The present study provides a meta-analytic review of the association between alcohol use and engagement in casual sexual relationships and experiences (CSREs). Specifically, the meta-analysis focused on non-experimental studies of community and college samples. Results from the meta-analysis, which included 29 relevant studies (34 effect sizes), indicated that alcohol use was significantly associated with engaging in CSREs, r = .34, 95 % CI [.29-.38], but that this link showed considerable variability. Subsequent analyses examined moderators that may explain this heterogeneity. Results revealed that age and method of assessment significantly moderated the effect of alcohol use on CSRE engagement such that the association was greater for emerging adults (18-24 year olds) than older adults and online assessments produced greater effect sizes than paper-and-pencil assessments. These results have implications for future research and intervention development. In particular, this meta-analysis emphasizes the need for studies that utilize consistent measurements of CSRE engagement, include diverse methodology, and expand upon sampling.

This meta-analytic review examines the presence and quality of close peer relationships for adoptees and individuals with foster care experience. Results indicate that adoptees show difficulty forming close peer relationships compared with biologically reared individuals, but they do not differ in the quality of these relationships. In contrast, those with foster care experience report lower quality peer relationships than biologically reared individuals. Additionally, this meta-analysis includes prevalence rates of close peer relationships that illustrate most adoptees and foster youth report having high-quality peer relationships. These findings have important implications for intervention and prevention efforts and offer directions for future research on peer relationships among adoptees and foster youth, but should be considered in light of the presence of some publication bias.

People often look to others for guidance when selecting narrative entertainment. Previous work has demonstrated that this social guidance forms the basis of people’s expectations and subsequently affects people’s experience. The current work extends previous research by exploring the influence of peer evaluations of a story, on enjoyment of and psychological transportation in the written narrative. In two experiments, participants read peer evaluations prior to reading the story. Results of Experiment 1 revealed that social influence guides readers’ expectations, attention to elements in the narrative, reported enjoyment, and feelings of transportation in the narrative. This influence was particularly apparent when readers were given unfavorable reviews of the stimulus. In the second experiment, readers were given peer evaluations that were either confirmed or disconfirmed by other readers. Results indicated that valence of peer evaluations influenced both transportation and enjoyment. Additionally, inconsistent evaluations increased feelings of transportation, but consistency alone had no effect on reported enjoyment. Implications for social media experiences and future directions in research on entertainment media are discussed.

The current paper investigated the invariance of the behavior problem scales of two measures from the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment, the Adult Self Report (ASR) and the Adult Behavior Checklist (ABCL), across members of young adult romantic couples. Data were derived from three studies examining romantic relationships in young adulthood (total N ϭ 672). Using a series of confirmatory factor analysis models, we tested levels of invariance of the behavior problem subscales of the ASR/ABCL across self-and partner-reports. All behavior problem subscales demonstrated invariant factor structures across self-and partner-reports. However, only the attention problems, aggressive behavior, and rule-breaking subscales achieved full metric invariance for both men and women. The intrusiveness (for men) and somatic complaints (for women) subscales also met full metric invariance. The remaining subscales only met partial metric invariance for both men (withdrawn, anxious/depressed, somatic complaints) and women (withdrawn, anxious/depressed, intrusiveness). All subscales only met partial scalar invariance. The current study extends the literature on cross-informant assessments by moving beyond studies of mean differences or correlations between informant reports. Moreover, our findings indicate that understanding agreement between informants should include multiple levels of measurement, such as factor structure, factor loadings, and item means. We recommend careful consideration of these issues when using the ASR/ABCL in a cross-informant framework. Public Significance StatementThis study extends the psychometric properties of the behavior problem scales from the Adult Self Report (ASR) and Adult Behavior Checklist (ABCL) in a sample of young adult couples. Our findings indicate attention to multiple levels of measurement (error) is essential when using the ASR/ABCL in a cross-informant framework.

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