Background This study applied a network analysis approach to the study of individual self-reported alcohol-related harms (ARHs) across four waves of data. Methods Data were from a large clustered randomised control trial (N = 12,738) involving 105 schools. Data were collected at 4 time points over 4 academic years (mean age 12.5 [Time 0], 13.5 [T1], 14.5 [T2], and 15.3 years [Time 3]). Data were gathered on the experience of 16 separate ARHs experienced during the previous six months, and these were dichotomised (yes/no). We estimated cross-lagged panel networks for the 16 ARHs, capturing both the auto-regressive relationships (a harm predicting itself at follow up) and the cross-lagged relationships (a harm predicting another harm at follow-up) across the study (T0 → T1; T1 → T2; T2 →T3). Results Exposure to all ARHs increased with age. However, the most serious ARHs (e.g., getting in trouble with the police because of your drinking) remained relatively rare, even at age 15. Actively planning to get drunk, coupled with an inability to control levels of intoxication (drinking more than planned) appeared central to each network, facilitating the emergence of all other ARHs. While the prevalence of ARHs increased with age, network complexity declined, and networks becoming more stable. Conclusions Interventions aimed at improving the capacity to self-regulate alcohol consumption, and actively challenging the planning of drunken episodes, may be pivotal in reducing the emergence of both acute and chronic ARHs in adolescence.

Objective: To longitudinally estimate the prevalence and predictors of potentially morally injurious events (PMIEs) and posttraumatic embitterment disorder (PTED) and in U.K. health and social care workers (HSCWs) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, to investigate the mechanism by which PMIEs increase embitterment by lowering personal belief in procedural justice, that is, the belief that they experience fair processes. Method: An online longitudinal survey was hosted on Qualtrics between September-October 2020 and September-November 2021. Using Prolific, 400 HSCWs aged 18 or above and working in the United Kingdom during the pandemic were recruited. PMIEs were assessed using the Moral Injury Events Scale, and PTED was assessed using the PTED self-rating scale. Potential predictors were measured using surveys of exposure to occupational stressors, optimism, pessimism, self-esteem, resilient coping style, consideration of future consequences, and personal just world beliefs. Results: Seventy-one percent of participants experienced at least one COVID-related PMIE and 20% displayed clinically relevant signs of PTED at Time 2 in 2021. Exposure to occupational stressors increased the risk of experiencing PMIEs and PTED, whereas personal belief in a procedurally just world protected against transgressions by others and betrayal PMIEs. Self-esteem was protective, and a resilient coping style was a risk for experiencing betrayal. PMIEs increased embitterment by lowering personal belief in procedural justice over a 12-month period. Conclusions: PMIEs and PTED are being experienced by U.K. HSCWs in 2020 and 2021, particularly in those exposed to work-related stressors. Exposure to PMIEs increases the risk of embitterment by lowering belief in procedural justice.

