High school drinking mediates the relationship between parental monitoring and college drinking: A longitudinal analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>College drinking is a significant public health problem. Although parental monitoring and supervision reduces the risk for alcohol consumption among younger adolescents, few studies have investigated the impact of earlier parental monitoring on later college drinking. This study examined whether parental monitoring indirectly exerts a protective effect on college drinking by reducing high school alcohol consumption.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A longitudinal cohort of 1,253 male and female students, ages 17 to 19, attending a large, public, mid-Atlantic university was studied at two time points. First, data on high school parental monitoring and alcohol consumption were gathered via questionnaire during the summer prior to college entry. Second, during the first year of college, past-year alcohol consumption was measured via a personal interview. Multiple regression models tested the relationship between parental monitoring and past year alcohol use (i.e., number of drinks per drinking day).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Holding constant demographics, SAT score, and religiosity, parental monitoring had a significant protective effect on both high school and college drinking level. However, the association between parental monitoring and college drinking level became non-significant once high school drinking level was held constant.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>While parental monitoring did not directly influence college alcohol consumption, evidence for mediation was observed, whereby parental monitoring had an indirect influence on college drinking through reductions in high school drinking. Initiatives that promote effective parenting might be an important strategy to curb high-risk drinking among older adolescents. More research is needed to understand the nature and degree of parent-child communication that is necessary to extend the protective influence of parents into the college years.</p

Neural Reward Responsiveness in Children who Engage in Nonsuicidal Self‐Injury: An ERP Study

Background: A better understanding of the correlates of nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI) in children is important for the identification and prevention of future suicide risk. However, although abnormalities in reward responsiveness might constitute one potential transdiagnostic mechanism of risk for NSSI, no studies have examined initial response to reward in children with a history of NSSI. The goal of the present study was to address this important gap in the literature. To objectively assess initial response to reward, we utilized the feedback negativity (FN) event‐related potential, a well‐established psychophysiological marker of reward responsiveness. Methods: Participants were 57 children (19 with a history of NSSI and 38 demographically matched controls) between the ages of 7 and 11. Diagnostic interviews were used to assess for current and past DSM‐IV mood and anxiety diagnoses and NSSI history. Children also completed a guessing task, during which continuous electroencephalography was recorded. Results: Children with a history of NSSI exhibited significantly more negative ΔFN (i.e., FN to losses minus FN to gains) than children without NSSI. These findings appeared to be at least partially independent of children\u27s history of psychopathology and current symptoms, suggesting their specificity to NSSI. Conclusions: These results provide initial evidence for heightened neural initial reward responsiveness to losses versus rewards in children with a history of NSSI. Pending replications and longitudinal studies, the ΔFN might represent a psychophysiological marker of risk for self‐harm