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No description available.

Emerging adulthood is a time of significant change where behaviors are adopted that can have significant long term effects on health. The most dramatic increases in weight are occurring among emerging adults, especially those with some college education. Emerging adults are also at an increased risk for substance use and abuse. The current study examined the relationship between BMI and substance use among college students. Participants included 703 undergraduate students at a large public U.S. university (M age=20.6, 58.7% Non-Hispanic White, 59.8% female). Students completed an online survey with items on substance use behaviors such as smoking, alcohol use, marijuana use, and binge drinking. Tobacco, alcohol, marijuana use, and binge drinking were assessed with one question asking students how many days over the past month they had used the specific substance (range 0-30 days). Binge drinking was assessed using one question: “Over the last two weeks, how many times have you had five or more drinks of alcohol at a sitting?” Responses ranged from 0 to 10 or more times. Substance use behaviors were coded to no use/any use in the past month. Body mass index was calculated through the student’s self reported height and weight. BMI was significantly related to past month tobacco use with an odds ratio of 1.06 (95% CI: 1.01-1.12). Specifically, with every one unit increase in BMI, the odds of past month tobacco use increased by 6%. However, BMI was not significantly associated with past month alcohol use, marijuana use, or binge drinking (p>.05). As BMI increases, college students’ odds of using tobacco increase. This finding is particularly problematic given that weight gain is common among undergraduate students and cigarette use has been cited as a common weight management practice among this group as well. Future research should consider the role of BMI as a factor in decreasing tobacco use. / text

Adolescence and emerging adulthood are transition points that offer both opportunities and constraints on individual development. The purpose of this study is threefold: First, to examine two models (i.e., young adolescents in grades 7 and 8 and older adolescents in grade 12) of heavy episodic drinking and examine how heavy episodic drinking affects subsequent educational attainment. By utilizing two different developmental transitions, i.e., middle school to high school and high school to college, it may be possible to better understand the temporal effects of alcohol use and subsequent educational attainment. The second purpose of this study is to examine how alcohol use at Time 1 may lead to the problems in the adolescent’s immediate context due to alcohol (i.e., problems with parents, peers, romantic relationships, problems at school) and to examine if these problems affect educational attainment over and above alcohol use alone. The third purpose of this study is to examine the potential gender differences in these models. The study uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which is a large scale, nationally representative school based sample of 20,745 adolescents who were interviewed in grades 7 to 12. Two longitudinal mediational models were evaluated utilizing structural equation modeling. Binge drinking and number of days drunk were used as indicators for a latent variable of heavy episodic drinking (i.e., LHED). In the 7th and 8th grade model, direct effects of LHED were found to predict educational attainment at grade 12. Additionally, in the 7th and 8th grade sample, a mediated relationship was found whereby educational attainment was predicted by problems with parents. Problems with parents were predicted by number of days drunk in the past year. In the 12th grade sample, there were no direct effects or indirect effects of alcohol on educational attainment. This study highlights the need for using a longitudinal framework when examining heavy episodic drinking’s effects on educational attainment.

Abstract not available.

The current study examines how risk factors such as psychopathology and risky sexual behavior may impact quality of life negatively and how protective factors such as perceived positive parenting, social support, and self-efficacy may impact quality of life positively. The sample consisted of 507 participants aged 18 to 29 years enrolled at a southeastern university. Results indicate that higher levels of risky sexual behavior were associated with higher levels of psychopathology; lower scores on all quality of life subscales; and lower levels of perceived positive parenting, social support, and selfefficacy. Higher scores on all quality of life subscales were associated with higher levels of perceived positive parenting, social support, and self-efficacy and lower levels of psychopathology. When all factors were examined in a regression, the effects of perceived positive parenting, social support, and self-efficacy on quality of life were greater than the effects of RSB and psychopathology.

To date, research has established that parents continue to play a significant role in the lives of their emerging adult children. For example, parents continue to engage in parenting practices, such as providing ongoing, intensive support to their emerging adult children; however, few studies have examined the strategies that parents use when their children do not comply with their commands. Emerging evidence suggests parents do engage in discipline practices during this time and the use of harsh discipline (i.e., physical aggression) is associated with negative mental health outcomes for emerging adults. However, to our knowledge, no measure of discipline strategies used in emerging adulthood exists. Thus, the current study developed and examined the psychometric properties of the Domains of Young Adult Discipline Scale (DYADS), a multi-item measure of parental discipline strategies used during emerging adulthood. Results of CFAs revealed the best fitting model contained 25-items and spanned 4 domains of discipline. The final DYADS correlated as expected with existing parenting measures as well as a gross measure of emerging adult mental health. Implications for future research are discussed.

Parenting practices and discipline practices impact children’s lives in many ways, particularly children’s behaviors and outcomes. Positive parenting practices including authoritative parenting, non-violent discipline practices, and consistency are associated with positive psychological adjustment. Research demonstrates that negative parenting practices including authoritarian and permissive parenting, harsh discipline practices, and inconsistency are related to childhood maladjustment. The current study aimed to examine the relationships among parenting practices, discipline practices, consistency, and emerging adult psychological adjustment. Results indicated that positive parenting, positive discipline, and consistent practices are negatively correlated with emerging adult maladjustment. The current study found no differences between mothers and fathers for parenting practices, discipline practices, or consistency. Lastly, it was found that consistency acts as a partial mediator between parenting and discipline practices and psychological outcome and is a strong predictor of psychological adjustment.

The current study expands upon existing developmental research on marital attitude change by examining how attitudes toward marriage and long-term relationships may vary across emerging adulthood. Utilizing five waves of data from the Center on Young Adult Health and Development’s College Life Study, discrete-time survival analysis and latent basis growth curve analysis are employed to assess the change—and predictors of such change—in three measures of relationship attitudes (desire for marriage, desire for long-term relationships, and importance of marriage and long-term relationships) of over 900 college students. Results indicate positive change in all three measures of attitudes, with most emerging adults desiring and placing importance on marriage and long-term relationships from the very beginning of college. Predictors of attitude change included sex, race, experience of parental death, student status, educational aspirations, and total number of sex partners. Results suggest a need for more longitudinal research in this area.

Psychological flexibility (PF), the core process of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; a third-wave cognitive-behavioral therapy), is the ability to stay focused on the present moment and intentionally engage in value-driven behavior despite experiencing difficult thoughts or feelings. This multifaceted construct includes components that target processes occurring both internally (e.g., cognitive processes) and behaviorally (e.g., value-consistent actions). Psychological flexibility has been applied to studies of adjustment in non-clinical samples and may be beneficial for college students as individuals navigate novel developmental stressors. Despite evidence suggesting the benefits of PF for psychological distress, additional work is needed to examine the potential of PF to foster adaptive functioning. The current study builds on previous research by a) conceptualizing distinct internal and behavioral components of PF as promotive factors and b) emphasizing competence-focused outcomes. This research examined the influence of components of PF over the course of an academic semester. A sample of college students (N = 250) completed self-report measures online at the beginning (Time 1) and end (Time 2) of a college semester. Measures included components of PF, competence, and demographic and academic information. Structural equation modeling was used to examine associations between components of PF at Time 1 on competence at Time 2, while accounting for the influence of competence at Time 1. Findings suggested that within the social domain, value-consistent action at Time 1 was associated with increased social competence at Time 2. Additional results indicated that baseline competence accounted for associations between components of PF and Time 2 competence. Implications for the dissemination of ACT-informed efforts to promote positive adjustment among college students are reviewed, and future research directions are discussed.