New Research From Clinical Psychological Science

Read about the latest research published in Clinical Psychological Science:

Coping Styles in Twins Discordant for Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, and Depression

Rebecca G. Fortgang, Christina M. Hultman, and Tyrone D. Cannon

Although schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression are distinct disorders, they share some clinical features. One feature in need of additional study is the similarity — or dissimilarity — in coping style among people with these disorders. Monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs were given a clinical evaluation and were assessed for different types of coping behavior. The researchers found some overlap in coping styles among disorders — for example, all participants showed low levels of productive problem-focused coping and high levels of disengagement coping. Despite these similarities, however, each disorder was associated with a specific and unique profile of coping. Understanding the differences in coping style across disorders could help researchers identify mechanisms involved in the development and maintenance of these disorders in the face of stress.

Childhood Adversity Interacts With Adult Stressful Events to Predict Reduced Likelihood of Smoking Cessation Among Women but Not Men

Philip H. Smith, Lindsay M. S. Oberleitner, Kathryn M. Z. Smith, and Sherry A. McKee

The stress sensitization model suggests that people with a history of childhood adversity are more reactive to stress and are therefore more sensitive to stress later in life — something that puts them at risk for mental health and substance-abuse problems. The researchers studied whether stress sensitization is related to smoking cessation by examining data on childhood adversity, past-year stressful life events, and smoking status and cessation taken from Wave 1 and Wave 2 of the U.S. National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. The researchers found that stressful life events were more strongly related to a lower likelihood of quitting smoking for women who had experienced childhood adversity than they were for women who had not, indicating that the stress sensitization model may be applicable for female — but not male — smokers.

Investigating Progression in Substance-Use Initiation Using a Discrete-Time Multiple Event Process Survival Mixture (MEPSUM) Approach

Leah S. Richmond-Rakerd, Kimberly A. Fleming, and Wendy S. Slutske

Understanding patterns and development of polysubstance use will require the ability to model the occurrence of multiple interrelated events. Unfortunately, many survival analytic methods cannot incorporate more than two substances. In this study, the researchers used a new model — the multiple event process survival mixture (MEPSUM) model — that does not have this limitation. Data on age of alcohol, cannabis, and tobacco initiation; alcohol, cannabis, and nicotine dependence; and measures of delinquency and personality were examined from all four waves of the U.S. National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. The pattern of data suggested a four-class model, in which each group differed mainly in their period of peak initiation risk. Demographic variables, externalizing psychopathology, and personality were found to significantly predict class membership.