Objective: Researchers and theorists studying intergroup relations have been interested in the impact of alcohol on interracial responding. Theories predict that alcohol will exacerbate expressions of racial bias by increasing reliance on stereotypes and/or by decreasing controlled processing and self-monitoring. Prior studies testing these theories have often examined alcohol's effects on implicit (i.e., indirect) measures of racial bias with inconsistent results. However, previous research in this area has suffered from several methodological limitations, including small sample sizes and doses of alcohol that may have been too low to induce substantial intoxication.
Method: Here, in more than triple the number of alcohol participants than the largest prior study, we tested whether an intoxicating dose of alcohol (target breath alcohol concentration of .08%) exacerbated implicit racial bias. Young adults who identified as races other than Black or African American (N = 207) were randomly assigned to consume an alcoholic or placebo beverage and completed the race-based Implicit Association Test (race IAT) testing implicit preference for White (vs. Black) individuals [or, conversely, bias against Black (vs. White) individuals].
Results: All participants demonstrated an implicit racial bias (i.e., linking traditionally Black names with negative/unpleasant words), with no difference in this implicit racial bias across beverage conditions. Specifically, there were no differences between alcohol participants' race IAT D scores (M = 0.55, SD = 0.39), and placebo participants' race IAT D scores (M = 0.59, SD = 0.35), b = 0.05, 95%CI [-0.07, 0.18], p = .422.
Conclusions: These findings challenge theories and prior studies suggesting that alcohol increases implicit racial bias. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
Objective: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition conceptualizes alcohol use disorder (AUD) as a single continuum with indicators to denote the level of severity along this spectrum with the presence of 2-3, 4-5, or 6 + symptoms indicating mild, moderate, and severe AUD, respectively. However, despite the labels of these indicators, it remains unclear how individuals compare across these indicators, both in terms of AUD severity, but also risk for other related problems (e.g., depression).
Method: Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on past year AUD symptoms to obtain estimates of latent AUD severity using data from the 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (unweighted n = 31,941). The range and distribution of latent trait estimates were then compared across AUD diagnostic statuses (i.e., no AUD, mild, moderate, and severe). Multinomial regressions were then used to compare diagnostic groups based on alcohol use, problems with other substances, treatment utilization, and mental/physical health.
Results: Results indicated very limited overlap in latent severity estimates between individuals with different severity indicators. Multinomial regression results demonstrated that some measures increased in a roughly stepwise fashion across AUD indicators (e.g., alcohol use and drinking behavior), while many did not.
Conclusions: Results partially support the current AUD indicators as AUD severity and co-occurring problems did broadly increase across the indicators. However, the present study also explores several ways to improve these indicators in future AUD formulations. For example, having indicators that account not only for the quantitative but also the qualitative differences in AUD presentation at different severity levels. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
Objective: The aim of the current meta-analysis was to examine potential differences in posttreatment effect size estimates for gambling frequency (i.e., the number of days gambled) and gambling expenditure (i.e., the amount of money gambled) when using the gambling timeline followback (G-TLFB) versus other self-report assessments.
Method: Using an open-access meta-analysis database of studies on cognitive behavioral treatment for gambling disorder, 22 studies representing 2,824 participants were identified for inclusion. Hedges's g effect sizes representing posttreatment differences on gambling frequency and expenditure between cognitive behavioral treatment versus inactive and minimal treatment controls were calculated, and mixed-effect subgroup analyses examined the effect sizes for each outcome between studies using the G-TLFB versus other self-report assessments.
Results: Mixed-effect subgroup analyses indicated that the effect size for gambling frequency was significantly lower for studies using the G-TLFB (g = -0.15) than studies using other self-report assessments (g = -0.71). When examining whether the use of the G-TLFB was associated with the posttreatment effect size for gambling frequency in a random-effect metaregression model that controlled for study grant funding status, the use of the G-TLFB was not significantly associated with effect size. The effect size for gambling expenditure was not significantly different between studies using the G-TLFB (g = -0.22) versus studies using other self-report assessments (g = -0.38).
