How have people who have stopped or reduced their alcohol consumption incorporated this into their social rituals?

Objective: Limiting alcohol consumption is beneficial for health, but can be challenging given the role alcohol plays in the rituals of many social occasions. We examined how people who stopped or reduced their alcohol consumption incorporated this change within their social rituals.

Design: We conducted 16 semi-structured one-on-one interviews with adults aged 25–65 years, who lived in Australia and had stopped or significantly reduced their alcohol consumption in the previous year.

Results: Through thematic analysis, we identified four approaches to adapting drinking rituals: replacing alcohol with other drinks, replacing drinking with other social activities, changing the meaning of drinking rituals and replacing drinking occasions with activities that achieve different goals. These approaches varied in the extent to which they reflected a low or high change in the meanings and/or behaviours attached to the ritual. Approaches involving little change, such as using alternative drinks, were more readily accepted by participants’ social companions than approaches involving more substantial changes such as replacing drinking with activities achieving different goals.

Conclusions: Considering both the role and meaning alcohol carries in social interactions, and how else these might be achieved, may assist people to stop or reduce their drinking, without sacrificing their social lives.     

The association between parent-child conflict and adolescent conduct problems over time: results from a longitudinal adoption study

A handful of prior adoption studies have confirmed that the cross-sectional relationship between child conduct problems and parent-child conflict at least partially originates in the shared environment. However, as the direction of causation between parenting and delinquency remains unclear, this relationship could be better explained by the adolescent's propensity to elicit conflictive parenting, a phenomenon referred to as an evocative gene-environment correlation. In the current study, the authors thus examined the prospective relationship between conduct problems and parent-child conflict in a sample of adoptive families. Participants included 672 adolescents in 405 adoptive families assessed at 2 time points roughly 4 years apart. Results indicated that parent-child conflict predicts the development of conduct problems, whereas conduct problems do not predict increases in parent-child conflict. Such findings suggest that evocative gene-environment correlations are highly unlikely to be an explanation of prior shared environmental effects during adolescence. Moreover, because the adolescents in this study do not share genes with their adoptive parents, the association between conduct problems and parent-child conflict is indicative of shared environmental mediation in particular. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Work‐place bullying: A group processes framework

Work‐place bullying is primarily conceptualized in the literature from an individual or interpersonal perspective with a focus on the victim. The impact of the broader organizational context on bullying has also been considered to a lesser extent. Only a small amount of research exists, however, regarding the group‐level processes that impact on the incidence and maintenance of bullying behaviour. We adopt a group level perspective to theoretically discuss and explain the processes involved in the occurrence and maintenance of work‐place bullying behaviours. Using Social Identity Theory ( Tajfel & Turner, 1986 ) and Social Rules Theory ( Argyle, Henderson, & Furnham, 1985 ), two conceptual frameworks are presented that consider work‐place bullying at the intra‐group and inter‐group levels. Several propositions are put forward regarding the likelihood of bullying in work groups. Suggested directions for empirical research are addressed and practical implications are also discussed.     

The Relationship between Parent-Child Conflict and Adolescent Antisocial Behavior: Confirming Shared Environmental Mediation

Prior studies have indicated that the relationship between parent-child conflict and adolescent antisocial behavior is at least partially shared environmental in origin. However, all available research on this topic (to our knowledge) relies exclusively on parent and/or adolescent informant-reports, both of which are subject to various forms of rater bias. As the presence of significant shared environmental effects has often been attributed to rater bias in the past (Baker et al. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 16:219–235, 2007; Bartels et al. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 42:1351–1359, 2003, Twin Research 7:162–175, 2004; Hewitt et al. Behavior Genetics 22:293–317, 1992), it would be important to confirm that findings of shared environmental mediation persist when even examining (presumably more objective) observer-ratings of these constructs. The current study thus examined the origins of the relationship between parent-child conflict and adolescent acting-out behavior, as measured using both observer-ratings and various informant-reports. Participants included 1,199 adopted and non-adopted adolescents in 610 families from the Sibling Interaction and Behavior Study (SIBS). Results indicated that parent-child conflict consistently predicts acting-out behavior in adopted adolescents, and moreover, that this association is equivalent to that in biologically-related adolescents. Most importantly, these findings did not vary across parent- and adolescent-reported or observer-ratings of parent-child conflict and acting-out behavior. Such findings argue strongly against rater bias as a primary explanation of shared environmental mediation of the association between parent-child conflict and adolescent antisocial behavior.     

Positive affective tone and team performance: The moderating role of collective emotional skills

Research on affect as a group-level phenomenon has shown that over time, individual members within a group become highly similar in their affect (i.e., members experience and display similar emotions and moods), and often become similar enough that the aggregation of individuals’ affect can meaningfully represent the “affective tone” of the group. It is generally assumed that a more positive affective tone will lead to better team performance. We challenge the conclusion that positive affective tone is always good for team performance, suggesting that the relationship between positive affective tone and team performance is subject to moderating influences. Across two studies, we demonstrate that the self-reported collective emotional skills of team members play a crucial role in determining whether positive affective tone is beneficial or detrimental to team performance. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.