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Objective: Health-risk behaviors have an unclear etiology and college students have elevated risk for engagement. Emotion dysregulation and several personality dimensions have been implicated in health-risk behaviors, but these constructs have rarely been studied together. Further, it is unknown if different types of health-risk behaviors have distinct etiologies. Participants: 2077 college students completed a cross-sectional survey. Methods: Latent profile analysis discerned classes of participants from emotion dysregulation and personality dimensions. Differential engagement in self-injury, suicidality, disordered eating, substance misuse, and unprotected sex was evaluated across classes. Results: Three classes were identified, which were primarily distinguished by emotion dysregulation, urgency, and neuroticism. Health-risk behaviors generally increased across classes with increasing emotion-related constructs. Self-injury and suicidality demonstrated different patterns than other health-risk behaviors. Conclusions: Results elucidate heterogeneity in health-risk behavior engagement. Focusing on emotional difficulties may be more important for reducing self-injury and suicidality than disordered eating, substance misuse, and risky sex.

Objective: To understand whether symptoms of health conditions explain the negative association between combat exposure and student Veterans' achievement of a meaningful life. Participants: 153 combat Veterans enrolled in college between November 2013 and April 2018. Methods: Through an online survey, participants reported combat exposure, health status (symptoms of conditions such as depression), and aspects of a meaningful life (belonging, self-understanding, and doing) at two time points. Path analysis was used to explore whether baseline health status mediated the relationship between combat exposure and belonging, self-understanding, and doing at follow-up. Results: Indirect effects indicated that the negative influence of combat on student Veterans' sense of belonging, self-understanding, and doing at follow-up was mediated by poor health at baseline. Conclusions: Combat exposure may contribute to the development of health conditions, which in turn limit student Veterans' experience of three aspects of a meaningful life: a sense of belonging, self-understanding, and doing.

This study examined relationships between instructor autonomy support, academic self-efficacy, academic problems and academic achievement among student service members/veterans (SSM/V). Participants included veterans, active duty or National Guard/Reservists of the US military (N = 172) enrolled in a postsecondary institution. Online surveys generated responses to indicators of instructor autonomy support, academic self-efficacy, and academic problems. Grade point average (GPA) was obtained from the institution. Multiple regression models found that academic self-efficacy and academic problems independently predicted GPA. Health-related factors (e.g. depression) explained academic self-efficacy, academic problems and academic achievement. Academic self-efficacy and academic problems independently mediated the relationship between instructor autonomy support and GPA. Results indicate that greater academic self-efficacy, fewer academic problems and an autonomy-supportive education environment may promote academic achievement in SSM/V despite the presence of health-related factors such as depression, posttraumatic stress and mild traumatic brain injury. Supported education programs may further academic achievement among SSM/V.

The study examines the dynamic relationship between school bonding, beliefs about the deleterious effects of substance use on future aspirations, and subsequent substance use among a sample of 1065 male and female middle school students. First, a mediation model was assessed. Adolescents' perceptions about the harmful effects of substance use on their future aspirations emerged as a salient mediator of the relationship between school bonding and subsequent substance use. Second, the intraindividual variability of school bonding and its effect on students' beliefs about the potential harm of substance use on future aspirations was assessed through random-coefficient models. Students who tended to be poorly bonded to school were less likely to perceive that substance use may impede the attainment of their future goals. Furthermore, a strong intraindividual effect of school bonding was observed, indicating that as a student became more or less bonded to school his/her belief that substance use could affect future aspirations similarly changed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]