ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.
In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.
Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.
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- Creators: Chassin, Laurie
Description
Research shows that general parenting practices (e.g., support and discipline), influence adolescent substance use. However, socialization theory suggests that parental socialization occurs not only through general parenting practices, but also through parents' attempts to influence specific behaviors and values. A growing literature supports links between substance-specific parenting and adolescent substance use. For adolescent alcohol use, there are considerable limitations and gaps within this literature. To address these limitations, the present study examined the factor structure of alcohol-specific parenting, investigated the determinants of alcohol-specific parenting, and explored its association with nondrinking adolescents' attitudes about alcohol use. Using a high-risk sample of nondrinking adolescents and their parents, the current study found three dimensions of alcohol-specific parenting using both adolescent and parent reports, but also found evidence of non-invariance across reporters. Results also revealed complex roles of parental alcohol use disorder (AUD; including recovered and current AUD), family history of AUD, and current drinking as determinants of the three dimensions of anti-alcohol parenting behaviors. Moreover, the current study showed that the effects of these determinants varied by the reporter of the parenting behavior. Finally, the current study found the dimensions of alcohol-specific parenting to be unique and significant predictors of nondrinking adolescents' attitudes about alcohol, over and above general parenting practices, parent AUD, and parent current drinking. Given its demonstrated distinctness from general parenting practices, its link with adolescent alcohol attitudes, and its potential malleability, alcohol-specific parenting may be an important complement to interventions targeting parents of adolescents.
ContributorsHandley, Elizabeth D (Author) / Chassin, Laurie (Thesis advisor) / MacKinnon, David (Committee member) / Crnic, Keith (Committee member) / Sandler, Irwin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Variability in subjective response to alcohol has been shown to predict drinking behavior as well as the development of alcohol use disorders. The current study examined the extent to which individual differences in alcohol pharmacokinetics impact subjective response and drinking behavior during a single session alcohol administration paradigm. Participants (N = 98) completed measures of subjective response at two time points following alcohol consumption. Pharmacokinetic properties (rate of absorption and metabolism) were inferred using multiple BAC readings to calculate the area under the curve during the ascending limb for absorption and descending limb for metabolism. Following the completion of the subjective response measures, an ad-libitum taste rating task was implemented in which participants were permitted to consume additional alcoholic beverages. The amount consumed during the taste rating task served as the primary outcome variable. Results of the study indicated that participants who metabolized alcohol more quickly maintained a greater level of subjective stimulation as blood alcohol levels declined and reported greater reductions in subjective sedation. Although metabolism did not have a direct influence on within session alcohol consumption, a faster metabolism did relate to increased ad-libitum consumption indirectly through greater acute tolerance to sedative effects and greater maintenance of stimulant effects. Rate of absorption did not significantly predict subjective response or within session drinking. The results of the study add clarity to theories of subjective response to alcohol, and suggest that those at highest risk for alcohol problems experience a more rapid reduction in sedation following alcohol consumption while simultaneously experiencing heightened levels of stimulation. Variability in pharmacokinetics, namely how quickly one metabolizes alcohol, may be an identifiable biomarker of subjective response and may be used to infer risk for alcohol problems.
ContributorsBoyd, Stephen (Author) / Corbin, William R. (Thesis advisor) / Chassin, Laurie (Committee member) / MacKinnon, David (Committee member) / Olive, Michael Foster (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The present study utilized longitudinal data from a high-risk community sample (n=254, 52.8% female, 47.2% children of alcoholics, 74% non-Hispanic Caucasian) to test questions concerning the effects of genetic risk, parental knowledge, and peer substance use on emerging adult substance use disorders (SUDs). Specifically, this study examined whether parental knowledge and peer substance use mediated the effects of parent alcohol use disorder (AUD) and genetic risk for behavioral undercontrol on SUD. The current study also examined whether genetic risk moderated effects of parental knowledge and peer substance use on risk for SUD. Finally, this study examined these questions over and above a genetic "control" which explained a large proportion of variance in the outcome, thereby providing a stricter test of environmental influences.
