Community Sample Of Adults Research Articles

Motives for simultaneous alcohol and marijuana use among young adults

The majority of young adults who use alcohol and marijuana sometimes use the two substances simultaneously. Understanding why young adults engage in simultaneous alcohol and marijuana (SAM) use may inform interventions and help offset negative consequences. To date, research has not yet examined motives for SAM use. The current study tested a 26-item measure of motives for SAM use in a community sample of young adults to identify the factor structure and to evaluate associations of subscales of SAM motives with alcohol and marijuana motives and substance use. Young adults from the Seattle metropolitan area (N=286; 58% female, 67% White/Caucasian) were asked about their motives for using alcohol, marijuana, and SAM as well as their use of alcohol and marijuana and related consequences in the past month. Exploratory factor analysis with promax rotation identified four factors to characterize motives for SAM use: (1) conformity (8 items, α=0.87, e.g., “to fit in with a group I like,” “pressure from others”), (2) positive effects (6 items, α=0.88, e.g., “cross-faded effects are better,” “to get a better high”) (3) calm/coping (3 items, α=0.77, e.g., “to calm me down,” “to cope with anxiety”), and (4) social (5 items, α=0.78, e.g., “because it is customary on special occasions,” “as a way to celebrate”). Results revealed that alcohol, marijuana, and SAM motives were moderately correlated. Even after controlling for alcohol or marijuana motives, SAM motives were associated with SAM use and marijuana use/consequences (but not alcohol use/consequences).

A multi-method analysis of distress tolerance in body dysmorphic disorder

Distress tolerance (DT) is a transdiagnostic construct linked to multiple psychiatric disorders. We conducted three studies using different methods to investigate the relationship between DT and body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). Study 1 found a significant relationship between low DT and more severe BDD symptoms in an adult community sample (N=81). In Study 2, we found a similar relationship between lower DT and greater BDD symptoms in a student sample (N=192). Furthermore, we found a unique relationship between greater BDD symptoms and lower self-reported tolerance of anger and sadness mood induction tasks. Greater BDD symptoms were not significantly associated with lower self-reported tolerance of a fear mood induction task. In Study 3, a clinical sample of individuals with BDD (N=40) reported lower DT than a sample of healthy controls (N=36). Findings suggest that low DT is a broad vulnerability factor related to BDD.

Parsing the Hypomanic Personality: Explicating the Nature of Specific Dimensions Defining Mania Risk.

Considerable research has used the Hypomanic Personality Scale (HPS) to assess traits conferring risk for hypomanic and manic episodes. Although the HPS has been shown to be defined by several distinct sets of content, most research has continued to rely exclusively on HPS total scores, due to (a) little research having examined its structure and (b) the discrepant structural results obtained in the few available studies. Therefore, we examined the structure and relations of the HPS in a large sample of community adults ( N = 737) receiving psychiatric treatment. Our structural results indicated a five-factor structure of Activation, Charisma, Intellectual Confidence, Lability, and Modesty. Subscales modeling these emergent factors showed divergent patterns of relations with personality and other forms of psychopathology. These findings underscore the importance of examining HPS subscale relations in addition to HPS total scores in future research.

Low emotion-oriented coping and informal help-seeking behaviour as major predictive factors for improvement in major depression at 5-year follow-up in the adult community.

Given the broad range of biopsychosocial difficulties resulting from major depressive disorder (MDD), reliable evidence for predictors of improved mental health is essential, particularly from unbiased prospective community samples. Consequently, a broad spectrum of potential clinical and non-clinical predictors of improved mental health, defined as an absence of current major depressive episode (MDE) at follow-up, were examined over a 5-year period in an adult community sample. The longitudinal population-based PsyCoLaus study from the city of Lausanne, Switzerland, was used. Subjects having a lifetime MDD with a current MDE at baseline assessment were selected, resulting in a subsample of 210 subjects. Logistic regressions were applied to the data. Coping styles were the most important predictive factors in the present study. More specifically, low emotion-oriented coping and informal help-seeking behaviour at baseline were associated with the absence of an MDD diagnosis at follow-up. Surprisingly, neither formal help-seeking behaviour, nor psychopharmacological treatment, nor childhood adversities, nor depression subtypes turned out to be relevant predictors in the current study. The paramount role of coping styles as predictors of improvement in depression found in the present study might be a valuable target for resource-oriented therapeutic models. On the one hand, the positive impact of low emotion-oriented coping highlights the utility of clinical interventions interrupting excessive mental ruminations during MDE. On the other hand, the importance of informal social networks raises questions regarding how to enlarge the personal network of affected subjects and on how to best support informal caregivers.

