Positive Social Expectancies Research Articles

Evaluating the Impact of School-Based Smoking Prevention Interventions on Students' Physical Activity Intentions, Perceived Social Expectations, and Self-Efficacy

This study evaluates the impact of school-based smoking prevention interventions on students' physical activity intentions, perceived social expectations, and self-efficacy. With increasing rates of adolescent smoking and its associated health risks, school-based interventions have been widely promoted as effective strategies to prevent smoking initiation. However, little research has been conducted in Pakistan to assess their broader effects on health behaviors. This study addresses this gap by analyzing data from 240 school students in Lahore, Pakistan, using a structured questionnaire. The respondents were approached while visiting at their schools. The data was obtained using simple random sampling technique from one of the Lahore based elite private school. The findings reveal significant positive relationships between the interventions and all three outcome variables. Smoking prevention programs had the strongest effect on physical activity intentions (β = 0.4441), followed by perceived social expectations (β = 0.3359) and self-efficacy (β = 0.3089). These results suggest that these interventions not only reduce smoking tendencies but also encourage broader health-promoting behaviors among students. By promoting positive social expectations, self-efficacy, and physical activity, these interventions can create a lasting impact on adolescent health. Future research should focus on the long-term sustainability of these outcomes and their potential application to other health areas.

Moderators of Friend Selection and Influence in Relation to Adolescent Alcohol Use.

Friendships form an important context in which adolescents initiate and establish alcohol use patterns, but not all adolescents may be equally affected by this context. Therefore, this study tests whether parenting practices (i.e., parental discipline, parental knowledge, unsupervised time with peers) and individual beliefs (i.e., alcohol descriptive norms, positive social expectations, moral approval of alcohol use) moderate friend selection and influence around alcohol use. Stochastic actor-based models were used to analyze longitudinal social network and survey data from 12,335 adolescents (aged 11 to 17, 51.3% female) who were participating in the PROSPER project. A separate model was estimated for each moderating variable. Adolescents who reported consistent parental discipline, less unsupervised time with peers, higher descriptive alcohol use norms, and less positive social expectations about alcohol use were less likely to select alcohol-using friends. Those who reported consistent parental discipline, better parental knowledge, lower descriptive alcohol use norms, and less positive social expectations were more influenced by their friends' level of alcohol use. Thus, adolescents with these characteristics whose friends frequently use alcohol are at greater risk whereas those whose friends do not use alcohol are at lower risk of using alcohol. The findings show that, although selection and influence processes are connected, they may function in different ways for different groups of adolescents. For some adolescents, it is particularly important to prevent them from selecting alcohol-using friends, because they are more susceptible to influence from such friends. These peer network dynamics might explain how proximal outcomes targeted by many prevention programs (i.e., parenting practices and individual beliefs) translate into changes in alcohol use.

Joint Effects of Parental Smoking Cessation and an Antismoking Parenting Program on Children's Susceptibility to Smoking: A Three-Year Prospective Study.

Cognitive susceptibility to smoking is indicated by positive social expectancies about smoking, being curious about smoking, wanting to try smoking, and intending to try smoking. Among children, cognitive susceptibility is a risk factor for initiating smoking; reducing susceptibility is, therefore, a viable primary prevention strategy. Our study tested prospectively the combined effect of two variables-parental modeling of smoking cessation and parental exposure to an antismoking parenting program-on cognitive susceptibility to smoking among children who had never puffed on a cigarette. The study sample comprised 859 daily smokers who called a state Quitline seeking assistance to quit smoking and these adults' 8- to 10-year-old children. The factors in the 2 × 2 design were parental modeling of cessation (successful cessation vs. continued smoking) and parental exposure to an antismoking parenting program (program vs. control). We hypothesized that children whose parents both quit smoking and received the antismoking parenting program would report lower susceptibility to smoking than children exposed to one or neither of these factors. Multivariable analysis of variance, conducted using child-reported susceptibility to smoking collected 12, 24, and 36months post-baseline, confirmed this hypothesis. Post hoc tests for simple main effects showed that, at each time point, parent smoking cessation had a significant protective effect on children's susceptibility to smoking, but only among children whose parents received the parenting program. These tests also showed that the parenting program had a significant protective effect on children's susceptibility to smoking, but only among children whose parents had successfully quit smoking. Our study results suggest that Quitlines and other programs that assist adults in quitting smoking could extend the reach and benefits of such assistance by providing parents with resources that promote antismoking parenting practices.

Expectancies and reasons for use of e-cigarettes among young adults: A longitudinal analysis.

Use of electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, has increased exponentially in recent years. Mechanisms that might underlie this increase include expectancies and reasons for e-cigarette use. This study was designed to identify and evaluate changes in expectancies and reasons for e-cigarette use among young adults over time and to determine whether such changes were associated with changes in e-cigarette use. Data for these analyses were collected from a sample of 137 young adult e-cigarette users who completed electronic surveys 5 times over a 12-month period. Results yielded five e-cigarette use expectancy and reason factors: Affect-Related Reasons, Social Reasons, Positive Social Expectancies, Positive Internal Expectancies, and Negative Expectancies. Linear mixed models showed that Negative Expectancies significantly increased over time (p = .004), whereas Affect-Related Reasons significantly decreased over time (p = .001). Additional linear mixed models indicated that, whereas both frequency and quantity of e-cigarette use decreased over time, changes in Positive Internal Expectancies were positively associated with changes in frequency of e-cigarette use (p = .032) and changes in Positive Social Expectancies were positively associated with changes in both frequency (p = .007) and quantity (p = .026) of e-cigarette use. These findings suggest that young adults' expectancies and reasons for using e-cigarettes fluctuate over time, and changes in expectancies seem to be longitudinally associated with changes in e-cigarette use. Positive expectancies for e-cigarette use represent targets for clinical, prevention, and intervention efforts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Honesty-humility under threat: Self-uncertainty destroys trust among the nice guys.