Analyses were performed in a path analysis framework. To test these research questions, the current study employed two polygenic risk scores. The first, a theory-based score, was formed using single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from receptor systems implicated in the amplification of positive effects in the presence of new/exciting stimuli and/or pleasure derived from using substances. The second, an empirically-based score, was formed using a data-driven approach that explained a large amount of variance in SUDs. Together, these scores allowed the present study to test explanations for the relations among parent AUD, parental knowledge, peer substance use, and SUDs.
Results of the current study found that having parents with less knowledge or an AUD conferred greater risk for SUDs, but only for those at higher genetic risk for behavioral undercontrol. The current study replicated research findings suggesting that peer substance use mediated the effect of parental AUD on SUD. However, it adds to this literature by suggesting that some mechanism other than increased behavioral undercontrol explains relations among parental AUD, peer substance use, and emerging adult SUD. Taken together, these findings indicate that children of parents with AUDs comprise a particularly risky group, although likelihood of SUD within this group is not uniform. These findings also suggest that some of the most important environmental risk factors for SUDs exert effects that vary across level of genetic propensity.
Analyses were performed in a path analysis framework. To test these research questions, the current study employed two polygenic risk scores. The first, a theory-based score, was formed using single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from receptor systems implicated in the amplification of positive effects in the presence of new/exciting stimuli and/or pleasure derived from using substances. The second, an empirically-based score, was formed using a data-driven approach that explained a large amount of variance in SUDs. Together, these scores allowed the present study to test explanations for the relations among parent AUD, parental knowledge, peer substance use, and SUDs.
Results of the current study found that having parents with less knowledge or an AUD conferred greater risk for SUDs, but only for those at higher genetic risk for behavioral undercontrol. The current study replicated research findings suggesting that peer substance use mediated the effect of parental AUD on SUD. However, it adds to this literature by suggesting that some mechanism other than increased behavioral undercontrol explains relations among parental AUD, peer substance use, and emerging adult SUD. Taken together, these findings indicate that children of parents with AUDs comprise a particularly risky group, although likelihood of SUD within this group is not uniform. These findings also suggest that some of the most important environmental risk factors for SUDs exert effects that vary across level of genetic propensity.
ContributorsBountress, Kaitlin (Author) / Chassin, Laurie (Thesis advisor) / Crnic, Keith (Committee member) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Committee member) / MacKinnon, David (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Positive alcohol outcome expectancies (AOEs) are consistent longitudinal predictors of later alcohol use; however, exclusion of solitary drinking contexts in the measurement of AOEs may have resulted in an underestimation of the importance of low arousal positive (LAP) effects. The current study aimed to clarify the literature on the association between AOEs and drinking outcomes by examining the role of drinking context in AOE measurement. Further, exclusion of contextual influences has also limited understanding of the unique effects of AOEs relative to subjective responses (SR) to alcohol. The present study addressed this important question by exploring relations between AOEs and SR when drinking context was held constant across parallel measures of these constructs. Understanding which of these factors drives relations between alcohol effects and drinking behavior has important implications for intervention. After conducting confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and tests of measurement invariance for the AOE and SR measures, 4 aims collectively examined the role of context in reporting of AOEs (Aims 1 and 2), the extent to which context specific AOEs uniquely relate to drinking outcomes (Aim 3), and the importance of context effects on correspondence between AOEs and SR (Aim 4). Results of Aims 1 and 2 demonstrated that participants are imagining contexts when reporting on measures of AOEs that do not specify the context, and found significant mean differences in high and low arousal positive AOEs across contexts. Contrary to the hypotheses of Aim 3, context-specific AOEs were not significantly associated with drinking behavior. Results of Aim 4 indicated that while LAP AOEs for both unspecified and solitary contexts were associated with LAP SR in a solitary setting, unspecified context AOEs had a stronger relation than the solitary context AOEs. No significant relations between high arousal positive (HAP) AOEs and HAP SR emerged. The findings suggest that further investigation of the relation between context-specific AOEs and drinking outcomes/SR is warranted. Future studies of these hypotheses in samples with a wider range of drinking behavior, or at different stages of alcohol involvement, will elucidate whether mean level differences in context specific AOEs are important in understanding alcohol related outcomes.
