Longer-Term Mental Health Consequences of COVID-19 Infection: Moderation by Race and Socioeconomic Status.

Objective: While evidence suggests that the mental health symptoms of COVID-19 can persist for several months following infection, little is known about the longer-term mental health effects and whether certain sociodemographic groups may be particularly impacted. This cross-sectional study aimed to characterize the longer-term mental health consequences of COVID-19 infection and examine whether such consequences are more pronounced in Black people and people with lower socioeconomic status.

Methods: 277 Black and White adults (age ≥ 30 years) with a history of COVID-19 (tested positive ≥ 6 months prior to participation) or no history of COVID-19 infection completed a 45-minute online questionnaire battery.

Racial differences in the link between alcohol expectancies and adolescent drinking.

Introduction: Alcohol expectancies are important determinants and predictors of adolescent alcohol use. Research with African Americans has shown that the endorsement of positive alcohol expectancies differs from that of Whites during childhood and predicts different alcohol outcomes during young adulthood. However, limited research has explored racial differences in the relationship between expectancy endorsement and alcohol use in school-aged adolescents.

What can parents do? Examining the role of parental support on the negative relationship between racial discrimination, depression, and drug use among African American youth.

African American youth who experience racial discrimination are at heightened risk to use drugs as a coping response to distress. Based on the buffer-stress hypothesis, we proposed that parental support would attenuate this effect. Participants were 1,521 African American youth between 4 and 12 grade.

Examining the Influence of Ethnic/Racial Socialization on Aggressive Behaviors Among Juvenile Offenders.

Risk assessment instruments are commonly used within the juvenile justice system to estimate a juvenile's likelihood of reoffending or engaging in aggressive or violent behavior. Although such instruments assess a broad range of factors, the influence of culture is often excluded. The current study examines the unique effect of ethnic/racial socialization on recent aggressive behaviors above and beyond three well-established risk and protective factors: delinquency history, moral disengagement, and social support.

Examining Risk for Frequent Cocaine Use: Focus on an African American Treatment Population.

Background: Cocaine use and its consequences are disproportionately higher and more severe among African Americans compared to other ethnic/racial groups.

Objectives: The aims of this study were to examine a risk model specific for African American users and assess whether risk varies as a function of sex.

Methods: 270 African American adults in a residential drug treatment facility completed measurements assessing first and past year crack/cocaine use frequency, childhood trauma, and stress reactivity.

Negative urgency and emotion regulation predict positive smoking expectancies in non-smoking youth.

Introduction: The purpose of the study was to better understand early risk for positive smoking expectancies, which have been shown to be consistent predictors of smoking initiation among youth. Two affect-based risk factors-negative urgency and emotion dysregulation-associated with smoking behaviors among youth, were examined for unique and interactive effects on positive smoking expectancies among substance-naïve youth.

Methods: Participants were 61 10-14-year-old children with virtually no drug use (less than 5 substance use incidents across the lifetime), who were drawn from the community.

Racial Differences in the Transactional Relationship Between Depression and Alcohol Use From Elementary School to Middle School.

Objective: The aim of this investigation was to test hypothesized reverse prospective relationships between alcohol consumption and depressive symptomatology as a function of race among youth.

Method: In a two-wave prospective study, 328 European American, 328 African American, and 144 Hispanic American youth were studied at the end of fifth grade (last year of elementary school) and the end of sixth grade (first year of middle school).

Results: A positive correlation was observed between alcohol consumption and depressive symptoms among all youth.

Longitudinal test of a reciprocal model of smoking expectancies and smoking experience in youth.

This article reports on a longitudinal test of a developmental model of early smoking that specifies reciprocal predictive relationships between smoking expectancies and smoking behavior in youth. The model was tested on 1,906 children during the transition from elementary school to middle school across 3 time points: the spring of 5th grade, the fall of 6th grade, and the spring of 6th grade. Key findings were (a) elementary school expectancies for reinforcement from smoking predicted smoking behavior during middle school; (b) smoking experience predicted increased subsequent smoking expectancies; and (c) among children who had never smoked, smoking expectancies predicted subsequent smoking onset.

Longitudinal test of a developmental model of the transition to early drinking.

This article reports on a longitudinal test of a developmental model of early drinking that specifies transactions among personality, learning, and behavior in the risk process. The model was tested on 1,906 children making the transition from elementary school to middle school across 3 time points: the spring of 5th grade, the fall of 6th grade, and the spring of 6th grade. In a transaction that has been referred to as acquired preparedness, individual differences in the trait positive urgency at the end of 5th grade were associated with increases in expectancies for social facilitation from alcohol at the start of 6th grade, which then predicted drinker status at the end of 6th grade.

A longitudinal test of impulsivity and depression pathways to early binge eating onset.

Objective: The very early engagement in bulimic behaviors, such as binge eating, may be influenced by factors that dispose individuals to impulsive action as well as by factors that dispose individuals to depressive symptomatology. Using a longitudinal design, we conducted the first test of the simultaneous operation of both risk factors as children transition from elementary to middle school.