Time attitudes refer to the way in which individuals feel about the past, present, and future and are associated with a range of health outcomes. In the present study, we examined the relationship between time attitudes and self-rated health, adjusted for a range of health indicators, sex, and a proxy for socio-economic status. Participants were school children (N = 3447; 58.8 % female) in the United Kingdom. Time attitudes scores were used to yield clusters, which were entered as factors in Multinomial Logistic Regression models, along with sex and free school meal entitlement (yes/no). Self-rated health was the dependent variable, and other health indicators were entered as covariates. Results showed that most health measures were significantly related to self-rated health. Higher self-rated health was also significantly associated with being male and having higher socio-economic status. Time attitudes clusters explained variance in self-rated health beyond that explained by health-related variables. The results add to a growing literature on a relationship between time attitudes and health outcomes. Based on existing work, it is suggested that interventions focused on time attitudes might be a viable way of promoting health behaviours. However, investigating this claim will require future longitudinal, behaviour change studies.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS:Within many alcohol prevention interventions, changes in alcohol-related attitudes (ARA) are often proposed as precursors to changes in drinking behaviour. This study aimed to measure the longitudinal relationship between ARA and behaviour during the implementation of a large-scale prevention trial. DESIGN AND SETTING:This study was a two-arm school-based clustered randomized controlled trial. A total of 105 schools in Northern Ireland and Scotland participated in the Steps Towards Alcohol Misuse Prevention Programme (STAMPP) Trial. PARTICIPANTS:A sample of 12 738 pupils (50% female; mean age = 12.5 years at baseline) self-completed questionnaires on four occasions (T1-T4). The final data sweep (T4) was 33 months post baseline. MEASUREMENTS:Individual assessments of ARA and heavy episodic drinking (HED) were made at each time-point. Additional covariates included location, school type, school socio-economic status and intervention arm. Estimated models examined the within-individual autoregressive and cross-lagged effects between ARA and HED across the four time-points (Bayes estimator). FINDINGS:All autoregressive effects were statistically significant for both ARA and HED across all time-points. Past ARA predicted future ARA [e.g. ARAT1 → ARAT2 = 0.071, credibility interval (CI) = 0.043-0.099, P < 0.001, one-tailed]. Similarly, past HED predicated future HED (e.g. HEDT1 → HEDT2 = 0.303, CI = 0.222-0.382, P < 0.001, one-tailed). Autoregressive effects for HED were larger than those for ARA at all time-points. In the cross-lagged effects, past HED statistically significantly predicted more positive ARA in the future (e.g. HEDT2 → ARAT3 = 0.125, CI = 0.078-0.173, P < 0.001, one tailed) except for the initial T1-T2 path. In contrast, past ARA did not predict future HED across any time-points. CONCLUSIONS:Changes in alcohol-related attitudes were not a precursor to changes in heavy episodic drinking within the Steps Towards Alcohol Misuse Prevention Programme (STAMPP) Trial in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Rather, alcohol-related attitudes were more likely to reflect prior drinking status than predict future status. Heavy episodic drinking status appears to have a greater impact on future alcohol attitudes than attitudes do on future heavy episodic drinking.

Time attitudes indicate how individuals feel about the past, present, and future. A growing body of research has demonstrated that scores on the Adolescent and Adult Time Inventory-Time Attitudes Scale relate meaningfully to a variety of measures of well-being and psychiatric symptomatology. To date, no study has examined how (if at all) Time Attitudes scores relate to psychiatric disorder. The present study used an existing clinical cohort (N = 68) and assessed the associations among time attitudes, lifetime disorder, and a retrospective measure of childhood trauma. Preliminary analyses revealed that mean scores of the six time attitudes in the present study did not differ substantially from scores reported in a recent meta-analysis. Correlations between time attitude scores and retrospective trauma scores were particularly large for past negative and past positive. Individuals with no past or current disorder reported substantially higher positive attitudes and substantially lower negative attitudes than those without a disorder across all three time periods with interpretable effect sizes. Finally, past negative time attitudes scores were significantly associated with lifetime mood or anxiety disorder, prior to adjustment for scores on self-reported childhood trauma. These results suggest that time attitudes could be a variable of consequence beyond feelings of general well-being and beyond psychiatric symptoms. More studies with larger sample sizes are required in order to examine the relationship between time attitudes and psychiatric disorder.

This study assessed the feasibility of a multi-domain measure of the occurrence, impact, and timing of childhood/adolescent psychological adversity exposure, the Subjective Impact and Timing of Adversity Scale (SITA). Participants were from among those who had previously participated in two waves of data collection when aged approximately 14 and 21 years. Internal consistency estimates at both online and interview stages were acceptable for all SITA domains (with the exception of parental loss). SITA domain scores correlated meaningfully with scores on other scales and psychological measures, supporting convergent validity. Those with lifetime psychiatric diagnoses scored significantly higher on SITA domains than those not meeting diagnostic threshold. There was evidence of the importance of both the subjective impact and timing of adversity with regard to psychiatric diagnoses. The study demonstrates the viability of the SITA; however, further studies are required to substantiate these findings in larger samples.

INTRODUCTION:The World Health Organisation recommends that children and adolescents engage in at least 60 min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day. Previous research has shown that physical activity is related to other constructs such as mental well-being and self-rated health. This study examined the inter-relatedness of these constructs in Northern Irish school children.METHODS:This study was a secondary analysis of data gathered as part of a longitudinal study. Participants were n = 1791 adolescents in their final years of secondary (high) school (age range 15-18; female = 64.6%). Data were gathered on three occasions over a 2-year period on self-rated health, physical activity, mental well-being, heavy episodic drinking, lifetime smoking, psychological and somatic symptoms, as well as a range of socio-demographic measures.RESULTS:Descriptive results showed extremely low levels of self-reported physical activity within the past week, with <6% of the sample attaining the WHO guidelines at each wave of data collection. There were significant gender differences on all variables assessed. Results further showed a small-sized relationship (statistically significant for girls only) between physical activity and mental well-being. There was also a small-sized relationship between physical activity and self-rated health. Notably, effect sizes for the relationship between self-rated health and both physical activity and mental well-being were higher. In terms of socio-demographic predictors of lower physical activity, being female, lifetime cigarette smoking, and higher somatic and psychological symptoms were all statistically significant factors.CONCLUSION:Self-rated health emerged as the most important predictor of physical activity among adolescents.

