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Objective: This study compared two mechanisms by which mindfulness may reduce hazardous drinking: effortful control and craving, "top-down" and "bottom-up" processes, respectively. These relationships were compared in a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial of mindfulness-based relapse prevention (MBRP) versus relapse prevention (RP) treatments to explore if they differed based on more explicit versus subtle mindfulness training. Method: A total of 182 individuals (48.4% female; 21-60 years old) who reported drinking >14/21 drinks/week (for females/males, respectively) in the past 3 months but who wished to quit/reduce their drinking were recruited from Denver and Boulder, CO, United States. Participants were randomly assigned to either 8 weeks of MBRP or RP treatment and completed assessments at baseline, halfway through treatment, and at the end of treatment. The Five-Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire-Short Form, Alcohol Urge Questionnaire, and Effortful Control Scale completed halfway through treatment assessed the predictor, dispositional mindfulness, and mediators, craving and effortful control, respectively. The Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Task was completed after treatment and measured hazardous drinking. Cross-group path analyses were conducted including both mediators/treatments in the same model. Results: Comparing models with and without equality constraints across treatments, no paths significantly differed based on a chi-square test of difference, χ²(5) = 5.11, p = .40, and only the indirect effect of craving was significant (B = -1.01, p = .01). Conclusions: Findings suggest mindfulness may be associated with hazardous drinking reductions through craving but not effortful control and this indirect relationship works similarly across treatments engendering mindfulness explicitly and implicitly. Public Health Significance Statement This study indicated that effortful attentional control is not a significant mediator of the association between dispositional mindfulness and harmful alcohol use. In contrast, craving did mediate this relationship. The indirect relationship between mindfulness and harmful alcohol use via craving did not differ between mindfulness-based relapse prevention versus relapse prevention treatment, suggesting that reductions in craving may be affected by even slight increases in mindfulness and indicate the benefit of implementing mindfulness in alcohol treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Consistent with the Science of Behavior Change (SOBC) experimental medicine approach, this early phase intervention development study examines the influence of an intervention strategy (exercise training) on a behavioral health outcome (exercise engagement) in the service of addressing a widespread threat to public health (physical inactivity). Method: Physically inactive participants (N = 201) were randomly assigned to one of four exercise training conditions fully crossed on intensity (moderate, vigorous) and duration (short, long). Training occurred over 16-weeks and in-bout assessments of affective response (valence) and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) were collected during Weeks 1, 4, 8, and 16. Cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2max) was assessed pre- or postintervention and exercise behavior was assessed at 6-months postintervention follow-up. Results: Across conditions, affective response to exercise did not change, on average, over 16-weeks. Conversely, RPE decreased slightly, on average, over time. Participants completing vigorous intensity exercise reported more negatively valenced affective response and higher RPE, on average, across weeks. Greater total exercise volume completed and greater change in VO2max were associated with more negatively valenced affective response, on average. Baseline affective response scores were positively associated with exercise minutes at follow-up; however, average affective response scores across the intervention were not associated with minutes of exercise at follow-up. Conclusions: Affective response to exercise did not become more positive in valence over time as a function of training volume or change in VO2max. Implications for translating these findings to inform future intervention development efforts are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The relationship between marijuana and alcohol use among late adolescents was examined as whether marijuana use was related to quantity of alcohol consumed that day, and whether changes in marijuana and alcohol use frequency over 3 years were related. Method: College students (n = 375) reported marijuana and alcohol use for 28 days over 3 years. Results: Within-day analyses showed that more alcohol was consumed on days on which marijuana was used. Co-use varied by alcohol use problems, day of week, and year in study; the relation between marijuana and alcohol use was stronger among those who reported less problematic alcohol use, on weekdays, and as time increased. Daily level co-use relations also differed marginally by gender. At the annual level, there was a marginal relation between changes in use such that increasing use of one substance over time was weakly associated with increased use of the other substance over the same time period. Conclusions: Results add to the emerging conclusion of complementary marijuana and alcohol co-use within a single day, showing it occurs for both women and men, across a full range of marijuana use, and increases with time while being affected by alcohol use problems and day of week. The overall strong co-use relationship highlights risky behavior among late adolescents and supports an emphasis on common underlying substance