Method: In a sample of 1,906 children, we assessed risk for impulsive action (negative urgency, which is the tendency to act rashly when distressed, and eating expectancies, which are learned anticipations that eating will alleviate negative mood) and risk for depression (negative affect and depressive symptomatology) and binge eating behavior at three time points using a longitudinal design: the end of fifth grade (last year of elementary school: T0), the beginning of sixth grade (first year of middle school: T1), and the end of sixth grade (T2).

Comparison of Parent versus Child-Report of Child Impulsivity Traits and Prediction of Outcome Variables.

Five personality traits that dispose individuals to rash or ill-advised action (i.e., sensation seeking, negative urgency, positive urgency, lack of planning, and lack of perseverance), can be reliably and validly assessed in children.

A comparison of two models of Urgency: Urgency predicts both rash action and depression in youth.

The aim of this study was to test two competing theories concerning the trait of urgency: (1) urgency reflects the tendency to act rashly/impulsively when emotional; or (2) urgency reflects a general reflexive responsivity to emotions that can lead either to rash action or ill-advised inaction, and thus to either impulsive behavior or depression. Following prior findings that 5 grade urgency predicted 6 grade impulsive behavior, we tested whether urgency also predicted 6 grade depression (n = 1,906). After controlling for sex, early pubertal onset, 5 grade depression, 5 grade engagement in addictive behaviors, negative affect, positive affect, and other impulsivity-related traits, 5 grade urgency level did predict higher levels of depression at the end of 6th grade.

Less drinking, yet more problems: understanding African American drinking and related problems.

Researchers have found that, compared to European Americans, African Americans report later initiation of drinking, lower rates of use, and lower levels of use across almost all age groups. Nevertheless, African Americans also have higher levels of alcohol problems than European Americans. After reviewing current data regarding these trends, we provide a theory to understand this apparent paradox as well as to understand variability in risk among African Americans.

Preadolescent disordered eating predicts subsequent eating dysfunction.

Objective: This article tested whether disordered eating in the spring of sixth grade can be predicted by the behaviors of fifth grade elementary school children.

Method: Measurements of disordered eating were collected from 1906 children (mean age = 10.86 years) at Time 1 (spring of fifth grade), Time 2 (fall of sixth grade), and Time 3 (spring of sixth grade).

A longitudinal transactional risk model for early eating disorder onset.

The presence of binge eating behavior in early middle school predicts future diagnoses and health difficulties. We showed that this early binge eating behavior can be predicted by risk factors assessed in elementary school. We tested the acquired preparedness model of risk, which involves transactions among personality, psychosocial learning, and binge eating.

Construct validation theory applied to the study of personality dysfunction.

The authors review theory validation and construct validation principles as related to the study of personality dysfunction. Historically, personality disorders have been understood to be syndromes of heterogeneous symptoms. The authors argue that the syndrome approach to description results in diagnoses of unclear meaning and constrained validity.

Clarifying the construct of perfectionism.

The construct of perfectionism is related to many important outcome variables. However, the term perfectionism has been defined in many different ways, and items comprising the different existing scales appear to be very different in content. The overarching aim of the present set of studies was to help clarify the specific unidimensional personality constructs that contribute to perfectionistic behavior.

Experimental effect of positive urgency on negative outcomes from risk taking and on increased alcohol consumption.

The current pair of experimental studies sought to further validate the role of positive urgency (acting rashly when in an extreme positive emotional state) as a risk factor for impulsive and maladaptive behavior. Previous research has supported the use of emotion-based dispositions to rash action in predicting a wide range of maladaptive acts. However, that research was conducted in the field and relied on self-reported behavior, thus lacking tight experimental controls and direct observation of risky behaviors.

The measurement of dispositions to rash action in children.

Among adolescents and adults, there appear to be at least four different personality traits that dispose individuals to rash or ill-advised action: sensation seeking, negative urgency, lack of planning, and lack of perseverance. The four are only moderately correlated and they appear to play different roles in dysfunction. It is important to determine whether the traits are present among preadolescents because of their possible influence on subsequent development.

On the value of homogeneous constructs for construct validation, theory testing, and the description of psychopathology.

The authors argue for a significant shift in how clinical psychology researchers conduct construct validation and theory validation tests. They argue that sound theory and validation tests can best be conducted on measures of unidimensional or homogeneous constructs. Hierarchical organizations of such constructs are useful descriptively and theoretically, but higher order composites do not refer to definable psychological processes.

Positive urgency predicts illegal drug use and risky sexual behavior.

There are several different personality traits that dispose individuals to engage in rash action. One such trait is positive urgency: the tendency to act rashly when experiencing extremely positive affect. This trait may be relevant for college student risky behavior, because it appears that a great deal of college student risky behavior is undertaken during periods of intensely positive mood states.