Do Trust and Sexual Intimacy Mediate Attachment's Pathway Toward Sexual Violence Occurring in Same Sex Romantic Relationships?

This study tested a serial mediation model examining how dyadic trust and sexual intimacy mediate the relationship between insecure romantic attachment and perpetrated sexual violence occurring between same sex intimate partners (sexual SSIPV). A community sample of adults (N = 310; 203 women, 107 men) involved in a committed (6 months or longer) same sex romantic relationship completed an encrypted online questionnaire package which included psychometric measures designed to assess the aforementioned variables. Controlling for gender effects, analyses conducted using bootstrapping procedures supported full mediation pathways for both attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance. That is, attachment anxiety and avoidance were both directly associated to the perpetration of sexual SSIPV, and these relationships were both fully mediated by dyadic trust and sexual intimacy, in that respective order.

Examining the Caring-Uncaring Emotional (CUE) Inventory as a Measure of Affective, Callous-Unemotional Psychopathy Traits in a Community Sample of Adults

Affective-interpersonal features such as callousness, meanness, or interpersonal antagonism, are regarded as essential to psychopathy. It has been proposed that assessment of the affective dimension of psychopathy may be relevant for risk assessment purposes and for intervention and treatment purposes. It may be constructive to have available brief measures of the affective dimension of psychopathy in both youth and adult populations. The current study represents a second validation study of a new, brief, self-report measure of the affective dimension of psychopathy in adults and potentially in adolescents. A study of the Caring-Uncaring Emotional (CUE) Inventory was conducted with 121 men and women recruited from a community sample. The CUE was found to have high internal consistency reliability (α = .93), and was found to have high correlations with multiple subscale measures of callous affect from established psychopathy measures developed for adults and for youths. The CUE was found to have a high, inverse association with a measure of empathy. The CUE also was found to have a moderate, positive association with a measure of Antisocial Intent. An Exploratory Factor Analysis suggested a three-factor solution, with the first factor accounting for 36.3% of the variance in scores, with high to very high loadings on 15 items. The first factor appeared to represent a robust measure of callousness in adults in a community sample. The second and third factors may tap into lack of close attachment and indifference/emotional detachment as conceptualized in other psychopathy measures. Further study of the CUE is needed to better clarify the latent structure of this scale. The CUE should be further studied for its relationships with other psychopathy measures and personality and behavioral variables. The strong associations between the CUE and two youth psychopathy measures in the current study which included young adults warrants its study in youth samples, including juvenile offenders.

Impact of binge eating disorder on functional impairment and work productivity in an adult community sample in the United States.

SummaryAimThis study compared functioning and productivity in individuals meeting Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM‐5) diagnostic criteria for binge eating disorder (BED) to those without BED.MethodsA sample of US adults from the National Health and Wellness Survey completed an Internet survey in October 2013. In addition to BED diagnostic criteria, the survey assessed functional impairment and productivity, respectively, using the Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS) and Work Productivity and Activity Impairment (WPAI) questionnaire. Differences between BED and non‐BED respondents were assessed using multivariate models controlling for factors, including age, sex and comorbidities.ResultsOf 22 397 respondents, 344 were categorised as BED respondents and 20 437 as non‐BED respondents. Compared with non‐BED respondents, BED respondents exhibited significantly (all P<.001) greater functional impairment on the SDS, as measured by mean±SD total (14.04±9.46 vs 3.41±6.36), work/school (3.86±3.62 vs 1.01±2.21), social life/leisure activities (5.29±3.49 vs 1.22±2.33) and family life/home responsibilities (4.89±3.44 vs 1.18±2.26) scores. Adjusted odds ratios (95% CIs) indicated that BED respondents were more impaired than non‐BED respondents on the work/school (4.24 [3.33–5.40]), social life/leisure activities (6.37 [4.97–8.15]) and family life/home responsibilities (5.76 [4.51–7.34]) domains of the SDS. On the WPAI, BED respondents reported significantly (all P<.001) higher percentages (mean±SD) of absenteeism (9.59%±19.97% vs 2.90%±12.95%), presenteeism (30.00%±31.64% vs 10.86%±20.07%), work productivity loss (33.19%±33.85% vs 12.60%±23.22%) and activity impairment (43.52%±34.36% vs 19.94%±27.22%) than non‐BED respondents.ConclusionsThe findings suggest individuals with BED experience considerable impairment in functioning and work productivity compared with individuals without BED.