use causes. However, the different pattern when assessed yearly demonstrates the importance of tailoring the timescale of analysis to the specific substance use question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Appetitive risk behaviors (ARB), including tobacco use, alcohol consumption, consumption of calorie dense/nutrient-poor foods, and sexual risk behavior contribute substantially to morbidity and mortality. Affective states that arise from a wide array of unrelated circumstances (i.e., incidental affect) may carry over to influence ARB. A meta-analysis is needed to systematically examine causal evidence for the role of incidental affect (including specific emotions) in influencing ARB. Method: Integrating effect sizes from 91 published and unpublished experimental studies that include both an incidental-affect induction and neutral-control condition (k = 271 effect sizes: k = 183 negative affect, k = 78 positive affect), this meta-analysis examines how negative and positive affective states influenced ARB and related health cognitions (e.g., intentions, evaluations, craving, perceived control). Results: Negative affective states reliably increased ARB, in analyses where all negative affective states were analyzed (d = .29) and in stratified analyses of just negative mood (d = .30) and stress (d = .48). These effects were stronger among study populations coded as clinically at risk. Positive affective states generally did not influence ARB or related health cognitions, except in the presence of a craving cue. Design issues of extant literature largely precluded conclusions about the effects of specific positive and negative affective states. Conclusion: Taken together, findings suggest the importance of strategies to attenuate negative affect incidental to ARB to facilitate healthier behavioral patterns, especially among clinically at-risk individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) declined over several decades and reached historic lows by 2009. Unfortunately, STIs have resurged since then. Adolescents and young adults comprise approximately half of the new cases, and up to two thirds are youth of color. We briefly review the emergence of this new STI epidemic and offer several recommendations to prevent transmission of STIs in youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Anticipated affect may influence exercise behavior via experienced affective responses and intentions. Cognitive manipulations of anticipated affect may inform exercise intervention design. The purpose of this study was to experimentally test the effects of an expectation-based manipulation of affective responses to exercise on anticipated, experienced, and remembered affect and adherence to a 7-day exercise prescription. Method: Participants (N = 98) were randomly assigned to a positive anticipated affect manipulation, a negative anticipated affect manipulation, or a no affect manipulation control. They reported anticipated, experienced, and remembered affect during and after a standardized 30-min bout of treadmill exercise at an intensity just below ventilatory threshold. Participants were asked to try to complete the prescribed exercise daily for 1 week. Differences in affect and exercise behavior were examined across conditions, as were relationships between affect measures, intentions and behavior. Results: The manipulation influenced anticipated and experienced affective responses, but not behavior. Participants generally expected exercise to be less pleasant and more fatiguing that it actually was. Anticipated, experienced, and remembered affect were associated with intentions to exercise. Intentions and remembered affect were both directly associated with exercise behavior. Conclusions: Moderate-to-vigorous exercise can be more pleasant than people expect it to be. Additionally, encouraging exercisers to focus on the positive affective outcomes of exercise can yield a more positive affective experience than those who focus on negative affective outcomes or do not focus on affective outcomes at all. The role of affect in both reflective and automatic motivation to exercise is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Several health behavior theories converge on the hypothesis that attitudes, norms, and self-efficacy are important determinants of intentions and behavior. However, inferences regarding the relation between these cognitions and intention or behavior rest largely on correlational data that preclude causal inferences. To determine whether changing attitudes, norms, or self-efficacy leads to changes in intentions and behavior, investigators need to randomly assign participants to a treatment that significantly increases the respective cognition relative to a control condition, and test for differences in subsequent intentions or behavior. The present review analyzed findings from 204 experimental tests that met these criteria. Method: Studies were located using computerized searches and informal sources and meta-analyzed using STATA Version 11. Results: Experimentally induced changes in attitudes, norms, and self-efficacy all led to medium-sized changes in intention (d+ = .48, .49, and .51, respectively), and engendered small to medium-sized changes in behavior (attitudes-d+ = .38, norms-d+ = .36, self-efficacy-d+ = .47). These effect sizes generally were not qualified by the moderator variables examined (e.g., study quality, theoretical basis of the intervention, methodological characteristics, and features of the targeted behavior), although effects were larger for interventions designed to increase (vs. decrease) behavioral performance. Conclusion: The present review lends novel, experimental support for key predictions from health behavior theories, and demonstrates that interventions that modify attitudes, norms, and