Reexamining gender differences and the transdiagnostic boundaries of various conceptualizations of perseverative cognition.

Research examining gender differences in perseverative cognition (repetitive, negative, and difficult-to-control thoughts) has focused on depressive rumination and internalizing syndromes. This study examines the transdiagnostic role of depressive rumination, anger rumination, and repetitive negative thinking across gender on internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Utilizing an ethnoracially diverse sample (33% Black, 35% Latinx, 32% White non-Hispanic) of = 1,187 young adults (49.

A proof-of-concept study testing the factor structure of the Stop Signal Task: overlap with substance use and mental health symptoms.

Research utilizing experimental tasks usually does not report estimates of internal reliability of measurement. However, modern measurement theories conceptualize reliability as sample dependent indicating that reliability should be empirically demonstrated in the samples used to make inferences. Test whether confirmatory factor analytic (CFA) estimates of reliability can be applied to a commonly used task measuring response inhibition (the Stop Signal Task) to predict substance use (alcohol and cannabis) and mental health symptoms.

Intersection of minority health, health disparities, and social determinants of health with psychopharmacology and substance use.

These articles provide a window into the breadth of issues at the intersection of MHDS with psychopharmacology and substance use. Integrating the fields of psychopharmacology and basic behavioral addictions science with research on MHDS is not only of public health importance, but can help further elucidate our understanding of human behavior in all of its complexity. As demonstrated here, a better understanding of the synergy between societal context(s) and individual-level processes can lead to interventions tailored to specific risk and resilience factors; interventions that are personalized and contextualized have the potential to improve the health of our society.

The cultural equivalence of measurement in substance use research.

Across a wide range of substance use outcomes, ethnic/racial minorities in the U.S. experience a disproportionately higher burden of negative health outcomes and/or lower levels of access to care (relative to non-Latinx White individuals).

Social determinants of alcohol and cigarette use by race/ethnicity: Can we ignore measurement issues?

Psychometric critiques of cross-cultural research emphasize testing whether instruments measure the same construct across cultural groups. We tested for measurement invariance (by race/ethnicity) of instruments used to evaluate the relationship between alcohol and tobacco use with perceived discrimination and socioeconomic status (SES). Tests of psychometric equivalence across race/ethnicity focused on: the latent organization of constructs (configural invariance); if observed indicators have equal factor loadings or "true score" variance (metric invariance); and whether manifest indicators change uniformly contingent on change in the latent variable (scalar invariance).

Dysregulation as a correlate of cannabis use and problem use.

Objective: Cannabis users with a dysregulatory risk factor may be particularly vulnerable to engaging in more frequent and problematic cannabis use. Contemporary models of dysregulated behavior suggest that dysregulation emerges due to distinct mechanisms. The current study seeks to examine the dysregulatory correlates of cannabis involvement, including working memory capacity, delay discounting, impulsivity, and reward sensitivity.

Testing variability in response to a brief alcohol intervention: The role of self-regulation and the therapeutic relationship.

The current study tests individual differences in response to a mandated brief motivational intervention (BMI) for college student drinking. Participants consisted of 99 (45% female) students who were referred for violating campus alcohol policy. Within-subject analyses suggest that the BMI led to a significant reduction in frequency of drinking and alcohol-related problems at the 1-month follow-up, with a nonsignificant trend in reduction of quantity of drinking and no difference in maximum level of drinking.

Social and Individual-Level Predictors of Alcohol Use Initiation and Escalation: Replicating and Extending Tests of Differential Effects.

Objective: Although alcohol use is considered a developmental phenomenon, there is a relative dearth of studies disaggregating predictors of alcohol use initiation versus early escalation of drinking. One perspective that has emerged is that social levels of influence may be relevant for the initiation of drinking, whereas individual levels of influence may be relevant for the early escalation in level of drinking among initiators, which we refer to as the specificity hypothesis.

Method: A sample of alcohol-naive youth (n = 944; mean age = 12.