Research into temporal psychology, and in particular its relationship with health behaviors, has grown exponentially in recent years. Accordingly, studies have shown that how individuals think and feel about the past, present, and future, is significantly related to alcohol-use behaviors. This has been shown to be particularly true where studies have applied person-centered analyses rather than just bivariate analyses. The present study sought to examine the relationship between scores on one temporal psychology measure (The Domain-Specific Consideration of Future Consequences [CFC] scale) and alcohol use behaviors in a large sample of adolescents in the United Kingdom (N = 2,199; 42.4% female). Scores on the CFC measure were operationalized both domain-specifically, and by means of cluster analyses. In bivariate analyses, reduced likelihood of past month consumption of a full drink and Heavy Episodic Drinking were significantly associated with CFC-scores, but did not appear to be domain-specific. In unadjusted analyses, CFC cluster membership was significantly related to alcohol use variables. However, when adjusted for sex, location, and sensation seeking, the result for Heavy Episodic Drinking became non-significant. Results are discussed in the context of current temporal psychology.

The number of ways in which Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) scores are operationalized has increased, and scores have begun to be used in clinical settings. A recent systematic review outlined how one operationalization, the deviation from a balanced time perspective (DBTP), was significantly associated with a range of outcomes. The review called for further investigation into the DBTP approach. Subsequently, a revised DBTP metric, the DBTP-R has been suggested. Using data from British, American, Japanese, and Slovenian samples, we asked several questions in the current study. First, we examined the structural validity of ZTPI scores using both traditional and auto-regressive approaches to see if context affects scoring. Consistent with the extant literature, results revealed serious problems with overall model fit for ZTPI scores. Then, we investigated the relationship between the DBTP and DBTP-R operationalizations of ZTPI scores and scores on a range of criterion variables. Although, broadly speaking, a DBTP score was significantly related to a range of other measures (adjusted for age and sex), results varied by sample and by outcome. DBTP-R models explained slightly more variance than DBTP models, and standardized beta values suggested that DBTP-R scores relate to criterion variables slightly more strongly than DBTP scores.

This study aimed to systematically review the evidence for an association between adversity experienced in childhood (≤ 17 years old), and the diagnosis of psychiatric disorder in adulthood. Electronic databases (Scopus, Medline (for Ovid), EMBASE, and PsychINFO) were searched for peer-reviewed, longitudinal cohort studies examining child or adolescent exposure to adversity, and adult-diagnosed depression, anxiety, psychotic disorder, eating disorders, substance abuse disorder, illness anxiety disorder, somatoform disorder, or personality disorder. A total of 39 manuscripts were retained. Results revealed a significant association between the following childhood exposures and adult mental disorder (1.24 ≤ Odds ratios ≤ 2.09): bullying (victimhood, and frequency); emotional abuse; neglect; physical abuse; parental loss; and general maltreatment (unspecified and/or multiple adversity exposure). There were opposing results for being a victim and perpetrator of bullying, and the result for sexual abuse was not statistically significant. There was some evidence of a dose-response relationship with those exposed to multiple forms of maltreatment having more two and a half times odds of developing a mental disorder (Odds ratio = 2.59). The result for sexual abuse is likely an artefact of the prospective assessment of this adversity. In summary, there was strong evidence of an association between childhood adversity and later mental illness, and this supports previously reported meta-analyses. The evidence suggests that childhood and adolescence is an important time for risk for later mental illness, and an important period in which to focus intervention strategies for those known to have been exposed to adversity, particularly multiple adversities.

