracture, and a contusion of the eye and/or the ocular adnexa as compared with children with ISS < or = 15. Children with any of these injuries sustained during major trauma should be afforded prompt ophthalmologic evaluation to uncover injury to components of the visual system.

Drinking motives are important proximal predictors of alcohol consumption in adolescents and emerging adults (EAs). Despite the importance of peer context on alcohol use decision-making, research on drinking motives is commonly divorced from the contexts where such decisions are made. Behavioral willingness (BW), or openness to engaging in a given behavior, is a contextually dependent aspect of nondeliberative decision-making for youth. As BW and drinking motives are proximal predictors of alcohol use, it was hypothesized that they would interact in the prediction of later drinking. Eighty-seven EAs reported their BW in simulated drinking contexts, drinking motives, and alcohol consumption upon entering college as well as drinking patterns 8 months later. Context-specific BW potentiated coping motives' impact on increased alcohol consumption and potentially hazardous drinking at the end of participants' first year. These findings support the importance of BW and context in understanding motivation's role in drinking behavior for EAs.

The current study explored whether laboratory-based techniques can provide a strategy for studying client language as a mechanism of behavior change. Specifically, this study examined the potential of a simulation task to elicit healthy talk, or self-motivational statements in favor of healthy behavior, related to marijuana and alcohol use. Participants (N = 84) were adolescents reporting at least 10 lifetime substance use episodes recruited from various community settings in an urban Pacific Northwest setting. Participants completed the Adolescent Simulated Intoxication Digital Elicitation (A-SIDE), a validated paradigm for assessing substance use decision making in peer contexts. Participants responded to four types of offers in the A-SIDE: 1) marijuana, 2) food (marijuana control), 3) alcohol, and 4) soda (alcohol control). Using a validated coding scheme adapted for the current study, client language during a structured interview assessing participants’ response to the simulated offers was evaluated. Associations between percent healthy talk (PHT: calculated by dividing the number of healthy statements by the sum of all substance-related statements) and cross-sectional outcomes of interest (previous substance use, substance use expectancies, and behavioral willingness) were explored. The frequency of substance-related statements differed in response to offer type; rate of PHT did not. PHT was associated with behavioral willingness to accept the offer. However, PHT was not associated with decontextualized measures of substance use. Associations between PHT and global expectancies were limited. Simulation methods may be useful in investigating the impact of context on self-talk and to systematically explore client language as a mechanism of change.