Cognitive appraisals of alcohol use in early adolescence: Psychosocial predictors and reciprocal associations with alcohol use.

Early adolescence is a dynamic period for the development of alcohol appraisals (expected outcomes of drinking and subjective evaluations of expected outcomes), yet the literature provides a limited understanding of psychosocial factors that shape these appraisals during this period. This study took a comprehensive view of alcohol appraisals and considered positive and negative alcohol outcome expectancies, as well as subjective evaluations of expected outcomes. Developmental-ecological theory guided examination of individual, peer, family, and neighborhood predictors of cognitive appraisals of alcohol and use.

Hypothetical evaluations of positive and negative alcohol consequences in adolescents across various levels of drinking experience.

Research supports the importance of the subjective evaluation of alcohol-related consequences, and theory suggests that these evaluations may depend on one's prior experience. The goal of the present study was to understand how adolescents subjectively evaluate the potential negative and positive consequences of drinking and to test the hypothesis that evaluations differ as a function of personal experience with alcohol use and consequences. Participants were 697 adolescents (55% female) who completed online surveys assessing lifetime drinking experience and hypothetical evaluations of 13 negative and 9 positive consequences.

Developmental trends in alcohol use initiation and escalation from early to middle adolescence: Prediction by urgency and trait affect.

Studies on adolescent drinking have not always been able to distinguish between initiation and escalation of drinking, because many studies include samples in which initiation has already occurred; hence, initiation and escalation are often confounded. The present study draws from a dual-process theoretical framework to investigate: if changes in the likelihood of drinking initiation and escalation are predicted by a tendency toward rash action when experiencing positive and negative emotions (positive and negative urgency) and whether trait positive and negative affect moderate such effects. Alcohol naïve adolescents (n = 944; age M = 12.

Testing a "content meets process" model of depression vulnerability and rumination: Exploring the moderating role of set-shifting deficits.

Background And Objectives: MacCoon and Newman's (2006) "content meets process" model posits that deficits in cognitive control make it difficult to disengage from negative cognitions caused by a negative cognitive style (NCS). The present study examined if the interactive effect of cognitive set-shifting abilities and NCS predicts rumination and past history of depression.

Methods: Participants were 90 previously depressed individuals and 95 never depressed individuals.

An examination of the specificity of motivation and executive functioning in ADHD symptom-clusters in adolescence.

Objective: Motivation and executive functioning are central to the etiology of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Furthermore, it has been hypothesized that motivation should show specificity of association with ADHD-impulsivity/hyperactivity symptoms, whereas executive functioning should show specificity of association with ADHD-inattention symptoms. This study tests this specificity-hypothesis and extends previous research by conceptualizing motivation to include both reactivity to reward and punishment.

Executive functioning moderates the relationship between motivation and adolescent depressive symptoms.

We investigated the association between adolescent depressive symptoms and components of executive functioning (EF), including planning (Tower of London), set-shifting (Wisconsin Card Sorting Task), and inhibition (Stop Signal Task) in a community sample of 12-14 year olds. Further, EF was tested as a moderator of motivation (as operationalized by revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory) effects on depressive symptoms. Results suggested that planning ability was associated with depressive symptoms.

Reinforcement sensitivity theory and alcohol outcome expectancies in early adolescence.

Background: Little research has examined the development of alcohol expectancies in childhood, a notable omission as expectancies are viable targets for prevention programs. Moreover, limited alcohol expectancies research has been conducted from the perspective of psychobiological models of motivation despite the strong conceptual links between such models and cognitive models of alcohol use.

Objective: To examine if the associations between individual differences from the revised reinforcement sensitivity theory (Gray JA, McNaughton N.

Implicit cognition and substance use: the role of controlled and automatic processes in children.

Objective: Most cognitive models of substance abuse and dependence posit that controlled and automatic processes are central to substance use. Tests of these models rely on methods that are interpreted to measure one or the other of these processes. There has been growing interest in the use of implicit substance use tasks, which are posited to reflect automatic processes.