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Effects of Adolescent Social Stress on Binge Drinking in Mice

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Social stress during adolescence has been linked to increased ethanol intake in adulthood. It is unknown if social stress during adolescence also causes changes in the patterns of drinking, such as drinking in bouts instead of spreading out each drink. Animal models of social stress utilize mice and social isolation.…

Social stress during adolescence has been linked to increased ethanol intake in adulthood. It is unknown if social stress during adolescence also causes changes in the patterns of drinking, such as drinking in bouts instead of spreading out each drink. Animal models of social stress utilize mice and social isolation. Half of the mice used in this experiment were isolated for their adolescent period, whereas the other half were housed in groups. In Phase 1, mice completed a two-bottle choice Drinking in the Dark (DID) procedure in order to model binge drinking and measure ethanol intake. In Phase 2, mice completed a free choice behavioral task, choosing between milk alone and milk mixed with ethanol. Phase 1 showed increased ethanol intake in females and in mice that were isolated. Within this phase, there was also a sex x treatment interaction, with isolated males drinking significantly more alcohol than social males. Phase 2 also showed that females drink more ethanol than males but showed no difference in their pattern of drinking. In addition, there was a sex x treatment x reinforcer interaction, demonstrating that isolated females drank significantly more vehicle than any other group. These results reaffirm that adolescent social stress is linked to increased ethanol intake, yet may not change the pattern of drinking. This suggests that the effects of social isolation during adolescence on patterns of drinking should be investigated further.
ContributorsMcLaughlin, Thorunn (Author) / Sanabria, Federico (Thesis director) / Santos, Cristina (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2022-12
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The Role of Familism and Life Stressors in Latinx Adolescents' Cortisol Response

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Family influences are known predictors of adolescent health and well-being trajectories, yet little research has investigated how adolescents’ orientation to family may be associated with their physiological stress responses. Influenced by the strength-based approach to culture, this study evaluated 418 Hispanic adolescents' familism values and perceived life stress in family,…

Family influences are known predictors of adolescent health and well-being trajectories, yet little research has investigated how adolescents’ orientation to family may be associated with their physiological stress responses. Influenced by the strength-based approach to culture, this study evaluated 418 Hispanic adolescents' familism values and perceived life stress in family, school, and peer domains to investigate prospective associations with hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis stress responses to the Group Public Speaking Task for Adolescents (GPST-A). Prior growth-mixture modeling on this sample revealed a five-class solution of cortisol responding to the GPST-A that was used here as the dependent variable: one class showed a more pronounced pattern of reactivity, potentially indicative of hyper-responsivity to the stress task; two classes showed evidence of a low to moderate cortisol response, potentially indicative of an adaptive physiological response to the challenge; and two classes showed patterns of non-responsivity, potentially indicative of hypo-responsivity. Results demonstrate that the role of familism is nuanced in the context of stressors, potentially offering both promotive and risk-amplifying effects for the physiological stress response system. This study offered several novel findings in the relation between cultural factors, salient stressors of adolescence, and HPA activity.
ContributorsSmola, Xochitl Arlene (Author) / Gonzales, Nancy (Thesis director) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
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Generational Changes in Adolescent Alcohol and Marijuana Use

Description
Substance use during adolescence is a significant predictor of developing a later substance use disorder. An encouraging trend is that there have been recent declines in rates of adolescent substance use, including alcohol and marijuana. However, these two substances may be decreasing differently from one another as a result of…

Substance use during adolescence is a significant predictor of developing a later substance use disorder. An encouraging trend is that there have been recent declines in rates of adolescent substance use, including alcohol and marijuana. However, these two substances may be decreasing differently from one another as a result of age, period, and cohort effects. Therefore, the overall trend of decreased substance use in more recent generations of adolescents may be greater for one substance than the other. The current study tested declines in adolescent alcohol and marijuana use across two generations measured in 1988-1990 and 2006-2012. Methodological strengths include controls for demographic characteristics and for parental alcohol disorder (as a proxy for genetic risk). Moreover, we tested whether findings would replicate using two methods—first comparing all assessed members of one generational cohort with all assessed members of the other generational cohort, and then comparing only matched parent-child pairs. Testing this second matched sample removes some potential demographic and risk confounds that might occur across cohorts in typical epidemiological studies. Results demonstrated that the younger cohort of adolescents used both substances less than the older cohort, and this effect was stronger for alcohol than for marijuana. These results were replicated in both samples over and above demographic variables. The parent-child sample showed that children used less alcohol and marijuana than did their parent during the same age period, suggesting that these trends cannot simply be due to changes in the demographics of the adolescent population over time. Taken together with epidemiological studies, these findings suggest encouraging declines in adolescent substance use rates but also indicate less decline in marijuana use compared to alcohol use. This prompts further surveillance to determine if marijuana use rates may start increasing among adolescents in the future.
ContributorsWatters, Shannon Marie (Author) / Chassin, Laurie (Thesis director) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05

Clarifying the Relation Between Emotion Dysregulation and Unintentional Injury in The Transition to Adolescence

Description

Background: Unintentional injury has been the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in the United States for the past 2 decades. Its health outcomes are often studied, but it may also relate to psychological concepts such as emotion dysregulation, which may also result in severe outcomes for individuals,…

Background: Unintentional injury has been the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in the United States for the past 2 decades. Its health outcomes are often studied, but it may also relate to psychological concepts such as emotion dysregulation, which may also result in severe outcomes for individuals, families, and societies. There is no consensus on a conceptual definition of emotion dysregulation, and little prior literature on the specific relation between dysregulation and injury in the transition to adolescence. Methods: The current study aims to identify latent factors of emotion dysregulation using exploratory factor analyses. Subsequently, multilevel regressions illuminate relations between dysregulation and injury at 2 late childhood and early adolescence time points in a large ethnically, socioeconomically, and regionally representative sample of Arizona twins recruited from birth records and ongoing efforts. Results: 6 total factors representing emotion dysregulation at 2 ages were created. Factors were valid when tested against temperament and psychopathology constructs. No significant longitudinal or cross-sectional associations between emotion dysregulation factors and unintentional injury were found. Sex and rurality differences were found in factor scores and dysregulation outcomes. Discussion: The current study highlights new avenues of research and funding. Future research on this topic should reflect a concentrated and nuanced focus on injury. Concordant age 9 and age 11 factors loaded differently, which urges the field to strive toward developing a standardized definition for emotion dysregulation. Covariate differences highlight target populations for interventions in unintentional injury and emotion dysregulation, which remain independent areas of concern.
ContributorsHummel, Haley (Author) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Thesis director) / Davis, Mary (Thesis director) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Meier, Madeline (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor)
Created2022-12