Eating behaviors in a male and female community sample: psychometric properties of the DEBQ

The aim of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) in a community sample of Chilean adults. The sample comprised 627 participants who completed a battery of questionnaires. The mean age of the sample was 36.07 years (SD =12.49), and 66.2% of them were women. Mean body mass index (BMI) was 25.61 kg/m2 (SD =4.20). Item analysis suggested that one item yielded very low corrected item-total correlation. The internal structure analysis revealed that the threefactor model showed a good fit. Internal structure was adequate. A gender effect was found in DEBQ scores, and there was a positive significant association between BMI and DEBQ scores. The correlation analysis supported the adequate convergent validity of the scale. The present study provides evidence to support the adequate reliability and validity of the DEBQ when applied in a Chilean population.

Sleep and Physiological Dysregulation: A Closer Look at Sleep Intraindividual Variability.

Variable daily sleep (ie, higher intraindividual variability; IIV) is associated with negative health consequences, but potential physiological mechanisms are poorly understood. This study examined how the IIV of sleep timing, duration, and quality is associated with physiological dysregulation, with diurnal cortisol trajectories as a proximal outcome and allostatic load (AL) as a multisystem distal outcome. Participants are 436 adults (Mage ± standard deviation = 54.1 ± 11.7, 60.3% women) from the Midlife in the United States study. Sleep was objectively assessed using 7-day actigraphy. Diurnal cortisol was measured via saliva samples (four/day for 4 consecutive days). AL was measured using 23 biomarkers from seven systems (inflammatory, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, metabolic glucose and lipid, cardiovascular, parasympathetic, sympathetic) using a validated bifactor model. Linear and quadratic effects of sleep IIV were estimated using a validated Bayesian model. Controlling for covariates, more variable sleep timing (p = .04 for risetime, p = .097 for bedtime) and total sleep time (TST; p = .02), but not mean sleep variables, were associated with flatter cortisol diurnal slope. More variable sleep onset latency and wake after sleep onset, later average bedtime, and shorter TST were associated with higher AL adjusting for age and sex (p-values < .05); after controlling for all covariates, however, only later mean bedtime remained significantly associated with higher AL (p = .04). In a community sample of adults, more variable sleep patterns were associated with blunted diurnal cortisol trajectories but not with higher multisystem physiological dysregulation. The associations between sleep IIV and overall health are likely complex, including multiple biopsychosocial determinants and require further investigation.

Who Gets Social Support, Who Gives It, and How It's Related to Recipient's Mood.

We sought to identify personal characteristics associated with receiving and perceiving social support, and characteristics of support providers who give the most support and are perceived as the most available. In samples of students ( n = 755) and community adults ( n = 430), we found that people who were younger, female, more extraverted, more conscientious, and more open received and perceived more support. Female providers and romantic partners were associated with more support whereas coworkers were associated with less. In many cases, social support mediated associations between these characteristics and recipient mood. For instance, recipients reported they experience more positive mood and less negative mood when interacting with female providers. These associations were partly explained by increased received and perceived support from female providers. Notable differences emerged between received support and perceived support, and between the student and community samples. Implications for increasing support for poorly supported individuals are discussed.

Psychometric properties of the Chinese Internet Gaming Disorder Scale

To develop a consensus on the definition and measurement of Internet gaming disorder (IGD), several recent studies have used the DSM-5's proposed criteria for IGD as the basis in scale construction. This study contributes to this emerging consensus by developing and validating a new Chinese Internet Gaming Disorder Scale (C-IGDS) based on the DSM-5 criteria. A representative sample of Hong Kong community adults (n=502, 50% men, mean age=37.1, age range=18–60) was recruited for a telephone survey with random digit dialing. Various statistical techniques were used to assess the psychometric properties of the C-IGDS. The C-IGDS had good reliability (Cronbach's α=0.91) and structural validity (CFA model fit: RMSEA=0.027, CFI=0.991, TLI=0.988) in our sample. Moderate to moderately strong correlations with depressive symptoms (r=0.617, p<0.001), social anxiety symptoms (r=0.366, p<0.001), and gaming hours (r=0.412, p<0.001) supported the criterion validity of the C-IGDS. In addition, the C-IGDS exhibited strict measurement invariance for sex and at least strong measurement invariance for age. In addition to providing the first Chinese scale for measuring IGD based on the DSM-5′s proposed criteria, this study provides empirical support for the validity of these diagnostic criteria as the basis for a universal measure of IGD. Most important, this study is the first to reveal the criteria's measurement invariance, thereby indicating their suitability for use with diverse demographic groups.