self-efficacy are effective in promoting health behavior change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Opinions about marijuana use in the United States are becoming increasingly favorable, making it important to understand how psychosocial influences impact individuals' use in this context. Here, we used the theory of planned behavior to examine the influence of initial attitudes, norms, and efficacy to resist use on initial intentions and then to examine the effect of initial intentions on actual marijuana use measured 1 year later using data drawn from a community with relatively high use. We expanded the traditional theory of planned behavior model by investigating 2 types of normative influence (descriptive and injunctive) and 2 types of intentions (use intentions and proximity intentions), reasoning that exposure to high use in the population may produce high descriptive norms and proximity intentions overall, but not necessarily increase actual use. By contrast, we expected greater variability in injunctive norms and use intentions and that only use intentions would predict actual use. Consistent with hypotheses, intentions to use marijuana were predicted by injunctive norms (and attitudes) and in turn predicted marijuana use 1 year later. By contrast, descriptive norms were relatively high among all participants and did not predict intentions. Moreover, proximity intentions were not predictive of actual use. We also found that increasing intentions to use over a 1-year period predicted greater use. Given the greater efficacy of theory-based as compared with non-theory-based interventions, these findings provide critical information for the design of successful interventions to decrease marijuana-associated harms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study sought to experimentally manipulate the core constructs of the Health Belief Model (HBM) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in order to compare the success of interventions to increase preparatory condom use behavior (i.e., purchasing condoms, talking to a boyfriend or girlfriend about using condoms, and carrying condoms) based on these theories. Method: A total of 258 participants were randomly assigned to one of three computer-based interventions (HBM, TPB, or informationonly control). A total of 204 (79.1%) completed follow-up assessments 1 month later. Results: Regression analyses were conducted to determine which set of theoretical constructs accounted for the most variance in behavior at baseline. A series of structural equation models were estimated to determine which constructs were the “active ingredients” of change. The TPB accounted for 32.8% of the variance in risky sexual behavior at baseline, while the HBM only explained 1.6% of the variance. Mediational analyses revealed differential intervention effects on perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, and attitudes toward condom use. However, it was attitudes toward condom use and condom use self-efficacy that were associated with intentions, which then predicted preparatory condom use behavior at follow-up. Conclusion: Except for attitudes, the mediators that were successfully manipulated by the interventions (i.e., perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, and attitudes) were not the same constructs that predicted intentions (i.e., attitudes and condom use self-efficacy), and subsequently predicted behavior. This suggests that the constructs that explain behavior are not the same as those that produce behavior change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The purpose of this study was to economically evaluate Project MARS (Motivating Adolescents to Reduce Sexual Risk; T. J. Callahan, E. A. Montanaro, R. E. Magnan, & A. D. Bryan, 2013, 'Project MARS: Design of a multi-behavior intervention trial for justice-involved youth,' Translational Behavioral Medicine, Vol. 3, pp. 122-130), an ongoing, randomized, sexual-risk-reduction intervention for justice-involved youth. We consider the effect of including viral STIs in the economic analysis, and explore the impact of the MARS intervention on the perceived cost of acquiring STIs to justice-involved youth. Method: 206 participants, ages 14 to 18, participated in a sexual-risk-reduction intervention that included screening and treatment for chlamydia and gonorrhea. A Bernoulli probability model was used to estimate averted STIs attributable to the MARS intervention. The economic benefit of averted STIs was monetized using the direct medical cost of treatment. In addition, we used a contingent valuation (willingness-to-pay) model to investigate the impact of the Project MARS on participants' perceived cost of acquiring an STI. Results: Using the standard outcome domains typically used to evaluate STI interventions, Project MARS resulted in a reduction of $2.08 in direct medical costs for every $1 spent. When viral STIs were added to the economic model, a considerable increase in averted direct medical costs ($2.68 for every $1 spent) was found. Preliminary contingent valuation estimates suggest that participants' willingness-to-pay for averted STIs significantly increased after receiving the MARS intervention. Conclusion: From an economic perspective, Project MARS is a worthwhile program to adopt. Future attention should be given to the impact of behavioral interventions on viral infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study that evaluates the affect of change talk (CT) and counter change talk (CCT), therapeutic mechanism to treat substance abuse, on a cannabis intervention. It mentions the influence of CT and CCT on blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response. The study reveals that CT and CCT can prove beneficial for treating cannabis intervention in youths.