Conclusions: The G-TLFB yields more conservative and precise effect size estimates of posttreatment gambling frequency, but not gambling expenditure, than other self-report assessments. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
Objective: Compared with men, women are disproportionately affected by alcohol, including greater risks of behavioral impairment and relapse from abstinence-based treatments. One potential mechanism underlying this disparity is ovarian hormone fluctuations across menstrual cycle phases, particularly estradiol (E2). Preclinical and clinical studies have shown that E2 levels positively correlate with alcohol consumption, suggesting E2 modulates drinking. Rewarding properties of alcohol are thought to mediate this relationship. The present study tested the degree to which women report increased rewarding effects from alcohol and heightened attention to alcohol-related cues when E2 was elevated during the late follicular phase of the menstrual cycle.
Method: Fifty women aged 21-29 participated in a within-subjects placebo-controlled study examining how menstrual cycle phase alters the rewarding properties of alcohol and alcohol-associated cues when sober and intoxicated, as measured by their attentional bias toward alcohol-associated cues and subjective reports. Measures were obtained following 0.60 g/kg alcohol and placebo during the early follicular phase when E2 was low and the late follicular phase (i.e., ovulation) when E2 was elevated.
Results: Attentional bias to alcohol-associated cues was greater during the late follicular phase in both sober and intoxicated states. Women reported rewarding effects from alcohol, but no effects of phase were observed.
Conclusions: The findings suggest that the rewarding properties of alcohol-associated cues might be enhanced during the late follicular phase of the menstrual cycle when E2 is elevated, possibly increasing the risk for excessive drinking in women during this phase. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
Objective: The Alcohol Addiction Research Domain Criteria (AARDoC) is an organizational framework for assessing heterogeneity in addictive disorders organized across the addiction cycle domains of incentive salience, negative emotionality, and executive functioning and may have benefits for precision medicine. Recent work found pretreatment self-report items mapped onto the addiction cycle domains and predicted 1- and 3-year alcohol use disorder treatment outcomes. Given the potential utility of the addiction cycle domains for predicting relevant treatment outcomes, this study sought to evaluate the longitudinal measurement invariance of the domains.
Method: We conducted a secondary analysis of individuals with alcohol use disorder (n = 1,383, 30.9% female, 76.8% non-Hispanic White, 11.2% Hispanic) who participated in the COMBINE study. Eleven items assessed at pre- and posttreatment were included in exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) and longitudinal invariance analyses.
Results: The pre- and posttreatment ESEM models had factor loadings consistent with the three addiction cycle domains and fit the data well. The ESEM factor structure was invariant from pre- to posttreatment (representing configural invariance) and metric invariance (factor loadings) was largely supported, but analyses failed to support scalar invariance (item-level thresholds) of the addiction cycle domains.
Conclusions: A three-factor structure representing addiction cycle domains can be modeled using brief self-report measures pre- and posttreatment. Individuals demonstrated a downward shift in the level of item endorsement, indicating improvement with treatment. Although this 11-item measure might be useful at baseline for informing treatment decisions, results indicate the need to exercise caution in comparing the addiction cycle domains pre- to posttreatment within persons. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
Objective: Women in academia publish fewer papers and receive fewer citations than men. These gender gaps likely reflect systemic biases operating over several levels, from journal editorial policies to academic career progression. This study sought to characterize gender gaps for publications and citations in the field of gambling studies.
Method: An automated gender inference procedure classified authors' binarized gender from their first names. Gender gaps were computed for publications and citations of papers in gambling studies, using the wider field of addiction science as a benchmark. Publication data were scraped from eight peer-reviewed gambling/addictions journals and separately from all gambling publications listed in PubMed.
Results: Men authored 16% more publications than women among gambling papers and 23% more publications among nongambling addictions papers. Although robust gender gaps were observed in specialist gambling journals, we find limited overall evidence for gender inequality being greater in gambling studies. Indeed, among nongambling addiction papers, men published more, despite a greater apparent representation of women in the field. The gender gap was most pronounced for the last authorships, denoting seniority. Among the first authorships, there was variability between journals, and some journals displayed approximate parity. There was limited evidence for any corresponding gender gap in citation counts.