A cross-sectional study about associations between personality characteristics and mental health service utilization in a Korean national community sample of adults with psychiatric disorders

BackgroundPersonality traits are not only associated with psychiatric symptoms, but also with treatment seeking behavior. Our purpose was to examine the relationship between mental health service utilization and personality characteristics in a nationwide community sample of Korean adults.MethodOf the 6022 subjects aged 18–74 years who participated in the Korean Epidemiologic Catchment Area study, 1544 (25.6%) with a lifetime diagnosis of any DSM-IV psychiatric disorder were analyzed. Diagnostic assessments were based on the Composite International Diagnostic Interview and personality constructs were measured by Big Five Personality Inventory-10.ResultsOf the 1544 participants, 275 (17.8%) had used mental health services. Multivariate analyses revealed positive associations between mental health service utilization and both neuroticism and openness, and an inverse association between mental health service utilization and agreeableness.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that specific personality traits may have a role in treatment-seeking behaviors for mental health problems independent of the psychiatric disorder.

The Short Personality Inventory for DSM-5 and its Conjoined structure with the Common Five-Factor Model

Research is currently testing how the new maladaptive personality inventory for DSM (PID-5) and the well-established common Five-Factor Model (FFM) together can serve as an empirical and theoretical foundation for clinical psychology. The present study investigated the official short version of the PID-5 together with a common short version of FFM, reflecting the time-constraints often imposed in all types of assessment. The objective was to model the dependency of maladaptive traits on common traits, hypothesized to show a mutual structure of latent higher order factors. A Swedish adult community sample was surveyed. The results showed that all five maladaptive traits shared a conjoint higher order organization with all the five common traits through the higher order factors of positive and negative emotion, and internalizing and externalizing. In conclusion, the study results support the nascent theory and practice in section III in DSM-5 basing psychopathology on personality traits.

Assessing State Mental Contamination: Development and Preliminary Validation of the State Mental Contamination Scale

ABSTRACTThis 2-part study described the development and preliminary validation of the State Mental Contamination Scale (SMCS), a multi-item self-report measure of state mental contamination. In Study 1, community adults (N = 211) in the United States were randomly assigned to a pathogen disgust, moral disgust, or neutral condition and then completed the SMCS. Study 1 results supported a 1-factor structure of the SMCS items. Scores on the SMCS items evidenced good internal consistency and strong interitem correlations. SMCS scores were significantly greater following the 2 disgust conditions relative to the neutral condition and a full range of SMCS scores were found in the disgust conditions. An independent sample of community adults (N = 121) from the United States participated in Study 2 to extend Study 1 results. Study 2 results indicated that SMCS scores were manipulated independently of trait mental contamination, more strongly related to convergent than a discriminant measure, and shared unique variance with a criterion measure after controlling for convergent measures. The future use of the SMCS is discussed.

Eating-related Psychopathology and Food Addiction in Adolescent Psychiatric Inpatients.

Our aims were to investigate the relationship between food addiction and mental disorders including eating disorders (ED), eating-related psychopathology and body mass index-standard deviation score in a sample of adolescent psychiatric inpatients. Food addiction was assessed with the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS). Eating-related psychopathology was measured with the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ). Psychiatric diagnoses were assessed according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition. The sample consisted of n = 242 adolescent psychiatric inpatients, of which n = 37 (15.3%) met criteria for an ED. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the association between YFAS symptom count, TFEQ scales and ED controlling for age and gender. Food addiction frequency was 16.5%, and the mean YFAS symptom count was 2.39 (SD: 1.60). In patients with food addiction, TFEQ scale scores were significantly higher than patients without food addiction. Frequency of ED was 42.9% in patients with and 9.9% in patients without food addiction. The TFEQ subscales disinhibition and hunger as well as diagnosis of ED were associated with YFAS symptom count. Food addiction in adolescent psychiatric inpatients occurs with rates higher than those seen in community samples of children, adolescents and adults. Food addiction might be associated with eating styles related to susceptibility to hunger and feelings of loss of control. The implications of high-YFAS scores in restricting-type anorexia nervosa warrant further investigations to explore which and how the respective items are interpreted in this ED subgroup. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.

