Co-occurring Change in Electronic Nicotine Delivery System (ENDS) and Cigarette Harm Perceptions and Use in Young Adults.

Introduction: Use of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) may contribute to cigarette use and nicotine addiction by shifting perceptions and norms around tobacco, but little is known about whether or how ENDS use and norms are related to cigarette use and norms, particularly among young adults. This study tested two potential mechanisms by which END use may facilitate cigarette use: decreasing tobacco harm perceptions (desensitization) and increasing favorability of tobacco use (renormalization).

Method: Analyses included data from 2187 young adults in a longitudinal panel who reported any ENDS or combustible cigarette use at ages 21, 23, or 26.

Cumulative Risk and Cumulative Protection: Relative Contributions to Predicting Substance Use, Antisocial Behaviour and Mental Health Across Development.

Background: Cumulative risk scores predict negative outcomes including antisocial behaviour and mental health. Less work has examined the role of cumulative protection, despite the availability of preventive interventions focused on bolstering protection across domains. Understanding links between cumulative risk and protection measured in childhood and later outcomes can help to guide the timing of prevention programmes.

Young adults with a history of substance use disorder experienced more negative mental health, social and economic outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic period.

Background And Aims: For young adults, the disruptions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic to work, social relationships and health-care probably impacted normative life stage transitions. Disaster research shows that negative effects of these events can persist for years after the acute crisis ends. Pandemic-related disruptions may have been especially consequential for young adults with a history of substance use disorder (SUD).

Family, Mental Health, and Placement Outcomes of a Low-cost Preventive Intervention for Youth in Foster Care.

This study assessed secondary outcomes of a low-cost, self-directed, family-based prevention program for families with youth placed in their care by state child welfare agencies. Families caring for youth aged 11 to 15 years within Washington State were recruited and randomly assigned into either the program ( = 110) or a treatment-as-usual control condition ( = 110). The program included a 10-week sequence of self-directed family activities and DVDs with video clips.

Two-Year Risk Behavior Outcomes from Connecting, a Prevention Program for Caregivers and Youth in Foster Care.

This study experimentally tested risk behavior outcomes of Connecting, a low-cost, self-directed, family-based prevention program for families with youth placed in their care by state child welfare agencies. Families caring for youth aged 11 to 15 years from across Washington State were recruited and randomly assigned to either the self-directed program with supplemental support (n = 110) or a treatment as usual control condition (n = 110). Program materials included a workbook with family activities and DVDs with video clips.

Featured Article: Adolescent Condom Use and Connectivity in the Social-Planful Brain.

Objective: To reduce rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unwanted pregnancy among adolescents, it is critical to investigate brain connectivity that may underlie adolescents' sexual health decision-making in the context of intercourse. This study explored relationships between adolescent condom use frequency and the brain's resting-state functional connectivity, to identify differential patterns of social-affective processing among sexually active youth.

Methods: In this study, N = 143 sexually active adolescents (68.

Sexual risk-taking and subcortical brain volume in adolescence.

Background: The developmental period of adolescence marks the initiation of new socioemotional and physical behaviors, including sexual intercourse. However, little is known about neurodevelopmental influences on adolescent sexual decision-making.

Purpose: We sought to determine how subcortical brain volume correlated with condom use, and whether those associations differed by gender and pubertal development.

Four Mechanistic Models of Peer Influence on Adolescent Cannabis Use.

Purpose Of Review: Most adolescents begin exploring cannabis in peer contexts, but the neural mechanisms that underlie peer influence on adolescent cannabis use are still unknown. This theoretical overview elucidates the intersecting roles of neural function and peer factors in cannabis use in adolescents.

Recent Findings: Novel paradigms using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in adolescents have identified distinct neural mechanisms of risk decision-making and incentive processing in peer contexts, centered on reward-motivation and affect regulatory neural networks; these findings inform a theoretical model of peer-driven cannabis use decisions in adolescents.

Orbitofrontal cortex connectivity as a mechanism of adolescent behavior change.

An increasing number of studies have implicated the role of network functional connectivity in addiction. Yet, none have examined functional connectivity as a potential mechanism of adolescent behavior change. We examined the underlying neural mechanism of a promising treatment for adolescents, motivational interviewing (MI).

Cognitive distortions mediate depression and affective response to social acceptance and rejection.

Background: The emotional context insensitivity (ECI) hypothesis suggests individuals with depression have blunted affective responses to both positive and negative events. We tested ECI in a social context to examine how depression relates to affective responses to social acceptance and rejection outcomes. Furthermore, we aimed to identify cognitive mechanisms linking depression with affective response to social feedback.

Expectancy bias mediates the link between social anxiety and memory bias for social evaluation.

Social anxiety (SA) involves a multitude of cognitive symptoms related to fear of evaluation, including expectancy and memory biases. We examined whether memory biases are influenced by expectancy biases for social feedback in SA. We hypothesised that, faced with a socially evaluative event, people with higher SA would show a negative expectancy bias for future feedback.

Will they like me? Adolescents' emotional responses to peer evaluation.

Relative to children and adults, adolescents are highly focused on being evaluated by peers. This increased attention to peer evaluation has implications for emotion regulation in adolescence, but little is known about the characteristics of the evaluatee and evaluator that influence emotional reactions to evaluative outcomes. The present study used a computer-based social evaluation task to examine predictors of adolescents' emotional responses to feedback from unknown peers.

Gaining insight into adolescent vulnerability for social anxiety from developmental cognitive neuroscience.

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) markedly impairs daily functioning. For adolescents, SAD can constrain typical development precisely when social experiences broaden, peers' opinions are highly salient, and social approval is actively sought. Individuals with extreme, impairing social anxiety fear evaluation from others, avoid social interactions, and interpret ambiguous social cues as threatening.