The purpose of this study was to seek understanding of the contours of the lives of undergraduate college students who abstain from drinking alcohol. Specifically, I explored the motivations, behaviors, and outcomes related to their choice not to drink. For purposes of this study, I defined motivations as the reasons for students' abstention. In this study, I defined behaviors as: (a) techniques used to abstain, (b) social experiences, and (c) recreational experiences. Outcomes were defined as the positive and negative effects of the choice not to drink. I defined abstainers as students who have not consumed alcohol for at least one full year prior to the study, with exceptions for moderate consumption on rare religious or cultural celebrations. I explored the following research questions in this study: 1. What are abstainers' motivations for abstaining? 2. What behaviors do abstainers exhibit to keep them from drinking? 3. What social behaviors do abstainers exhibit? 4. What are the outcomes of abstaining? I had one sample consisting of 53 undergraduates who had not consumed any alcohol for a period of at least one year prior to the study. After conducting the focus groups, I searched the participant responses for emergent themes. Then, I used the emergent themes to guide the formation of a narrative. In this narrative, I combined the participants' own voices and my analysis of their themes to tell the story of being a college student who abstains from drinking alcohol. As the motivations for abstention, the participants indicated spiritual, religious influences as important. Additionally, the friends and organizations with which they associated and previous negative experiences (both personal and external) made an impact. In the category of behavior related to abstaining, the participants indicated that their ability to abstain closely hinged upon their interaction with and perception of their social environment; their choices of association with friends and groups also influenced their perceptions of their ability to abstain. Participants who had a strong sense of personal conviction about abstaining felt they were better able not to drink. Additionally, many felt they could take direct personal action to help them abstain. In terms of their social environments, abstainers spoke of having created deep, rich friendships and social environments as part of their very busy lives. While they generally preferred to spend time with other abstainers, they often were friends with and spent time with both abstainers and drinkers. The participants also indicated the importance of making friends and associating with groups in feeling comfortable and being confident in their lifestyle choice. The participants spoke with mixed voices about the outcomes of abstention; many felt left out and out of place in the general college drinking environment, while at the same time recognizing the many positive benefits from not drinking. / Master of Arts

<p dir="ltr">The main goal of my study was to use a novel precision medicine approach to optimize assignment to short-term abstinence from alcohol based on a variety of individual characteristics. The sample consisted of 97 moderate-to-heavy drinkers aged 21-35. A within-subjects design was employed where each participant completed two counter-balanced intravenous alcohol sessions (one following abstinence and one during usual drinking). For the primary aim of this study (N = 47), crossover generalized outcome weighted learning was used to estimate an optimal individualized assignment rule to short-term abstinence based on prescriptive factors, including HiTOP-relevant dimensions and other characteristics. For a secondary aim (N = 50), logistic regression was used to test whether the subgroups estimated by the optimal rule were associated with a set of genetic and behavioral factors related to AUD, and subjective perceptions to alcohol intoxication. Findings showed that an estimated rule with higher granularity – higher-specificity traits and demographics – led to lower alcohol consumption overall compared with one-size-fits-all rules (i.e., assigning everyone to abstinence or assigning no one to abstinence). The effect sizes of the difference were small-to-medium and fell short of statistical significance. Family history of AUD had a positive trend association with benefit from abstinence, with one standard deviation increase in family history of AUD being associated with twice as high odds of being assigned to abstinence. Due to the limited sample size, the results should be interpreted with caution. Study results provided preliminary evidence that an individualized assignment rule based on relatively simple and easily accessible individual characteristics can lead to lower alcohol consumption than that observed if everyone or no one was assigned to abstinence (i.e., one-size-fits-all approach). Genetic predispositions reflected in family history of AUD may be a potential mechanism linking the assessed prescriptive factors with abstinence response, which is worth further exploration.</p>