Onset paranoid symptoms in depressive and non-depressive middle adolescence sample: School-based preliminary study from Croatia

IntroductionThere is a lack of epidemiological evidence on the prevalence and incidence of mental health disorders in adolescence in Croatia. Depressive disorder and paranoid symptoms have been demonstrated to be closely related in adult community samples or patients with adult depression. The present study used a cross-sectional design to evaluate a sample of Croatian adolescents.ObjectivesExamine the prevalence of paranoid symptoms in adolescents attending grammar school as a preliminary study of clinical characteristic of depression in adolescence.MethodsA sample of 450 individuals, average age 15.7 (SD = 0.45); female 232 (51.6%), male 218 (48.4%). The screening was followed by the use of a structured psychiatric interview (HAMD-21), which was administered to confirm the presence or absence of depression disorder. Item paranoid symptoms were administered to evaluate the level OD symptoms (0–none; 1–suspicious; 2–ideas of reference; 3–delusions of reference and persecutions).ResultsA total of 450 participants were screened, using HAMD-21, paranoid symptoms occurred (44.9%). Depressed adolescents: moderate, severe and very severe, defined as more than 14 points in HAMD-21 presented paranoid symptoms 68.1%, and non-depressed 32.2%.ConclusionThe depressive group displayed more frequent and intense paranoid symptoms than the control group (P &lt; 0.001). Among non-depressed the incidence of paranoid symptoms is a surprisingly high. This could be the consequences of the war in Croatia, transition, as well as the influence of social networks on adolescent communication. This requires future studies.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Association between Cannabis use, Depression and Apathy: A Study of an Internet Community Sample of Young Adults

The trait of amotivation is commonly clinically described among chronic cannabis abusers but few empirical studies have provided data on these dimensions.

Resilience Protected against Suicidal Behavior for Men But Not Women in a Community Sample of Older Adults in Korea.

Suicide prevention efforts in reducing risk factors have been found to be more beneficial to older women than men, suggesting potential gender differences in effective prevention. The study aimed to examine gender difference in resilience for suicidal behavior in a community sample of older adults in Korea. A community-based survey was conducted to investigate resilience and risk factors of suicidal behavior using the Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), as well as questions regarding physical illness and depression history. After accounting for well-known risk factors, resilience was inversely associated with suicidal behavior, but this protective role of resilience was applicable to men only. The findings of this study indicated gender difference in resilience against suicidal behavior in the elderly population. Gender-specific preventive intervention strategies need to be developed for community-based suicide prevention for older adults.

Callous-unemotional traits and neural responses to emotional faces in a community sample of young adults

Former studies suggest that the core features of psychopathy, namely the callous-unemotional (CU) traits are associated with emotional dysfunction characterized by atypical processing of other people's distress. Using a dimensional approach to CU traits, the current study aims to test neural activity during performance of a facial expression recognition task in a community sample of young adults. Forty-one participants (25 females, M age=25.44, SD=4.03) completed the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were collected to measure neural responses to fearful, happy and sad faces as compared with neutral facial expressions. Region-of-interest analyses revealed that during exposure to fearful face expressions, blood oxygenation level-dependent responses were negatively associated with CU traits in the right anterior cingulate gyrus (ACCg), but not in the amygdala. These findings support that CU traits are related to a unique neural response to fearful faces in noncriminal population as well. It also highlights the importance of taking into account other regions outside the amygdala, in particular the ACC, when testing the relation between CU traits and fear response.

The Assessment of Emotional Reactivity Across Negative and Positive Emotions: Development and Validation of the Perth Emotional Reactivity Scale (PERS).

The Perth Emotional Reactivity Scale (PERS) is a newly developed 30-item self-report measure of emotional reactivity (affective style). The PERS measures the typical ease of activation, intensity, and duration of one's emotional responses, and importantly does so for negative and positive emotions separately. We examined the psychometric properties of the PERS in an adult community sample (N = 183). Confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses supported the capacity of the PERS to measure separate negative and positive reactivity factors, and to distinguish between the activation, intensity, and duration aspects of reactivity. All items of the PERS had strong loadings on their intended factor. Concurrent validity was supported via congruent correlations with other emotion measures, and internal reliability was good to excellent for all PERS scales and subscales. Overall, the PERS appears to have good psychometric properties, and thus has promising utility for research and clinical settings.