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Individuals with substance use disorders exhibit risk-taking behaviors, potentially leading to negative consequences and difficulty maintaining recovery. Non-invasive brain stimulation techniques such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) have yielded mixed effects on risk-taking among healthy controls. Given the importance of risk-taking behaviors among substance-using samples, this study aimed to examine the effects of tDCS on risk-taking among a sample of adults using cannabis. Using a double-blind design, 27 cannabis users [M(SD) age = 32.48 (1.99), 41% female] were randomized, receiving one session of active or sham tDCS over the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). Stimulation parameters closely followed prior studies with anodal right dlPFC and cathodal left dlPFC stimulation. Risk-taking—assessed via a modified Cambridge Gambling Task—was measured before and during tDCS. Delay and probability discounting tasks were assessed before and after stimulation. No significant effects of stimulation on risk-taking behavior were found. However, participants chose the less risky option ~86% of the trials before stimulation which potentially contributed to ceiling effects. These results contradict one prior study showing increased risk-taking among cannabis users following tDCS. There was a significant increase in delay discounting of a $1000 delayed reward during stimulation for the sham group only, but no significant effects for probability discounting. The current study adds to conflicting and inconclusive literature on tDCS and cognition among substance-using samples. In conclusion, results suggest the ineffectiveness of single session dlPFC tDCS using an established stimulation protocol on risk-taking, although ceiling effects at baseline may have also prevented behavior change following tDCS.

Background: Given the highly stressful environment surrounding the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, healthcare workers (HCW) and public safety personnel (PSP) are at an elevated risk for adverse psychological outcomes, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol/substance use problems. As such, the study aimed to identify associations between PTSD severity, related dissociation and emotion dysregulation symptoms, and alcohol/substance use problems among HCWs and PSP. Methods: A subset of data (N =  498 ; HCWs =  299 ; PSP =  199 ) was extracted from a larger study examining psychological variables among Canadian HCWs and PSP during the pandemic. Structural equation modelling assessed associations between PTSD symptoms and alcohol/substance use-related problems with dissociation and emotion dysregulation as mediators. Results: Among HCWs, dissociation fully mediated the relation between PTSD and alcohol-related problems (indirect effect β = .133, p = .03) and emotion dysregulation partially mediated the relation between PTSD and substance-related problems (indirect effect β = .151, p = .046). In PSP, emotion dysregulation fully mediated the relation between PTSD and alcohol-related problems (indirect effects β = .184, p = .005). For substance-related problems among PSP, neither emotion dysregulation nor dissociation (ps >.05) had any effects. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first study examining associations between PTSD severity and alcohol/substance use-related problems via mediating impacts of emotion dysregulation and dissociation among HCWs and PSP during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. These findings highlight dissociation and emotion dysregulation as important therapeutic targets for structured interventions aimed at reducing the burden of PTSD and/or SUD among Canadian HCWs or PSP suffering from the adverse mental health impacts of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Among healthcare workers, dissociation mediated relation between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) severity and alcohol-related problems and emotion dysregulation mediated relation between PTSD severity and substance-related problems. Among public safety personnel, emotion dysregulation mediated relation between PTSD severity and alcohol-related problems. Neither dissociation nor emotion dysregulation mediated relation between PTSD severity and substance-related problems. Results underscore dissociation and emotion dysregulation as potential key therapeutic targets for intervention for healthcare workers and public safety personnel struggling with PTSD and comorbid alcohol/substance use-related problems.

Healthcare workers (HCWs) across the globe have reported symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moral Injury (MI) has been associated with PTSD in military populations, but is not well studied in healthcare contexts. Moral Distress (MD), a related concept, may enhance understandings of MI and its relation to PTSD among HCWs. This study examined the independent and combined impact of MI and MD on PTSD symptoms in Canadian HCWs during the pandemic. HCWs participated in an online survey between February and December 2021, with questions regarding sociodemographics, mental health and trauma history (e.g. MI, MD, PTSD, dissociation, depression, anxiety, stress, childhood adversity). Structural equation modelling was used to analyze the independent and combined impact of MI and MD on PTSD symptoms (including dissociation) among the sample when controlling for sex, age, depression, anxiety, stress, and childhood adversity. A structural equation model independently regressing both MI and MD onto PTSD accounted for 74.4% of the variance in PTSD symptoms. Here, MI was strongly and significantly associated with PTSD symptoms (  = .412,  < .0001) to a higher degree than MD (  = .187,  < .0001), after controlling for age, sex, depression, anxiety, stress and childhood adversity. A model regressing a combined MD and MI construct onto PTSD predicted approximately 87% of the variance in PTSD symptoms (  = .87,  < .0001), with MD/MI strongly and significantly associated with PTSD (  = .813,  < .0001), after controlling for age, sex, depression, anxiety, stress, and childhood adversity. Our results support a relation between MI and PTSD among HCWs and suggest that a combined MD and MI construct is most strongly associated with PTSD symptoms. Further research is needed better understand the mechanisms through which MD/MI are associated with PTSD.