Graphs (or networks) are now omnipresent, infusing into many aspects of society. This dissertation contributes unified graph-based algorithms and models to help solve large-scale societal problems affecting millions of individuals' daily lives, from cyber-attacks involving malware to tobacco and alcohol addiction. The main thrusts of our research are: (1) Propagation-based Graph Mining Algorithms: We develop graph mining algorithms to propagate information between the nodes to infer important details about the unknown nodes. We present three examples: AESOP (patented) unearths malware lurking in people's computers with 99.61% true positive rate at 0.01% false positive rate; our application of ADAGE on malware detection (patent-pending) enables to detect malware in a streaming setting; and EDOCS (patent-pending) flags comment spammers among 197 thousand users on a social media platform accurately and preemptively. (2) Graph-induced Behavior Characterization: We derive new insights and knowledge that characterize certain behavior from graphs using statistical and algorithmic techniques. We present two examples: a study on identifying attributes of smoking and drinking abstinence and relapse from an addiction cessation social media community; and an exploratory analysis of how company insiders trade. Our work has already made impact to society: deployed by Symantec, AESOP is protecting over 120 million people worldwide from malware; EDOCS has been deployed by Yahoo and it guards multiple online communities from comment spammers.

Bakgrund: Alkoholkonsumtionen bland ungdomar har sedan 2000-talets början minskat. Hur detta har påverkat ungdomarnas hälsa är i dagsläget okänt, då det råder brist på vetenskapligt underlag inom området. Emellertid har tidigare studier undersökt hälsan hos ungdomar som inte dricker alkohol i andra kontexter och tidsperioder, vilket indikerat på en koppling till hälsobrister snarare än hälsovinster framförallt vad gäller psykisk hhälsa. Syfte: Denna studie syftar till att undersöka huruvida avhållsamhet från alkohol bland ungdomar i årskurs två på gymnasiet är associerat med psykisk hälsa, samt om deras psykiska hälsa har förändrats från 2004 till 2012. Metod: För att undersöka sambandet mellan ungdomars avhållsamhet från alkohol och psykisk hälsa användes en kvantitativ metod med upprepade tvärsnittsstudier som studiedesign. Data från hälsoundersökningen Liv och Hälsa Ung Västmanland användes, med 2533 elever i årskurs två år 2004 och 2193 elever år 2012. Resultat: Andelen elever i årskurs två på gymnasiet som avhöll sig från att dricka alkohol var endast marginellt större år 2012 än 2004. Ungdomar som inte dricker alkohol uppvisade i mindre utsträckning antisocialt beteende jämfört med de som dricker, vilket gällde för båda åren. Dock i mindre utsträckning år 2012 än 2004, varvid alkoholkonsumtionen inte tycks ha varit av lika stor betydelse för graden av antisocialt beteende vid det senare undersökningsåret. Med avseende på psykosomatiska besvär och depression var ungdomars avhållsamhet från alkohol endast associerat med hälsofördelar det första undersökningsåret. År 2012 var icke-drickande snarare associerat med en högre grad av psykosomatiska besvär. Slutsatser: Ungdomars avhållsamhet från alkohol tycks inte vara associerat med några påtagliga hälsoeffekter bland ungdomar i årskurs två, med undantag för antisocialt beteende. Möjligtvis beror avsaknaden av hälsoeffekter 2012 på en ökad psykisk ohälsa bland både drickare och icke-drickare. / Background: Alcohol consumption among adolescents has declined since the beginning of the twenty-first century. Whether this has affected the health among the adolescents is currently unknown, due to the lack of empirical evidence regarding this area. However, previous studies have investigated the health of non-drinking adolescents in other contexts and time periods, which have indicated a connection to health deficiencies rather than health benefits. Especially regarding mental health. Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate whether alcohol abstinence among adolescents in the second year of upper secondary school is associated with mental health and whether their mental health has changed from 2004 to 2012. Method: In order to investigate the relationship between alcohol abstinence among adolescents, a quantitative method with a repeated cross-sectional design was used. Data from the Survey of Adolescent Life in Vestmanland was used, including 2533 second year students in 2004 and 2193 second year students in 2012. Results: The proportion of students in the second year of upper secondary school who abstained from drinking alcohol was only marginally greater 2012 than 2004. Non-drinking adolescents presented an antisocial behavior to a lesser extent than their drinking peers, which was applicable to both years. However, to a lesser extent in 2012 than 2004, where Conclusions: Alcohol abstinence among adolescents does not seem to have substantially affected the mental health of adolescents, except concerning anti-social behavior. Lack of health effects among the adolescents in 2012, may instead depend on a decrease in mental health among drinkers, as well as non-drinkers. Keywords: adolescents, alcohol abstinence, antisocial behavior, depression, mental health, psychosomatic symptoms.