Borderline Personality Disorder is a severe psychiatric disorder with debilitating consequences. Screening for the disorder is problematic as symptoms overlap with other psychiatric disorders. The McLean Screening Instrument (MSI) assesses endorsement (yes/no) of 10 symptoms, with a cut-off of seven indicating potential caseness. Participants were (N = 68) from an established clinical cohort who completed a structured clinical interview, the MSI, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, and the Adolescent and Adult Time Attitudes Scale. A proportion (N = 20) also completed a follow-up interview examining their rationale for endorsing MSI items. Total number of MSI items endorsed was meaningfully related to scores on emotional neglect and negative time attitudes. There was substantive overlap between MSI threshold (≥7 items) and lifetime diagnosis of a mental disorder. The stated rationale for endorsing MSI items, was less indicative of personality trait, and was related more to particular developmental periods, one-off episodes, and life-contexts. Additionally, participants conflated constructs such as emptiness with loneliness, and moodiness with general emotionality. Those meeting MSI threshold recalled more childhood emotional neglect, and were more negative about all time periods. It is apparent that scoring of the MSI is driven by prevailing life circumstances as much as enduring personality traits.

A number of recent studies have demonstrated that adolescents consider the future consequences (CFC) of behaviours domain-specifically. In other words, rather than being a “future orientated person,” it appears that the orientation varies within individuals, depending on the domain in question. The present study matched data gathered in Scottish school children (N = 451) on consideration of four future domains (Health and Well-being, Finances, Academics, and Global Warming) with sociodemographic and academic attainment data provided by Local Government. Results showed that deprivation was significantly related to academic attainment, and that this relationship was partially mediated by the combined effects of academic self-efficacy and on consideration of future consequences—academic. Further, domain specificity was supported by the fact that scores for consideration of future consequences—health and well-being,—finance, and—global warming did not partially mediate the deprivation-attainment relationship. The study identifies two variables which may contribute to closing the poverty-related attainment gap.

Objective To estimate the prevalence and predictors of morally injurious events (MIEs) and post-traumatic embitterment disorder (PTED) in UK health and social care professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting September–October 2020 in the UK. Online survey hosted on Qualtrics, and recruited through Prolific. Participants 400 health and social care workers, aged 18 or above and living and working in the UK during the pandemic. Main outcome measures MIEs were assessed using the Moral Injury Events Scale and PTED was assessed using the PTED self-rating scale. Potential predictors were measured using surveys of exposure to occupational stressors, optimism, self-esteem, resilient coping style, consideration of future consequences and personal belief in a just world. Results 19% of participants displayed clinical levels of PTED, and 73% experienced at least one COVID-related MIE. Exposure to occupational stressors increased the risk of experiencing PTED and MIEs, whereas personal belief in a procedurally just world, which is the belief that they experienced fair processes, was a protective mechanism. Conclusions MIEs and PTED are being experienced by UK health and social care professionals, particularly in those exposed to work-related stressors.

Closing the poverty-related attainment gap in schoolchildren is a stated priority for the Scottish Government. In the present study, we examine the poverty-related attainment gap in Glasgow, a city wherein more than half of the 100 most deprived areas in Scotland are to be found. Further, we examine the potential mediating role of school attendance, academic self-efficacy, and future time attitudes (positive and negative) in the relationship between socio-economic status and academic attainment. Participants (N = 3,812) were from 30 High schools in the Glasgow Local Authority area. In the first instance, we examined the mediating role of both academic self-efficacy and school attendance. Then, in a subsample, we further examined the additional potential of both positive and negative time attitudes to mediate this relationship. Results of Study 1 support the combined partially mediating effect of both academic self-efficacy and higher school attendance on the poverty-attainment relationship. Results of Study 2 show that these variables fully mediate the poverty-attainment relationship, and further evidence a direct effect of both positive and negative time attitudes on attainment. The direct effects of time attitudes on attainment suggest that this construct may be viable in addressing the poverty-related attainment gap across the social spectrum.

BACKGROUND:Exposure to childhood adversity has been linked to long-term negative mental health consequences in adulthood. PURPOSE:This review examined the association between exposure to the death of a family member (i.e., parent or sibling) during childhood or adolescence and the subsequent diagnosis of a substance use disorder. METHODS:Electronic databases (Scopus, Medline (for Ovid), EMBASE, and PsychINFO) were searched for cohort and case-control studies in the English language. Studies were retained if it was demonstrable that exposure to death occurred before age 18, and that disorder was diagnosed subsequently. Sensitivity analyses were performed for the meta-analysis, and study quality assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. RESULTS:Nine studies, seven cohort and two case-control, were retained. Due to differential metrics (hazard ratios [HRs] versus odds/risk ratios [ORs/RRs]), only one meta-analysis was possible. Individuals experiencing familial death had 1.42 (95% CI = 0.96, 2.09) times the odds of developing a substance use disorder compared to those non-exposed. Where there was a statistically significant effect in other studies, these were mostly studies using National Registers (1.4 ≤ HR ≤ 2.51). LIMITATIONS:Meta-analysis options were limited by the variety of study designs. CONCLUSIONS:Evidence for a significant association between familial death and subsequent disorder appears to be an artefact of the study design. Implications of key findings. Further studies are required to better understand and estimate the association between familial death and substance use disorders. Registration and funding. The review was pre-registered (PROSPERO Reg No: CRD42020192892) and funded by the Irish Research Council (COALESCE/2019/61).

