Do Positive Alcohol Expectancies Have a Critical Developmental Period in Pre-Adolescents?

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Objective: Positive outcome expectancies have been shown to predict initiation of alcohol use in children and to mediate and moderate the relationship between dispositional variables and drinking behavior. Negative outcome expectancies for alcohol appear to weaken as children progress to middle adolescence, but positive expectancies tend to increase during this time. Positive alcohol expectancies have been found to increase in children in third and fourth grades, indicating what some investigators have termed a possible critical period for the development of positive expectancies. Method: In the present study, we assessed alcohol expectancies at baseline, 6, 12, and 18 months in 277 secondthrough sixth-grade students. Children completed the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire-Adolescent. Univariate analyses of covariance were conducted. Results: There were signifi cant main effects for grade on positive alcohol-expectancy change for Global Positive Transformations at 12 and 18 months, Social Behavior Enhancement or Impediment at 6 and 12 months, and Relaxation/Tension Reduction at 6 and 18 months, whereby a consistent pattern emerged in that lower grades did not differ from each other, but they differed signifi cantly from the higher grades. Conclusions: Data support a critical developmental period for positive alcohol expectancies, with the greatest change observed between third and fourth grade and between fourth and fi fth grade, and only in those expectancies clearly describing positive outcomes (e.g., Relaxation/ Tension Reduction) via positive or negative reinforcement versus those with either combined or ambiguous outcomes (e.g., Social Behavior Enhancement or Impediment). (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 75, 945-952, 2014)

The effect of parental smoking on preadolescents’ implicit and explicit perceptions of smoking-related cues.

“…The current study examined the effect of parental smoking on children’s implicit and explicit responses towards smoking behavior and smoking-related cues with the goal of identifying potential cognitive mechanisms to explain the relationship between parental smoking and child smoking perceptions. We chose to focus on the responses of children between the ages of 8–12 years (hereafter referred to as pre-adolescents) in the current study because this group is particularly vulnerable to smoking initiation (Baker, Brandon, & Chassin, 2004; Copeland, Proctor, Terlecki, Kulesza, & Williamson, 2014). One reason for this is that pre-adolescents’ health-related beliefs are more malleable than those of adolescents (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993).…”

“…One reason for this is that pre-adolescents’ health-related beliefs are more malleable than those of adolescents (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993). Additionally, pre-adolescence is a key period for increasing positive outcome expectancies and decreasing negative outcome expectancies (Copeland et al, 2014), which may be important as previous work demonstrated that children’s perceptions of smoking become more positive as they near adolescence (Pisano & Rooney, 1988). Finally, research suggests that experimentation with cigarettes typically begins to occur after 12 years of age (Bauman & Phongsavan, 1999; Mowery, Farrelly, Haviland, Gable, & Wells, 2004; Winkleby, Fortmann, & Rockhill, 1993), making pre-adolescence a critical time period to examine beliefs about smoking and responses to smoking cues.…”

A dysbiotic subpopulation of alcohol-dependent subjects

“…a feeling of euphoria and achievement, and due to positive expectancies. 22 However, frequently, in other larger subpopulations of alcohol-dependent patients, and most often in later stages of the addiction, once it has completely developed, drinking becomes a compulsive process. 23 It means that drinking is essentially a way to escape negative affects and feelings.…”

Mis-anaesthetized society: expectancies and recreational use of ketamine in Taiwan

“…Furthermore, several factors that might shape a person’s endorsement of alcohol expectancies, particularly in young population, have been examined. Positive alcohol expectancies were found to increase and negative alcohol expectancies generally decline during adolescence when the risk of alcohol initiation and problematic drinking escalates [34–36]. Other than developmental stage or age, predictors of alcohol expectancies included an array of individual characteristics (e.g., gender, pubertal development, genetics) and environmental factors (e.g., parental drinking, peer drinking, peer network, and alcohol advertisement) [35–41].…”