Banning Friendships Can Backfire: Moms Who ‘Meddle’ Make Bad Behavior Worse

Bad behavior often occurs away from home, leading parents to blame and limit contact with peers. However, a new study shows that banning friendships can backfire, worsening behavior instead of improving it.

People with Severe Alcohol Use Disorder May Form and Recall Social Memories Differently

People with severe alcohol use disorder tended to have greater difficulty forming new social memories. And, while they had better immediate recall of positive than negative social cues, for longer-term memories, they tended to remember more negative experiences than positive ones.

K-12 Education Expert Available to Discuss Losses in Social Skills and Advice for Teachers and Parents

Carleton Brown, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Services of The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), will be available to provide information on how teachers and parents can support their K-12 students and…

The positive reinforcement of social networking sites can increase behaviors like binge drinking

Social-media sites – for example, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook – that provide clear networking functions such as liking, sharing, commenting, and personal messaging with other users or “followers” are popular among youth. They have also become a prime milieu for the socialization of young people’s alcohol use. These results and others will be shared at the 44th annual scientific meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA), which will be held virtually this year from the 19th – 23rd of June 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Why Did You Drink Yesterday?” Young Adults’ Drinking Intensity is Associated with Their Motives for Drinking on that Day

The amount of alcohol an individual consumes on a given day, and the consequences of that drinking, vary according to their motives for drinking. The findings are from a study among young adults reported in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. ‘High-intensity’ drinking, defined as 8+ drinks for women or 10+ drinks for men (i.e. twice the binge-drinking threshold), is a particularly risky level of drinking that is common among young adults. Because individuals may engage in high-intensity drinking on some days but not others, identifying risk factors for high-intensity drinking on a given day is critical for developing real-time interventions to reduce harm. Drinking motives – a person’s reasons for using alcohol – are known to be linked to alcohol use at a particular time, and also vary across drinking days. Certain motives, for example those related to enjoying the feeling of intoxication or enhancing the fun of a gathering, have been previously linked to higher alcohol con

Decreases in Exercise Closely Linked with Higher Rates of Depression during the Pandemic

Exercise has long-been recommended as a cognitive-behavioral therapy for patients of depression, yet new evidence from the University of California of San Diego suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic changed the nature of the relationship between physical activity and mental health.

Break Out of Your Social Circle to Combat Impostor Syndrome, UNLV Study Finds

You’ve probably felt it before. As a new hiree. In a challenging class. Or while making small talk with really, really smart people. Many can relate to impostor syndrome — a psychological phenomenon in which a person feels that they are a fraud in a network of successful individuals, despite being well-experienced and qualified in the field.