Indirect effects of theory of mind on alcohol use and problems in underage drinkers: The role of peer pressure to drink

Kumar, Lakshmi; Zhou, Agnes; Sanov, Bethany; Beitler, Sara; Skrzynski, Carillon J.; Creswell, Kasey G.

doi:10.1016/j.abrep.2022.100468

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 53 publications

(77 reference statements)

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“…Several mechanisms have been proposed explaining the link between lower trait empathy (and deficits in socio-cognitive abilities more generally [e.g., theory of mind]) and alcohol use/problems in adolescents and young adults, including that these individuals may not be aware of social cues telling them to stop drinking ( Massey et al, 2018 ), may use alcohol to cope in social situations ( Kuntsche et al, 2005 ), may prefer substance use over making social connections ( Winters et al, 2021 ), or may overvalue their peers’ attitudes/norms about drinking and consider drinking a way to fit in with their peers ( Kumar et al, 2022 , 2022b ; Laghi et al, 2019 ). One particularly promising candidate mechanism is that individuals with relatively lower levels of trait empathy might find alcohol use in social settings to be particularly rewarding because of the relatively larger boost these individuals receive in their ability to empathize with others ( Kumar et al, 2022a ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Associations of state and trait empathy with daily alcohol use

Kumar

Ringwald

Wright

et al. 2023

Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research

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Background: A growing literature documents associations between lower trait empathy and heavier alcohol use and more alcohol problems in adolescent and young adult samples. Prior work linking empathy and alcohol use/problems in these populations has thus far focused on trait rather than state empathy, and researchers often do not differentiate between cognitive and affective empathy. Further, no prior studies have examined associations between daily fluctuations in state empathy and alcohol use. The goal of the current study is to advance knowledge about the associations between state (vs. trait) and cognitive (vs. affective) empathy and alcohol use.Methods: Adult alcohol drinkers (n = 492; M age = 22.89, SD = 5.53; 53.70% female) participated in ecological momentary assessment studies for 7 to 10 days (day n = 4683). Multilevel hurdle models were used to investigate associations between day-level state empathy and daily alcohol use at the within-person level, and associations between individual differences in trait empathy and alcohol use across days at the between-person level.Results: Higher day-level state affective empathy was not associated with the likelihood of drinking on a particular day, but it was significantly associated with a greater number of drinks consumed on alcohol-consuming days, with the latter associations remaining after controlling for day-level positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA).No associations were found for day-level state cognitive empathy, or trait affective or cognitive empathy.Conclusions: On drinking days, when individuals reported more affective empathy than is typical for them, they were more likely to consume a greater number of alcoholic drinks, results that remained when controlling for levels of PA and NA. Daily shifts in affective empathy may be important to consider in efforts to understand alcohol use.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Associations of state and trait empathy with daily alcohol use

Kumar

Ringwald

Wright

et al. 2023

Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research

Self Cite

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“…Therefore, fear of negative evaluation and social interaction anxiety are two strongly correlated constructs and they have many maladaptive outcomes: depression ( Wang et al, 2012 ; Kim and Duval, 2022 ), poor academic adjustment ( Archbell and Coplan, 2022 ) alcohol-related problems and alexithymia ( Lyvers et al, 2018 ; Kumar et al, 2022 ; Caumiant et al, 2023 ), interpersonal relationships problems ( Tonge et al, 2020 ; Alexandru, 2022 ) isolation and social avoidance ( Lee et al, 2022 ; Lyngdoh et al, 2022 ; Chen et al, 2023 ). Recently, increasingly extensive use of social media, connectivity, and high digital visibility are associated with high levels of social anxiety ( Lee-Won et al, 2015 ; Carruthers et al, 2019 ; Rad et al, 2019 , 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of personality traits in mediating the relation between fear of negative evaluation and social interaction anxiety

Macovei,

Bumbuc,

Martinescu-Bădălan

2023

Front. Psychol.

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IntroductionSocial interaction anxiety and fear of negative evaluation have many maladaptive outcomes and, in order to counteract their effects, it is essential to identify those psychological or social factors that make people vulnerable to them. One of these factors is the individual’s personality structure: some personality traits increase the individuals’ vulnerability to symptoms of social anxiety, while others protect them.MethodsThe aim of this paper is to analyse the role of HEXACO personality traits in mediating the relationship between fear of negative evaluation and social anxiety, in a sample of 352 cadets from the Land Forces Academy of Sibiu. The relationships between these concepts were analysed using structural equation modeling (SEM) in several hypothetical models, two of which were ultimately validated.ResultsIn the first model, the fear of negative evaluation has an indirect effect on social interaction anxiety through the mediation of extraversion, conscientiousness, and altruism, separately. Furthermore, extraversion, conscientiousness, and altruism play a serial mediating role in the association between the fear of negative evaluation and social interaction anxiety. In the second model, the fear of negative evaluation has an indirect effect on social interaction anxiety through the mediation of social boldness, liveliness, and organization, separately, but not through altruism. Social boldness, liveliness, and organization played a serial mediating role in the relationship between the two constructs, while altruism moderated the relationship between liveliness, organization, and social interaction anxiety.DiscussionAnalysing the relationship between the individuals’ personality traits, social anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation facilitated the identification of ways to cultivate desirable behaviours in social environments typified by compliance, discipline, uniformity, and rigor.

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