Abstract
Interpersonal stress is a significant determinant of relapse following treatment for Alcohol Use Disorders (AUDs), but there remains little specific information about the mechanisms underlying the relationship between interpersonal stress and AUD relapse. Application of Social Action Theory provides one new approach to advancing knowledge about the interpersonal stress-relapse relationship. Especially relevant are the Social Action Theory construct of social-emotional competence, with its accompanying measurement procedures of the Social Competence Interview and the Anger Transcendence Challenge. This study evaluated the use of the Social Competence Interview and Anger Transcendence Challenge in a sample of 63 men and women in AUD intensive outpatient treatment. The results support the use of the Social Competence Interview and the Anger Transcendence Challenge with an adult AUD clinical sample, so that these measures may help to advance knowledge about the relationship between interpersonal stress and alcohol relapse.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text rev.). Washington, DC: Author.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: W. H. Freeman.
Barefoot, J. C., Dahlstrom, W. G., & Williams, R. B., Jr. (1983). Hostility, CHD incidence, and total mortality: A 25-year follow-up study of 255 physicians. Psychosomatic Medicine, 45, 59–63.
Buss, A. H., & Perry, M. (1992). The aggression questionnaire. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 452–459. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.63.3.452.
Carroll, K. M. (1996). Relapse prevention as a psychosocial treatment: A review of controlled clinical trials. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 4, 46–54. doi:10.1037/1064-1297.4.1.46.
Chen, E., Matthews, K. A., Salomon, K., & Ewart, C. K. (2002). Cardiovascular reactivity during social and nonsocial stressors: Do children’s personal goals and expressive skills matter? Health Psychology, 21, 16–24. doi:10.1037/0278-6133.21.1.16.
Cook, W. W., & Medley, D. M. (1954). Proposed hostility and pharisaic-virtue scales for the MMPI. The Journal of Applied Psychology, 38, 414–418. doi:10.1037/h0060667.
Curbow, B., McDonnell, K. A., Dreyling, E., Hall, A., Fitzgerald, S., & Ewart, C. K. (2005). Assessing cardiovascular reactivity in working women with the social competence interview. Women and Health, 41, 51–68. doi:10.1300/J013v41n01_04.
Elder, G. J., Stoeckel, N. J., Kadziolka, M. J., Ditmar, M. M., Ewart, C. K., & Jorgensen, R. S. (2008). Agonistic and transcendent strivings predict ambulatory blood pressure during social interactions in urban adolescents, Sixty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society. Baltimore, MD: American Psychosomatic Society (Published Abstract available at http://www.psychosomatic.org/events/events_past_meetings.htm). Accessed 10 Sept 2008.
Ewart, C. K. (1991). Social action theory for a public health psychology. The American Psychologist, 46, 931–946. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.46.9.931.
Ewart, C. K. (1994). Nonshared environments and heart disease risk: Concepts and data for a model of coronary-prone behavior. In E. M. Hetherington, D. Reiss, & R. Plomin (Eds.), Separate social worlds of siblings: The impact of nonshared environment on development (pp. 175–203). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Ewart, C. K. (2004). Social environments, agonistic stress, and elevated blood pressure in urban youth. In R. Portman, J. Sorof, & J. Ingelfinger (Eds.), Pediatric hypertension (pp. 335–349). Totowa, NJ: Humana Press.
Ewart, C. K. (2008). Discovering how stressful city neighborhoods generate self-debilitating strivings, Doshisha Conference on Health Psychology. Kyoto, Japan.
Ewart, C. K. (2009). Changing our unhealthy ways: Emerging perspectives from social action theory. In R. DiClemente, R. Crosby & M. Kegler (Eds.), Emerging theories in health promotion practice and research (2nd ed.). New York: Jossey-Bass (in press).
Ewart, C. K., & Jorgensen, R. S. (2004). Agonistic interpersonal striving: Social-cognitive mechanism of cardiovascular risk in youth? Health Psychology, 23, 75–85. doi:10.1037/0278-6133.23.1.75.
Ewart, C. K., Jorgensen, R. S., Kadziolka, M. J., Stoeckel, N. J., Ditmar, M. M., Elder, G. J., et al. (2008). Agonistic striving predicts vagal control during anger regulation in adolescent males, Sixty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society. Baltimore, MD: American Psychosomatic Society (Published Abstract available at http://www.psychosomatic.org/events/events_past_meetings.htm). Accessed 10 Sept 2008.
Ewart, C. K., Jorgensen, R. S., Schroder, K. E., Suchday, S., & Sherwood, A. (2005). Vigilance to persisting personal threat: Unmasking cardiovascular consequences in adolescents with the social competence interview. Psychophysiology, 41, 799–804. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.2004.00199.x.
