Biomedical subjects

Andrea M Hussong

Publications and source records attributed to Andrea M Hussong.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Predictors of drinking immediacy following daily sadness: an application of survival analysis to experience sampling data.

Previous studies of daily assessments show modest mood-drinking covariation as a function of gender and coping motives; however previous analyses also assume a fixed interval across all individuals in the onset of drinking following negative mood. The current study used survival analysis and experience sampling methods to test whether gender and coping motives predicted shorter sadness-to-drinking intervals among those with greater alcohol-related drinking consequences. A sample of 85 college students (46% male; 78% Caucasian) completed daily assessments over 28 days. Survival analyses showed that women drank more on days following elevated sadness when they reported being motivated to drink to cope and having experienced alcohol-related consequences. For men, the two groups showing greater drinking risk following days of elevated sadness did not report alcohol-related consequences, with those reporting the presence of coping motives showing the greatest risk. Implications of these findings for self-medication mechanisms are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2005

Social competence in children of alcoholic parents over time.

In the current study, the authors tested the hypothesis that children of alcoholic parents (COAs) show deficits in social competence that begin in early childhood and escalate through middle adolescence. Teachers, parents, and children reported on the social competence of COAs and matched controls in a community sample assessed from ages 6 to 15. Hierarchical linear growth models revealed different patterns of change in social competence across development as a function of the reporter of various indicators of competence. Moreover, female COAs showed deficits in social competence in early childhood that receded in adolescence and that varied across subtypes of parent alcoholism. Implications of these findings for understanding the development of social competence in children, and at-risk children in particular, are discussed.

Alcoholism↗

PubMed2005

Coping motives as a moderator of daily mood-drinking covariation.

OBJECTIVE: The current study examines the extent to which college students' reports of drinking to cope (DTC) with negative affect moderate the daily covariation between specific types of negative mood (sadness, fear, hostility, shyness and boredom) and alcohol use. METHOD: Participants were full-time college students, aged 18-20, attending a large Southeastern university (N = 72; 50% male). These individuals completed an experience-sampling protocol over a 1-month interval, to assess daily mood and alcohol use. RESULTS: A series of Hierarchical General Linear Models found that individuals who reported low motives to cope through drinking showed an expected absence of daily mood and drinking covariation. For those reporting high coping motives, a complex and somewhat counterintuitive series of findings were found; students high in DTC drank less on days in which they experienced greater sadness. Analyses on the quadratic effects of mood revealed that when experiencing moderate to high levels of fear and shyness, individuals high in DTC were more likely to drink. For those low in coping motivations, fear and shyness did not predict daily drinking. CONCLUSIONS: Findings highlight the need to better our understanding of the exact meaning of DTC measures. In addition, there is a need to study how the context of college drinking influences self-medication and students' self-reports of DTC.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2004

Stress and coping among children of alcoholic parents through the young adult transition.

The transition to young adulthood is both a time when risky health behaviors such as substance misuse peak and a time of opportunity for growth and development through the acquisition of adult roles. In this transition, coping styles include responses to the stressors and opportunities associated with the emergence of adulthood. The extent to which such coping styles are skillfully employed in part determines adjustment into adulthood. The current study used a high-risk, longitudinal design to examine the development of coping styles over adolescence, continuity in these coping styles from adolescence to adulthood, the impact of coping on adult stress and substance misuse, the ability of coping to buffer effects of stress on substance use, and differences in coping between at-risk youth (i.e., children of alcoholics [COAs]) and their peers. A sample of 340 adolescents completed four assessments over ages 11-23. We used latent trajectory models to examine interindividual and intraindividual change in coping over time. Evidence for both change and continuity in the development of coping from adolescence to adulthood was found, although adolescent coping had limited impact on stress and substance use in adulthood. Support was also found for complex stress-buffering and stress-exacerbating effects of coping on the relations between major life events and adult drug use and between stress associated with the new roles of adulthood and heavy alcohol use. Implications of these findings for development and adjustment in the transition to adulthood are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2004

Substance abuse hinders desistance in young adults' antisocial behavior.