Recent research on humans' prosociality has highlighted the crucial role of Honesty-Humility, a basic trait in the HEXACO personality model. There is overwhelming evidence that Honesty-Humility predicts prosocial behavior across a vast variety of situations. In the present contribution, we cloud this rosy picture, examining a condition under which individuals high in Honesty-Humility reduce prosocial behavior. Specifically, we propose that under self-uncertainty, it is particularly those individuals high in Honesty-Humility who reduce trust in unknown others and become less prosocial. In 5 studies, we assessed Honesty-Humility, manipulated self-uncertainty, and measured interpersonal trust or trust in social institutions using behavioral or questionnaire measures. In Study 1, individuals high (vs. low) in Honesty-Humility showed higher levels of trust. This relation was mediated by their positive social expectations about the trustworthiness of others. Inducing self-uncertainty decreased trust, particularly in individuals high in Honesty-Humility (Studies 2-5). Making use of measuring the mediator (Studies 2 and 3) and applying a causal chain design (Studies 4a and 4b), it is shown that individuals high in Honesty-Humility reduced trust because self-uncertainty decreased positive social expectations about others. We end with an applied perspective, showing that Honesty-Humility is predictive of trust in social institutions (e.g., trust in the police; Study 5a), and that self-uncertainty undermined trust in the police especially for individuals high in Honesty-Humility (Study 5b). By these means, the present research shows that individuals high in Honesty-Humility are not unconditionally prosocial. Further implications for Honesty-Humility as well as for research on self-uncertainty and trust are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

A computerized harm minimization prevention program for alcohol misuse and related harms: randomized controlled trial

Hazardous alcohol use is a leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults world-wide, yet few effective prevention interventions exist. This study was the first to examine a computerized harm minimization intervention to reduce alcohol misuse and related harms in adolescents. Cluster randomized controlled trial of a six-session curriculum-integrated harm minimization prevention program. The intervention was delivered by computer in the form of a teenage drama, which provided education through alcohol-related scenarios to which young people could relate. Schools in Australia. A total of 1466 year 8 students (13 years) from 16 high schools in Australia were allocated randomly to a computerized prevention program (n = 611, eight schools) or usual classes (n = 855, eight schools). Change in knowledge, alcohol use, alcohol-related harms and alcohol expectancies. A computerized prevention program was more effective than usual classes in increasing alcohol-related knowledge of facts that would inform safer drinking choices and decreasing the positive social expectations which students believed alcohol may afford. For females it was effective in decreasing average alcohol consumption, alcohol-related harms and the frequency of drinking to excess (more than four standard drinks; 10 g ethanol). For males the behavioural effects were not significant. A harm minimization approach is effective in educating young people about alcohol-related risks and is effective in reducing risky drinking and harms among girls. Reduction of problems among boys remains a challenge.

Development of a Self-Report Measure of Outcome Expectancies for Crime

A group of 193 male inmates served as subjects for a study in which the development and initial validation of a 16-item self-report measure of outcome expectancies for crime (OEC) is detailed. Analyses produced internal consistency estimates (Cronbach alpha coefficient) of between .73 and .91 and 10-week test-retest stability correlations of between .40 and .48 for the five OEC scales (total positive, positive social, positive control, positive identity, negative). The total positive expectancies, positive social expectancies, and positive control expectancies scales were found to correlate with the Current and Historical Criminal Thinking scales of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS), while negative expectancies for crime were significantly lower in inmates evaluating the anticipated consequences of property crime relative to inmates assessing the expected outcomes of a violent or drug offense. Finally, a confirmatory factor analysis supported the four-factor structure of the OEC (positive social, positive control, positive identity, negative), while multidimensional scaling revealed that outcome expectancies for crime fall along a single dimension: positive-negative.

Evidence bearing on the affiliative tendency (MAFF) and sensitivity to rejection (MSR) scales

Affiliative Tendency (MAFF) is defined by generalized positive social expectations and behaviors. Relationships of the MAFF with various measures are given in parentheses following each item listed: liking of others (+), social anhedonia (−), social avoidance and distress (−), judged similarity and compatibility with others (+), favorable impressions of strangers (+), adjustments to high social density (+), concern about attractive appearance (+), self-disclosure and confidence (+), conversation and positiveness with others (+). Sensitivity to Rejection (MSR) essentially measures submissiveness and has the following relationships: assertiveness (−), leadership (−), competition performance (−), confidence (−), ability to deal with threat and hostility (−), submissive social behaviors (+). Dependency, loneliness, and popularity are derivative (mathematical) functions of the MAFF and MSR.