A Review of Lac, Crano, Berger, and Alvaro - Article Example

A Review of Lac, Crano, Berger, and Alvaro Introduction Lac, Crano, Berger & Alvaro is an attempt by its to model how bonds between young adults and their peers and parents respectively explain risky or resilient behaviours. The authors choose to look at underage drinking in particular, given its pervasiveness as a widespread public health issue on which they could collect enough behavioural and attitudinal data. By using underage adult alcohol consumption, the authors are able to get to answers to theoretical questions about the contrasting role of peer and maternal bonds in outcomes for children. The article endeavours to discover the relationship between two theoretical frameworks, which are attachment theory and theory of planned behaviour (TPB), and the authors claim to find a predictive model that is both important to the theory of behaviour as well as the practice of preventing underage alcoholism. Ultimately, the model and its quantitative groundwork are both successful and useful for informing researchers and practitioners on the factors underlying young adults’ decision-making; however, there are a few flaws and opportunities one should note before fully committing to the authors’ conclusions. Summary The authors’ intention in developing this study was explicitly aimed at answering the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)’s call in 2006 to examine underage drinking in terms of developmental forces (including, but not limited to, peer and family relationships) contribute as risk or resilience factors to underage alcohol consumption. In other words, the authors intend to provide the research foundation for studies of how parental attachment can serve as a protective mechanism against risky behaviours. In pursuit of those overall objectives, the authors create a predictive model of interpersonal relationships in a multivariate framework using existing theoretical foundations. Taking into account the literature review that serves as the basis for this study and the results of their statistical analysis, the authors draw real-life conclusions from the research. The text is organized in a way to support that effort by starting with the big picture, including introducing the idea that the goal of parenting is to help children develop the skills needed to be a competent adult, which leads to an introduction to attachment theory and TPB as two leading models for explaining why people behave a certain way. For attachment theory, it is because human beings have an intrinsic need to be accepted by others (either peers or parents); for TPB, it is due to the normative influence of others who are important to the subject. Both attachment theory and TPB are applied to the problem of underage drinking, which leads the authors to hypothesize that secure peer attachment should foster pro-alcohol beliefs. The authors then describe their subject pool as well as their measurements, which include questionnaire items dealing with peer attachment, maternal attachment, attitudes, intentions, and so on. From the collected responses of their 351 complete participants, the authors performed factor analyses and other statistical tests to develop their final predictive model that pulls together both attachment theory and TPB. Attachment theory and TPB add weight to the article’s arguments because the two frameworks are well-established in the behavioural research literature. As the authors note, many studies have applied both attachment theory and TPB to explain many different kinds of behaviours in young people. As an extension of that line of research, Lac, Crano, Berger & Alvaro (2013) use both theories to develop a hypothesis that young people who rate high on their attachment or their assessment of the normative importance of their peers will have pro-alcohol attitudes, which will then lead to greater consumption, despite being underage. The intuitiveness of their hypothesis adds to its face validity. From the predictive model they develop, the authors note the limitations and the generalizable conclusions from their study. In the end, the study was limited by the use of self-report questionnaires, which is made problematic by the potential for socially desirable recording. Especially in the context of looking at how peer- and parent-normative assessments affect decision-making, it seems paradoxical that the authors would rely on a measure that may ultimately fall victim to the same decision-making that leads to pro-alcohol thoughts and risky behaviours. However, the authors make note that it is the best available measure, as compared to using breathalysers or asking college students about the ethanol content of beverages, and considering the legal implications of underage drinking. The authors conclude from the study that maternal bonds play a shielding role for young adults, and that a strong attachment bond to mothers can provide protection against problematic behaviours in young adults. Also, parents can be trained to adopt such protective practices in support of attachment theory. Utilizing both well-established theories and a rigorous statistical framework, the authors seem to be confident in the idea that their research should provide a foundation for further research applying either their model or some derivative of it to other problematic behaviours for young adults. Evaluation The introduction of Lac, Crano, Berger & Alvaro (2013) is thorough in addressing the subject at hand and providing enough context to both attachment theory and TPB in order to fully bring its audience up-to-speed on the latest research in the field. Based on the introduction, one can tell that the article is not meant to forge new research directions or a change to the underlying theory, but instead to apply the two theories to a new context. Given that intention, one can ask whether the application of attachment theory to explain underage drinking-related problems is an original idea. For example, McNally, Palfai, Levin, and Moore (2003) is not cited by the authors, even though it explores the relationship between insecure attachment styles and risky drinking behaviours among young people. Additionally, Wagenaar and Perry (1994) reviews many different theories concerning alcohol use among youths and attempts to integrate them into a single explanatory model, very similar to the goal of Lac, Crano, Berger & Alvaro (2013). Also notably similar is the fact that Wagenaar and Perry (1994) integrate developmental theories into their explanatory model in a way that is highly reflective of the attempt to pull attachment theory and TPB into a single model. But aside from a potential lack of originality in the overall goal of the article, the introduction is quite effective at informing and laying out the purpose of the article from the perspective of defining its goals, looking at its theoretical support, and describing the problem of underage drinking. The introduction also is an opportunity for the authors to describe their hypothesis, which they use to contrast the roles of peer and parental influence. In other words, as young adults internalize peer belief systems, the protective influence provided by attachment to parents is less important; however, secure maternal attachment is taken to be inversely predictive of pro-alcohol beliefs, thus enabling them to better manage their impulses. The hypothesis is quite clear when it