Conclusions: Gender gaps in gambling research, and addiction science more broadly, adhere to wider trends in academia, including the associations with academic seniority. Variability between individual journals supports the role of journal editorial policies to increase the representation and visibility of women researchers in addiction science. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
Objective: There is a growing consensus that problematic pornography use (PPU), one of the most commonly reported compulsive sexual behaviors, is related to a number of internalizing psychiatric symptoms (e.g., anxiety, depression). However, little is known about the potential comorbidity of PPU and suicidal thoughts. Given known links between PPU and higher levels of guilt, shame, and moral disapproval, it may be that PPU may be related to suicidal thoughts.
Method: Using two independent samples, we cross-sectionally (Sample 1: undergraduates, n = 422) and longitudinally (Sample 2: nationally representative sample of U.S. adults, n = 1,455) tested for associations between PPU and past-month suicidal ideation and perceived likelihood of suicidal behaviors, while controlling for frequency of pornography use, moral disapproval, moral incongruence, and religiousness.
Results: Cross-sectionally, PPU was related to higher levels of self-perceived likelihood of suicidal behaviors, but not past-month suicidal thoughts. Longitudinally, PPU was related to higher initial levels (i.e., intercept) of past-month suicidal thoughts and self-perceived likelihood of suicidal behaviors, but not changes in either (i.e., slope). The frequency of pornography use was statistically unrelated to each outcome for both samples, while moral beliefs about pornography use showed mixed relationships.
Conclusions: Clinicians working with patients reporting PPU may consider ways it may contribute to suicidal thinking. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
Objective: Social network analysis (SNA) characterizes the structure and composition of a person's social relationships. Network features have been associated with alcohol consumption in observational studies, primarily of university undergraduates. No studies have investigated whether indicators from a person's social network can accurately identify the presence of alcohol use disorder (AUD), offering an indirect strategy for identifying AUD.
Method: Two cross-sectional case-control designs examined the clinical utility of social network indicators for identifying individuals with AUD (cases) versus demographically matched drinkers without AUD (controls). Study 1 (N = 174) used high-resolution egocentric SNA assessment, whereas Study 2 (N = 189) used a brief assessment.
Results: In Study 1, significant differences between AUD+ participants and controls were present for network alcohol severity (i.e., heavy drinking days; d = 1.23) and frequency (d = 0.35), but not network structural features. Network alcohol severity exhibited very good classification of AUD+ individuals versus controls (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.80), whereas network frequency did not (AUC = 0.61). In Study 2, significant differences were present for network alcohol severity (d = 1.02), quantity (d = 0.74), and frequency (d = 0.43), and severity exhibited good differentiation (AUC = 0.76).
Conclusions: Social network indicators of alcohol involvement robustly differentiated AUD+ individuals from matched controls, and the brief assessment performed almost as well as the high-resolution assessment. These findings provide proof-of-concept for severity-related SNA indicators as promising novel clinical assessments for AUD. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
Objective: Near-misses are a structural characteristic of gambling products that can be engineered within modern digital games. Over a series of preregistered experiments using an online slot machine simulation, we investigated the impact of near-miss outcomes on subjective ratings (motivation, valence) and two behavioral measures (speed of gambling, bet size).
Method: Participants were recruited using Prolific and gambled on an online three-reel slot machine simulator that delivered a one in three rate of X-X-O near-misses. Study 1 measured trial-by-trial subjective ratings of valence and motivation (Study 1a, n = 169; Study 1b, n = 148). Study 2 (n = 170) measured spin initiation latencies as a function of the previous trial outcome. Study 3 (n = 172) measured bet size as a function of the previous trial outcome.
Results: In Study 1a, near-misses increased the motivation to continue gambling relative to full-misses, supporting Hypothesis 1. On valence ratings, near-misses were rated significantly more positively than full-misses, in the opposite direction to Hypothesis 2; this effect was confirmed in a close replication (Study 1b). In Study 2, participants gambled faster following near-misses relative to full-misses, supporting Hypothesis 3. In Study 3, participants significantly increased their bet size following near-misses relative to full-misses, supporting Hypothesis 4.
Conclusion: Across all dependent variables, near-miss outcomes yielded statistically significant differences from objectively equivalent full-miss outcomes, corroborating the "near-miss effect" across both subjective and behavioral measures, and in the environment of online gambling. The unexpected findings on valence ratings are considered in terms of boundary conditions for the near-miss effect, and competing theoretical accounts based on frustration/regret, goal generalization, and skill acquisition. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).