Adolescents involved with the juvenile justice system have a high incidence of risky sexual behaviors resulting in unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Substance use may be particularly important as a risk factor for unsafe sexual behavior for this group, and recent evidence suggests a possible association between marijuana use and risky sexual behavior. Adolescents in = 728; 33% female) on probation were followed for 2 years, at intervals of 6 months, to explore the association of marijuana use and condom use longitudinally and at a specific intercourse occasion. Latent growth curve modeling indicated that greater marijuana use at baseline was associated with a steeper decline in condom use over the 2-year period of the study. In-depth analysis of the most recent intercourse occasion suggested that condom use was less likely if marijuana was being used by the participant or his/her partner and that this association was more pronounced if intercourse occurred with someone the participant had just met. Implications for the prevention of risky sexual behavior in this population are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the treatment of adults for substance use disorder (SUD) with negative effect symptoms and major depressive disorder (MDD). It highlights the regression analysis in order to test the degree to which MDD interact with during treatment changes in abstinence self-efficacy (ASE). It also states that adults seeking treatment with MDD are treated with special attention because of their lower self-efficacy throughout the residential treatment.

The article presents a study which assesses the global, situational and event-level associations of marijuana use and sex-related marijuana expectancies with sexual risk outcomes in adolescents. The study emphasizes that alcohol and marijuana use predicted decreased use of condom which was moderated by sex-related marijuana expectancies. It reveals that marijuana use is a cofactor for human immunodeficiency virus/sexually transmitted disease (HIV/STD) transmission in adolescents.

The article presents a study that examines how the Group Motivational Enhancement Therapy (GMET) can lower alcohol consumption of college student drinkers. It says that college students who are mandated to a university alcohol diversion program were assigned in randomized controlled trial. The study shows that GMET session manifests significantly lower drinking problem outcomes in terms of hazardous drinking symptoms, alcohol-related problems, and average drinks per drinking day.

Criminally involved adolescents engage in high levels of risky sexual behavior and alcohol use, and alcohol use may contribute to lack of condom use. Detained adolescents (n = 484) were randomized to (1) a theory-based sexual risk reduction intervention (GPI), (2) the GPT condition with a group-based alcohol risk reduction motivational enhancement therapy component (GPI + GMET), or (3) an information-only control (INFO). All interventions were presented in same-sex groups in single sessions lasting from 2 to 4 hr. Changes to putative theoretical mediators (attitudes, perceived norms, self-efficacy, and intentions) were measured immediately following intervention administration. The primary: outcomes were risky sexual behavior and sexual behavior while drinking measured 3 months later (65.1% retention). The GPI + GMET intervention demonstrated superiority over both other conditions in influencing theoretical mediators and over the INFO control in reducing risky sexual behavior. SeIf-efficacy and intentions were significant mediators between condition and later risky sexual behavior. This study contributes to an understanding of harm reduction among high-risk adolescents and has implications for understanding circumstances in which the inclusion of GMET components may be effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this study was the exploration of distal effects of alcohol use on condom use. Criminally involved adolescents completed an initial measure of attitudes, beliefs, and prior behavior. Of the 300 who completed the initial measurement, 267 (89%) completed a behavioral assessment 6 months later. Analyses validated a theoretical model of condom use intentions and indicated that intentions and attitudes measured at baseline were significant predictors of condom use behavior 6 months later. Neither alcohol use nor alcohol problems moderated relationships among model variables or the influence of intentions and attitudes on behavior. The findings do not support a distal role for alcohol use in altering the cognitive correlates of condom use intentions and behavior among high-risk adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors used structural equation modeling to examine expressed emotion (EE) in relatives of outpatients with panic disorder with agoraphobia (n = 42) or obsessive-compulsive disorder (n = 60). EE was examined as a function of patients' illness and personality and as a function of characteristics of relatives themselves. EE was operationalized in terms of hostility on the Camberwell Family Interview (C. E. Vaughn & J. P. Leff, 1976) and patients' ratings of their relatives' criticism (perceived criticism). Key findings include the identification of a characteristic of the relative (self-reported angry thoughts, feelings, and behaviors) that is directly linked to both hostility toward the patient and to perceived criticism, as well as a direct path between relatives' low rates of observed problem solving and their hostility toward the patient. Patient Pathology predicted perceived criticism but not observer-rated hostility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Age preferences expressed by homosexuals and heterosexuals in 783 singles ads, were compared. In line with earlier cross-cultural findings, heterosexual women at all ages tend to prefer men from their own age to several years older. Heterosexual men change with age; young men show an interest in both older and younger women, but older men express progressively stronger interest in women younger than themselves. Homosexual men's preferences were very similar to those of heterosexual men and homosexual women showed a pattern somewhat between that of heterosexual women and men. Results combine with previous literature to suggest that homosexual choice is not a simple and general reversal of heterosexual roles, and fit with an emerging view that sexual behavior is controlled by a number of independently evolved psychological mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advances in molecular genetics have provided behavioral scientists with a means of investigating the influence of genetic factors on human behavior. Unfortunately, recent candidate gene studies have produced inconsistent results, and a frequent scapegoat for the lack of replication across studies is the threat of population stratification. This review of the literature on population stratification suggests that the threat may be a red herring. Reliable findings will require improved specification and measurement of the behavioral phenotypes in question, a renewed focus on internal validity, and the specification and testing of genetic factors in the context of longitudinal multivariate models. In this respect, behavioral scientists are well suited to investigating genetic factors that influence psychological mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has indicated that craving for tobacco can be reliably elicited by exposure to smoking cues, suggesting that cue-elicited craving for tobacco may be a useful phenotype for research on genetic factors related to nicotine dependence. Given the potential role of dopamine in cue-elicited craving, the authors examined whether the DRD4 VNTR polymorphism is associated with cue-elicited craving for tobacco. Participants who were homozygous or heterozygous for the 7 repeat (or longer) allele were classified as DRD4 L, and all other participants were classified as DRD4 S. Participants were exposed to smoking cues before smoking either high-nicotine cigarettes or control cigarettes. Analyses suggested that participants in the L group demonstrated significantly greater craving, more arousal, less positive affect, and more attention to the smoking cues than did the participants in the S group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the polymorphism influences reactivity on smoking cues. Examination of DRD4 VNTR polymorphism association on tobacco craving; Effects of nonsmoking exposure on smoking cue; Impact of environmental factors on the development and expression for tobacco craving.

Hispanic youth represent one of the fastest-growing minority groups. Yet, we know little about Hispanic adolescents' response to empirically-supported interventions for adolescent addiction, including motivational interviewing (MI). This randomized controlled trial (RCT) compared MI to an active educational treatment for adolescent alcohol and cannabis use (alcohol and cannabis education; ACE). Adolescents who regularly use substances ( N = 448; n = 347 Hispanic; n = 101 non-Hispanic white; ages 13-18) were randomized to two 1-hr individual sessions of MI or ACE. We examined 6-month outcomes and mechanisms of change across Hispanic and non-Hispanic white youth. Treatment response was comparable across ethnicities (Hispanic vs. non-Hispanic white youth). Additionally, adolescents in the MI condition showed greater reductions in alcohol use compared to those in ACE, with support for motivation and self-efficacy as mechanisms of treatment response. Direct effects of MI on cannabis use were not observed; however, a significant indirect effect of motivation was observed for reductions in cannabis use. Data support the efficacy of MI in reducing adolescent alcohol use, through the vehicle of enhanced motivation and self-efficacy. While consistent treatment response was observed for adolescent alcohol use across ethnicities (Hispanic vs. non-Hispanic white), further exploration into potential underexplored mechanisms of Hispanic adolescents' treatment response is requisite to strengthening prevention and intervention programming for Hispanic adolescents' cannabis use. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).