From the 1950s–1990s, parental monitoring was conceptualized and studied as a “socializing mechanism,” driving changes in youth adjustment via several channels. In the past 2 decades, parental monitoring has become re‐conceptualized in many papers as simply one of several ways to obtain parental knowledge, with knowledge replacing monitoring as the construct of central interest. This paper reviews literature showing that this re‐conceptualization is not supported by the extant empirical evidence and is strongly contradicted by theory, because parental monitoring may impact youth adjustment in several plausible ways that do not involve acquiring knowledge. As a result, we recommend the field change how it conceptualizes parental monitoring vis‐a‐vis parental knowledge. Just as we realized parental knowledge doesn't come only from parental monitoring, now we should realize that parental monitoring is not only a way to get parental knowledge. More evidence is needed to determine exactly how much of the effect of monitoring flows through increased knowledge and what other channels are in play.

Many parents in the U.S. have begun using GPS-based digital location tracking (DLT) technologies (smartphones, tags, wearables) to track the whereabouts of children and adolescents. This paper lays the foundation for an emerging science of DLT by performing the first theoretical analysis and review of empirical literature on DLT. First, we develop a framework to clarify how DLT should be conceptualized and measured, how it compares to historical strategies for monitoring youths’ location, and the mechanisms by which it might affect youth adjustment. Second, we review what is known about DLT today, finding that (1) DLT use is now common from childhood to emerging adulthood, with 33–69% of U.S. families using it; (2) there are sociodemographic differences in DLT use; (3) DLT use has significant cross-sectional associations with other parenting behaviors, with family functioning, and with youth adjustment; and (4) there is much speculation, but minimal data, about the new ethical and developmental issues that might arise from DLT use (e.g., privacy invasions). Third, we critique the existing evidence base to outline priorities for future research, emphasizing the need for longitudinal data, better measurement, and moving beyond convenience samples. We conclude that DLT is a new, common, and vastly understudied parenting behavior of clinical and developmental relevance.

Parental monitoring is a construct of longstanding interest in multiple fields—but what is it? This paper makes two contributions to the ongoing debate. First, we review how the published literature has defined and operationalized parental monitoring. We show that the monitoring construct has often been defined in an indirect and nonspecific fashion and measured using instruments that vary widely in conceptual content. The result has been a disjointed empirical literature that cannot accurately be described as the unified study of a single construct nor is achieving a cumulative scientific character. Second, we offer a new formulation of the monitoring construct intended to remedy this situation. We define parental monitoring as the set of all behaviors performed by caregivers with the goal of acquiring information about the youth’s activities and life. We introduce a taxonomy identifying 5 distinct types of monitoring behaviors (Types 1–5), with each behavior varying along five dimensions (performer, target, frequency, context, style). We distinguish parental monitoring from 16 other parenting constructs it is often conflated with and position monitoring as one element within the broader parent-youth monitoring process: the continuous, dyadic interplay between caregivers and youth as they navigate caregivers attempts' to monitor youth. By offering an explicit and detailed conceptualization of monitoring, we aim to foster more rigorous and impactful research in this area.

Parental monitoring and knowledge of their teens’ activities might enable parents to keep teens safe, reducing the risk of potentially traumatic events. This paper investigated that possibility using a large, nationwide sample of 11,880 early adolescent teens followed longitudinally from ages 10–11 to 13–14 years old. At annual assessments, teens completed measures of parental monitoring/knowledge and of potentially traumatic events. Data were analyzed using multilevel models to separate between- and within-family associations. Because within-family associations cannot be explained by the many systematic differences between families with low vs. high monitoring, they comprise more rigorous evidence of a potential causal relationship. We tested both concurrent associations between monitoring/knowledge and PTEs and prospective associations over 12 months. At the between-family level, every tested association was significant ( p  < .001): greater monitoring and/or knowledge predicted fewer PTEs. However, at the within-family level, few associations were significant. Greater knowledge ( p  = 0.005) or combined monitoring/knowledge ( p  = 0.01) predicted fewer PTEs concurrently, but greater monitoring alone did not ( p  = 0.14). No prospective within-family associations were statistically significant. We replicated this pattern of findings in a different set of observations from the same sample, using different measures of each construct. We conclude that most of the apparent association between parental monitoring/knowledge and PTEs is explained by confounding factors, rather than a causal relationship. However, we found some evidence supporting a causal link in models of concurrent associations, suggesting any causal relationship between monitoring/knowledge and PTEs may unfold over shorter timescales.