We examined two hypotheses about the developmental relation between substance abuse and individual differences in desistance from antisocial behavior during young adulthood. The "snares" hypothesis posits that substance abuse should result in time-specific elevations in antisocial behavior relative to an individual's own developmental trajectory of antisocial behavior, whereas the "launch" hypothesis posits that substance abuse early in young adulthood slows an individual's overall pattern of crime desistance relative to the population norm during this developmental period. We conducted latent trajectory analyses to test these hypotheses using interview data about antisocial behaviors and substance abuse assessed at ages 18, 21, and 26 in men from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study (N = 461). We found significant individual variability in initial levels and rates of change in antisocial behavior over time as well as support for both the snares hypothesis and the launch hypothesis as explanations for the developmental relation between substance abuse and crime desistance in young men.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Further refining the stress-coping model of alcohol involvement.

Informed by the optimal match hypothesis, the current study examined whether coping styles differentially moderate the relation between stress and alcohol use depending on the type of stressor experienced and coping style under consideration. Gender differences in these moderated relations were also examined. A sample of 83 college students completed surveys repeatedly administered over 1 month. Specificity in the roles of coping and stress in predicting heavy alcohol use was found. As compared to women, men were at greater risk for alcohol involvement associated with social adjustment and school problems given a limited active coping style. Men also showed greater alcohol involvement associated with relationship stress given a limited support seeking style but less heavy alcohol use was associated with relationship stress given a limited active coping style.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2003

Affect and peer context interactively impact adolescent substance use.

Risk factors, such as emotional distress and peer substance involvement, are often tested as competing influences on adolescent substance use. However, the current study examined how affect (both positive and negative) and peers (both in terms of relationship quality and substance involvement) are interactive influences on adolescent substance use. A sample of 398 high school juniors and seniors completed surveys assessing each of these domains. Results of hierarchical regression analyses showed strong associations between an adolescent's and his or her best friend's substance use. Complex interactions supported the study hypothesis in that relations between affect and adolescent substance use were context dependent, with some peer contexts enhancing risk for substance use and others dampening this risk. Implications of these findings for interventions and preventions concerning adolescent substance use are discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

The use of latent trajectory models in psychopathology research.

Despite the recent surge in the development of powerful modeling strategies to test questions about individual differences in stability and change over time, these methods are not currently widely used in psychopathology research. In an attempt to further the dissemination of these new methods, the authors present a pedagogical introduction to the structural equation modeling based latent trajectory model, or LTM. They review several different types of LTMs, discuss matching an optimal LTM to a given question of interest, and highlight several issues that might be particularly salient for research in psychopathology. The authors augment each section with a review of published applications of these methods in psychopathology-related research to demonstrate the implementation and interpretation of LTMs in practice.

Data Interpretation, Statistical↗

PubMed2003

Social influences in motivated drinking among college students.

This study tested whether drinking motives mediate the relation between personality and alcohol use and whether these predictors affected drinking in these individuals' friends. College students and their friends participated in the study as dyads (n = 43 dyads, 86 participants). Each person completed surveys and a 28-day experience sampling protocol. Structural equation analyses found that (a) social motives mediated the relation between extraversion and alcohol outcomes, (b) coping motives mediated the relation between neuroticism and alcohol outcomes, and (c) enhancement motives mediated the relation between extraversion and alcohol outcomes. Moreover, young adults' alcohol use, but not their problem use, was influenced by their own drinking motives as well as the drinking motives of their best friends.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2002

Parent alcoholism and the leaving home transition.

Although they have received little empirical attention, departures from the parental home play a significant role in demarcating the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. The current study examined the extent to which various features of young adults' experiences of leaving home differed for children of alcoholic (COAs) versus nonalcoholic parents, what adolescent precursors might account for noted differences and what indicators of young adult adjustment are related to the leaving home experience. A total of 227 young adults drawn from a high-risk, community sample of COAs and matched controls were interviewed at ages 18-23 years regarding their prior leaving home experiences. COAs showed greater difficulties in negotiating this transition, fewer positive feelings about the transition, and different reasons for leaving home as compared to participants without an alcoholic parent. Moreover, adolescent risk behaviors, family conflict, and family disorganization (assessed prior to this transition) each partly accounted for COAs' risk for difficulty in the leaving home transition. Although certain aspects of the leaving home transition were uniquely related to young adult adjustment, future research is still needed to more comprehensively understand the implications for young adult development associated with such individual differences in the leaving home transition.

Adaptation, Psychological↗