Drinking and Thinking: Alcohol Effects on Post-event Processing in Socially Anxious Individuals

Post-event rumination as a mediator in the relationship between self-focused attention and social anxiety in Chinese adolescents

Cognitive models of social anxiety disorder have conveyed the implication that self-focused attention (SFA) and post-event rumination (PER) are significant predictors in maintaining the symptoms of social anxiety (SA); however, their relationships have been scarcely studied in adolescents, including Chinese samples. The primary purpose of the current study was to examine the role of PER as a potential mediator between SFA and SA among Chinese adolescents; moreover, the moderation effect of gender was investigated. A total of 2,755 Chinese adolescents ranging in age from 11 to 19 years old with an average age of 14.18 were recruited from six urban public schools. Participants were asked to complete questionnaires measuring SFA, PER, SA, and depression. Structural equation modeling results showed that PER displayed as a plausible mediator in the relationship between SFA and SA, even after controlling for depression. In addition, gender was revealed to be a significant moderator, with a stronger relationship between PER and SA for girls than for boys. The current study provided evidence for Clark and Wells' proposition about the associations among SFA, PER, and SA, contributing to the field of adolescents' mental health and supporting the cultural applicability of the model.

The acute effects of alcohol on social cognition: A systematic review of experimental studies

RATIONALE

Alcohol effects on social cognition have been studied by measuring facial emotion recognition, empathy, Theory of Mind (ToM) and other forms of information processing.

OBJECTIVES

Using the PRISMA guidelines, we reviewed experimental studies that examined acute effects of alcohol on social cognition.

METHODS

Scopus, PsycInfo, PubMed, and Embase were searched between July 2020 - January 2023. The PICO strategy was used for identifying participants, interventions, comparators, and outcomes. Participants (N = 2330) were adult social alcohol users. Interventions consisted of acute alcohol administration. Comparators included placebo or the lowest alcohol dose. Outcome variables were grouped into three themes: facial processing, empathy and ToM, and perceptions of inappropriate sexual behavior.

RESULTS

A total of 32 studies were reviewed. Studies measuring facial processing (67%) often found no effects of alcohol on the recognition of specific emotions, facilitated emotion recognition at lower doses and worsened emotion recognition at higher doses. In studies measuring empathy or ToM (24%), lower doses were more likely to lead to improvements while higher doses were generally impairing. Within the third group of studies (9%), moderate to high alcohol doses made it more difficult to perceive sexual aggression accurately.

CONCLUSIONS

Lower alcohol doses might sometimes help facilitate social cognition, but most data were in line with the idea that alcohol tends to worsen social cognition, particularly at higher doses. Future studies might focus on examining other moderators of the effects of alcohol on social cognition, particularly interpersonal characteristics such as trait emotional empathy, and participant and target gender.

A Short-Term Longitudinal Investigation of Hookups and Holistic Outcomes Among College Students

Majority of college students hook up at least once during their time in school. The literature on casual sex encounters among college students is growing, though most studies are cross-sectional and individual studies focus on few outcomes at a time, leaving piecemeal and mixed results. The current longitudinal study clarifies prior work by analyzing how post-event process (PEP), an understudied construct within the hookup literature, and emotional (i.e., positive or negative) hookup reactions interact to predict a breadth of outcomes, representing holistic student well-being. The inclusion of PEP reframes the current literature to consider PEP as a predictor variable of hookup outcomes, as moderated by emotional hookup reactions. This is consistent with literature indicating emotional experiences affect PEP across a variety of incidents. Participants (N = 377, 87.6% female) completed self-report measures at 2-month intervals. We tested relationships between the main and interaction effects of PEP and emotional hookup reactions as a moderation regression analyses on anxiety, academic engagement, religious coping, and psychological flourishing. The main effect of PEP predicted more anxiety and less negative religious coping, negative hookup reactions predicted more anxiety, and positive hookup reactions predicted more flourishing. Regarding interaction effects, high levels of positive hookup reactions and PEP were associated with less anxiety, less academic engagement, more negative religious coping, and less psychological flourishing; high levels of negative hookup reactions and PEP were associated with less anxiety and more negative religious coping and were unrelated to academic engagement or flourishing over two months.

Does Repetitive Negative Thinking Influence Alcohol Use? A Systematic Review of the Literature

Over the past 20 years, researchers have used various methodologies to assess different forms of repetitive negative thinking (RNT) and their influence on alcohol consumption. Contrasting results between clinical and general populations were observed. To summarize the current literature on RNT and alcohol use, a systematic review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines (Moher et al., 2009). Among the 27 included studies, the seven conducted among patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and the three focusing on other adult samples demonstrated a strong positive association between RNT and alcohol use or alcohol-related problems, regardless of the form of RNT. The results were more heterogeneous in the 17 studies conducted among adolescents and students, leading the authors to conclude that the results varied as a function of the severity of alcohol use. The results of this study suggest to focus on RNT from a transdiagnostic perspective in AUD. This processual approach may improve AUD treatment and relapse prevention. Finally, some gaps in the literature must be addressed: (1) the gender differences in the link between RNT and alcohol use and (2) the specific influence of RNT on alcohol use among young adults.

Coping via substance use, internal attribution bias, and their depressive interplay: Findings from a three-week daily diary study using a clinical sample

BACKGROUND

The relationship between depression and coping-oriented substance use is extensively documented; however, the cognitive processes moderating this bidirectional relationship are not well-understood. The present study investigated whether internal attribution bias coupled with a tendency to use drugs and/or alcohol to cope predicts increases in depression and daily-levels of general negative affectivity, sadness, and hostility.

METHOD

Sixty-seven adults diagnosed with depression were recruited from out-patient treatment settings (66% female, 81% White, M_age = 31, SD_age = 13.2). Participants completed measures on substance-related coping, depression, attributional style, and daily affect over a three-week period.

RESULTS

Substance use to cope predicted increases in depression among individuals with high-level internal attribution bias. Further, coping via substance use moderated the relationship between internal attribution bias and daily-level sadness, such that sadness was highest among individuals with a high internal attribution bias coupled with greater levels of coping via substance use. A modest, yet, non-significant upward trend in daily-level hostility was also observed.

CONCLUSIONS

Results suggested that depressed individuals who habitually perceive themselves as being responsible or blameworthy for negative life events are at an increased risk of worsening depressive symptoms and experiencing greater daily levels of sadness over a relatively brief period of time, particularly, when tending to engage in substance use as a mechanism to cope. This interaction effect can elicit greater daily-level sadness as well. Findings may aid in the identification and treatment of individuals at risk of maintaining or worsening their depressive symptoms.

Understanding Student Drinking Patterns: Does Shame Proneness Matter?

This study ( N = 202; mean age = 19.52 years, SD = 1.36 years; 66.5% female) analyzed three structural equation models to determine whether ruminative brooding and negative affect, moderated by shame proneness, explained college student drinking behaviors more than a model without shame proneness. Results indicated a model including shame proneness fit the data best; however, the moderated variables were not significantly associated with other variables in the retained model. Results are discussed alongside clinical recommendations within a university counseling center framework.