BACKGROUND:Alcohol use and alcohol-related harm (ARH) among adolescents places a substantial burden on health, and public services more generally. To date, attempts to intervene at a universal level have yielded results varying from iatrogenic to null, although some skill-enhancing universal interventions have successfully impacted drinking behaviors. One such intervention is SHAHRP. The present study is a secondary analysis of data from the STAMPP Trial, providing new, and more nuanced findings.METHODS:A total of 13,914 adolescents (41.7% female) participated in this cRCT where schools were randomly assigned to a control or intervention group. Growth mixture modelling was used to identify trajectory classes from baseline through third follow-up (+33 months) of adolescents on heavy episodic drinking (HED) and ARH. Extracted classes were related to school intervention participation using multinomial logistic regression.RESULTS:Five trajectory classes of the HED and ARH composite were identified: Low (62%), Late Onset (16%), Early Onset (13%), Delayed Onset (7%), and Unstable (3%). The intervention was most strongly related to Late Onset (OR = 0.50, 95%CI [0.25, 1.01]) and Delayed Onset (OR = 0.55, 95%CI [0.26, 1.16]), although not statistically significant. With classes constructed with ARH only, the Delayed Onset class was significantly related to the intervention (OR = 0.60, 95%CI [0.43, 0.84]).CONCLUSIONS:These results support those previously reported on the STAMPP Trial and provide a more nuanced insight into the effects of the intervention.

Time perspective research examines the way in which thoughts and/or feelings about the past, present, and future influence behavior, and deviation from a balanced time perspective (DBTP) has been suggested to be functionally disadvantageous. Recently a revised formula (DBTP-r) was suggested for the derivation of DBTP scores. The present study examined the relationship between self-reported alcohol use and both symptoms of anxiety and depression, with scores on the DBTP and the DBTP-r. Participants (N = 940, 48.09% Male) were recruited as part of a University project and completed the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory. In analyses adjusted for age and sex, DBTP and DBTP-r performed similarly in relation to mental health symptomatology, while only DBTP-r was significantly related to alcohol use. In more adjusted models, more variance was explained in DBTP-r models although neither DBTP score was significantly related to either alcohol use or symptomatology scores when they were operationalised categorically. DBTP-r appears to discriminate better than DBTP, with the caveat that this is the first study to compare them.

BACKGROUND:The parental rules about alcohol questionnaire (Van der Vorst et al., 2005, 2006) uses 10 items to assess how strictly adolescents believe the rules set by their parents about drinking are. An increasing body of literature has attested to the importance of rule setting in the prevention of problematic alcohol use among adolescents. A recent study proposed a two-factor solution in place of the hypothesized unidimensional one, with factors assessing non-normative, and normative rules.METHODS:The present study used five waves of data to examine the structure of the scale, and how well it relates to a measure of heavy episodic drinking (HED). Participants in Waves one to four {10,954-9,383} were substantively more numerous than those at wave five (N = 2,332).RESULTS:Confirmatory Factor Analyses did not support either the ten-item hypothesized model, nor the proposed two-factor solution. Results of exploratory factor analyses all pointed to a one factor solution. Using Modification Indices, we obtained a good-fitting, five-item unidimensional model in Waves one to four. At wave five, a good fitting unidimensional model was obtained with the dropping of a further item. Scores on this shortened scale were internally consistent, correlated highly with scores on the original ten-item version, and correlated to a similar degree as the original 10-item measure, with scores on a HED measure.CONCLUSION:Further work is required in assessing the properties of this scale across cultures and samples before definitively determining that two factors best represent parental rules.

To systematically review evidence for an association between parental death in childhood, and the subsequent development of an anxiety, affective or psychotic disorder.