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Description
Poor executive cognitive functioning (ECF) is associated with a variety of alcohol-related problems, however, it is not known whether poor ECF precedes the onset of heavy drinking. Establishing the temporal precedence of poor ECF may have implications for our understanding of the development of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). The present study tests associations between early-adolescent ECF and young-adult risky drinking and alcohol-related problems in a prospective study of youth followed to young adulthood. Participants completed three ECF tasks at ages 11-14 and reported on their risky drinking and alcohol-related problems at ages 18-24. A latent ECF factor was created to determine whether early-adolescent ECF was associated with drinking outcomes after controlling for relevant covariates (e.g., age, sex, family history of AUD). Early-adolescent ECF, as measured by a latent factor, was unrelated to young-adult alcohol misuse and alcohol-related problems. However, sensitivity analyses revealed that an individual ECF task tapping response inhibition predicted young-adult peak drinks in a day. Present findings suggest that ECF is not a robust predictor of risky drinking or alcohol-related problems, and that this relation may be specific to the ECF component of response inhibition.
ContributorsJones, Connor Brian (Author) / Meier, Madeline (Thesis advisor) / Chassin, Laurie (Committee member) / McClure, Samuel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
The primary goal of this study was to investigate whether youth from an affluent community showed elevated rates of substance use and associated problems in young adulthood relative to national norms. The secondary goal was to determine if parents’ “containment,” or stringent disciplinary action, of adolescent substance use as measured in Grade 12 could help predict substance use in senior year of college, over and above other parenting factors. The final goal was to assess trends of substance use over time for stability based on categories of participants’ overall levels of use in Grade 12, (low, medium, high). Results indicated that substance use remained elevated into young adulthood, relative to national norms, consistent with extant research involving upper middle class youth. In regression analyses, high parents’ containment was associated with low substance use in senior year of college; however, the inclusion of Grade12 use as a covariate reduced this association with containment such that it was no longer statistically significant. Such results suggest a mediated effect, with Grade 12 substance use mediating the effects of Grade 12 Containment on college senior year substance use. Finally, upper middle class youth were found to remain in their relative substance use group (low, medium, high) as determined at Grade 12 through all four years of college. Taken together, these results emphasized the importance of high school substance use behaviors as a notable risk factor for problematic substance use over time.
ContributorsSmall, Phillip J (Author) / Luthar, Suniya (Thesis advisor) / Meier, Madeline (Committee member) / Infurna, Frank (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015