ContributorsScott, Caitlin (Author) / Corbin, William (Thesis advisor) / MacKinnon, David (Committee member) / Barrera, Manuel (Committee member) / Chassin, Laurie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
The current study utilized data from two longitudinal samples to test mechanisms in the relation between a polygenic risk score indexing serotonin functioning and alcohol use in adolescence. Specifically, this study tested whether individuals with lower levels of serotonin functioning as indexed by a polygenic risk score were vulnerable to poorer self-regulation, and whether poorer self-regulation subsequently predicted the divergent outcomes of depressive symptoms and aggressive/antisocial behaviors. This study then examined whether depressive symptoms and aggressive/antisocial behaviors conferred risk for later alcohol use in adolescence, and whether polygenic risk and effortful control had direct effects on alcohol use that were not mediated through problem behaviors. Finally, the study examined the potential moderating role of gender in these pathways to alcohol use.
Structural equation modeling was used to test hypotheses. Results from an independent genome-wide association study of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid in the cerebrospinal fluid were used to create serotonin (5-HT) polygenic risk scores, wherein higher scores reflected lower levels of 5-HT functioning. Data from three time points were drawn from each sample, and all paths were prospective. Findings suggested that 5-HT polygenic risk did not predict self-regulatory constructs. However, 5-HT polygenic risk did predict the divergent outcomes of depression and aggression/antisociality, such that higher levels of 5-HT polygenic risk predicted greater levels of depression and aggression/antisociality. Results most clearly supported adolescents’ aggression/antisociality as a mechanism in the relation between 5-HT polygenic risk and later alcohol use. Deficits in self-regulation also predicted depression and aggression/antisociality, and indirectly predicted alcohol use through aggression/antisociality. These pathways to alcohol use might be the most salient for boys with low levels of socioeconomic status.
Results are novel contributions to the literature. The previously observed association between serotonin functioning and alcohol use might be due, in part, to the fact that individuals with lower levels of serotonin functioning are predisposed towards developing earlier aggression/antisociality. Results did not support the hypothesis that serotonin functioning predisposes individuals to deficits in self-regulatory abilities. Findings extend previous research by suggesting that serotonin functioning and self-regulation might be transdiagnostic risk factors for many types of psychopathology.
Structural equation modeling was used to test hypotheses. Results from an independent genome-wide association study of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid in the cerebrospinal fluid were used to create serotonin (5-HT) polygenic risk scores, wherein higher scores reflected lower levels of 5-HT functioning. Data from three time points were drawn from each sample, and all paths were prospective. Findings suggested that 5-HT polygenic risk did not predict self-regulatory constructs. However, 5-HT polygenic risk did predict the divergent outcomes of depression and aggression/antisociality, such that higher levels of 5-HT polygenic risk predicted greater levels of depression and aggression/antisociality. Results most clearly supported adolescents’ aggression/antisociality as a mechanism in the relation between 5-HT polygenic risk and later alcohol use. Deficits in self-regulation also predicted depression and aggression/antisociality, and indirectly predicted alcohol use through aggression/antisociality. These pathways to alcohol use might be the most salient for boys with low levels of socioeconomic status.
Results are novel contributions to the literature. The previously observed association between serotonin functioning and alcohol use might be due, in part, to the fact that individuals with lower levels of serotonin functioning are predisposed towards developing earlier aggression/antisociality. Results did not support the hypothesis that serotonin functioning predisposes individuals to deficits in self-regulatory abilities. Findings extend previous research by suggesting that serotonin functioning and self-regulation might be transdiagnostic risk factors for many types of psychopathology.
ContributorsWang, Frances Lynn (Author) / Chassin, Laurie (Thesis advisor) / Eisenberg, Nancy (Committee member) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Committee member) / MacKinnon, David (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017