comes to young adults who have established strong attachments to their peers (more pro-alcohol beliefs) as well as those who have established strong attachments to their parents (less pro-alcohol beliefs); however, it does not necessarily provide clear guidance on grey areas between those two extremes. Perhaps personality measures would predict a certain individual would have weak bonds with both peers and parents and in that case, would the model predict more pro-alcohol beliefs or less? Also, for an individual who forms strong bonds both with peers and parents, does the model predict more pro-alcohol beliefs or less? The danger of creating an overly simplistic, overgeneralized model is inherent in the study even from the hypothesis stage. The methodology for collecting responses was quite thorough, and it involved 396 participants from the 18 to 20 year-old age group, of which only 351 provided complete responses throughout the study period. When it comes to generalizing the results of a study, researchers should hope that their participant pool is representative of the general population, which raises concerns about males only making up a quarter of the sample. Following the general population, males should make up roughly one-half of any representative sample, and the gender differences between male and female when it comes to peer and maternal attachment are quite clear in terms of the valence of those connections. The authors only explore gender differences to the extent that completion of the study did not vary by demographic factors. However, far more interesting, would have been to point readers in the direction of research dealing with the differences in attachment styles between male and female young adults, and to relate that research to the study’s results. Since each of the components of the authors’ questionnaire had high levels of reliability, it seems the researchers collected the right data to support their model. However, additional explanatory factors such as past alcohol use or tendency toward alcoholic behaviours, may have been important to collect but were missed when it came to analysing the participants’ pro-alcohol beliefs. As the authors note in their section on the limitations of their research, there is a potential role for alcohol addictive behaviours to influence the results. While the percentage of individuals in the same who were alcoholics was likely low, seeing the relationship of attitudes between peer-bonded participants and the attitudes of alcoholics would have been instructive toward the authors’ goals of developing a framework for explaining how pro-alcohol attitudes develop and how a social structure goes about reducing them. Similar, data collection seems to have missed an opportunity to ask about how participants’ use of alcohol in the past has influenced their current behaviours. By focusing only on the present, the study’s data collection may have missed out on a rich background of information that adds to the explanation of variance between the development of attitudes as either pro-alcohol or against alcohol. After performing a confirmatory factor analysis showing that the attachment theory and TPB scales were construct valid measures, the authors discuss the relationship between factors from attachment theory and TPB. After eliminating other potential models, the authors found that their proposed model had reasonable statistical significance. The final chi-square value of their predictive model (X2(155) = 344.00, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.97, NNFI = 0.96, SRMR = 0.05) is a favourable result, and it is an appropriate test for assessing the goodness of fit of a particular model. While other statistical tests might have been helpful in understanding the multivariate relationship between the attachment and TPB scales, the chi-square test provided the best overall assessment of the results in explaining the model. However, the authors still had to test for indirect effects could be influencing the results. By conducting tests of endogenous factors (all adding up to total effects), the authors added support to the meditational processes in their model in finding them to be statistically significant. The authors connect these results back to the literature review conducted in the article’s introduction. Independent of peer bonds, secure maternal bonds seemed to categorically reduce intentions and behaviours related to alcohol use among underage adults, which is consistent with the authors’ hypothesis. The authors suggest that perhaps the resiliency provided by strong maternal bonds shows up with regard to delayed gratification and the ability to effectively manage one’s impulses, which are correlates of success in academics and a positive transition to the university. One of the dangers of using correlational measures is in figuring out whether the measure one is using is actually the underlying cause, and it may appear in this case as well. The problem arises with respect to figuring out whether developmental patterns at a university are determining one’s ability to be successful in adjusting to college life (without developing risky behaviours) or whether more fundamental personality differences (that explain both attachment styles, approaches to norms, and abilities to transition to university life) are at play. Accordingly, if the answer is that attachment styles and approaches to norms are determined by underlying factors, the authors’ recommendations on how to protect young adults from risky behaviours will no longer be valid, since they would only be addressing the effect, rather than the cause. Lac, Crano, Berger & Alvaro (2013) is a study of the relationship between attachment theory and theory of planned behaviour that produces a predictive model to help identify the root causes of underage drinking. From the model, the authors recommend certain principles to researchers and practitioners on potential steps to reduce the likelihood of underage drinking among young adults. The authors use rigorous and sufficient statistical analysis to demonstrate the validity of their model, but the underlying assumptions made in the process make it difficult to fully buy into the generalizable conclusions being proposed. For example, even though approaches to norms may be secondary to attachment styles, one can still seek even more fundamental layers of explanation for why certain people attach to their peers and to their parents in different ways, which may actually shed light on behavioural outcomes as well as pro-alcohol attitudes. While Lac, Crano, Berger & Alvaro (2013) offers a thorough addition to the literature on behavioural science for young adults, it is more limited in its use than its authors would like to believe. References Lac, A., Crano, W., Berger, D., & Alvaro, E. (2013). Attachment theory and theory of planned behavior: An integrative model predicting underage drinking. Developmental Psychology, 49, 1570-1590. doi:10.1037/a0030728 McNally, A., Palfai, T., Levine, R., & Moore, B. (2003). Attachment dimensions and drinking-related problems among young adults: The mediational role of coping motives. Addictive Behaviors, 28, 1115–1127. doi:10.1016/S0306-4603(02)00224-1 Wagenaar, A., & Perry, C. (1994). Community strategies for the reduction of youth drinking: Theory and application. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 4, 319-345. doi:10.1207/s15327795jra0402_8 Read More