Ewart, C. K., Jorgensen, R. S., Suchday, S., Chen, E., & Matthews, K. A. (2002). Measuring stress resilience and coping in vulnerable youth: The social competence interview. Psychological Assessment, 14, 339–352. doi:10.1037/1040-3590.14.3.339.
Ewart, C. K., & Kolodner, K. B. (1991). Social competence interview for assessing physiological reactivity in adolescents. Psychosomatic Medicine, 53, 289–304.
Ewart, C. K., Stoeckel, N. J., Kadziolka, M. J., & Jorgensen, R. S. (2008). Emotion regulation on the street: Violent and disordered neighborhoods raise blood pressure in youth by stimulating stressful strivings, International Congress of Behavioral Medicine (Vol. 74). Tokyo, Japan.
First, M. B., Spitzer, R. L., Gibbon, M., & Williams, J. B. W. (2002). Structured clinical interview for DSM-IV-TR axis I disorders, research version, patient edition. (SCID-I/P) New York: Biometrics Research, New York State Psychiatric Institute.
Fitzgerald, S. T., Brown, K. M., Sonnega, J. R., & Ewart, C. K. (2005). Early antecedents of adult work stress: Social-emotional competence and anger in adolescence. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 28, 223–230. doi:10.1007/s10865-005-4658-x.
Fitzgerald, S. T., Haythornthwaite, J. A., Suchday, S., & Ewart, C. K. (2003). Anger in young black and white workers: Effects of job control, dissatisfaction, and support. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 26, 283–296. doi:10.1023/A:1024228026022.
Gray-Little, B., Williams, V. S. L., & Hancock, T. D. (1997). An item response theory analysis of the Rosenberg self-esteem scale. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 443–451. doi:10.1177/0146167297235001.
Gross, J. J. (1998). Antecedent- and response-focused emotion regulation: Divergent consequences for experience, expression, and physiology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 224–237. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.74.1.224.
Gross, J. J. (1999). Emotion and emotion regulation. In L. A. Pervin & O. P. John (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (2nd ed., pp. 525–552). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Johnson, M. O., Carrico, A. W., Chesney, M. A., & Morin, S. F. (2008). Internalized heterosexism among HIV-positive gay-identified men: Implications for HIV prevention and care. Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 76 829–839.
Kadden, R. M. (2001). Behavioral and cognitive-behavioral treatments for alcoholism: Research opportunities. Addictive Behaviors, 26, 489–507. doi:10.1016/S0306-4603(00)00139-8.
Lightfoot, M., Rotheram-Borus, M. J., Milburn, N. G., & Swendeman, D. (2005). Prevention for sero-positive persons: Successive approximation toward a new identity. Behavior Modification, 29, 227–255. doi:10.1177/0145445504272599.
MacGregor, K. L., Stoeckel, N. J., Ditmar, M. M., Kadziolka, M. J., Jorgensen, R. S., & Ewart, C. K. (2007). Agonistic striving predicts cardiovascular responses to social challenges in adolescent girls. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 33, S158.
Mischel, W., & Ayduk, O. (2004). Willpower in a cognitive-affective processing system: The dynamics of delay of gratification. In R. F. Baumeister & K. D. Vohs (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation: Research, theory, and applications (pp. 99–129). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Moos, R. H. (2007). Theory-based processes that promote the remission of substance use disorders. Clinical Psychology Review, 27, 537–551. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2006.12.006.
Quirk, S. W. (2001). Emotion concepts in models of substance abuse. Drug and Alcohol Review, 20, 95–104. doi:10.1080/09595230125185.
Rosenberg, M. (1989). Society and the adolescent self-image (rev. ed., Vol. 2). Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
Saunders, J. B., Aasland, O. G., Babor, T. F., de la Fuente, J. R., & Grant, M. (1993). Development of the alcohol use disorders identification test (AUDIT): WHO collaborative project on early detection of persons with harmful alcohol consumption: II. Addiction (Abingdon, England), 88, 791–804. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.1993.tb02093.x.
Smith, T. W., & Frohm, K. D. (1985). What’s so unhealthy about hostility? Construct validity and psychosocial correlates of the Cook and Medley Ho scale. Health Psychology, 4, 503–520. doi:10.1037/0278-6133.4.6.503.
Stoeckel, N. J., Kadziolka, M. J., MacGregor, K. L., Ditmar, M. M., Jorgensen, R. S., & Ewart, C. K. (2007). Do hostile urban environments increase stress vulnerability in youth by inducing agonistic striving? Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 33, S070.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Maisto, S.A., Ewart, C.K., Connors, G.J. et al. Use of the social competence interview and the anger transcendence challenge in individuals with alcohol use disorder. J Behav Med 32, 285–293 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-009-9201-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-009-9201-z