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Author: Swoboda, Christopher M.
Resulting in 3 citations.
1. Richardson, George B.
Chen, Ching-Chen
Dai, Chia-Liang
Hardesty, Patrick H.
Swoboda, Christopher M.
Life History Strategy and Young Adult Substance Use
Evolutionary Psychology 12,5 (December 2014): 932-957.
Also: http://evp.sagepub.com/content/12/5/147470491401200506.short
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Sage Publications
Keyword(s): Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Modeling, Structural Equation; Parental Influences; Substance Use

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This study tested whether life history strategy (LHS) and its intergenerational transmission could explain young adult use of common psychoactive substances. We tested a sequential structural equation model using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. During young adulthood, fast LHS explained 61% of the variance in overall liability for substance use. Faster parent LHS predicted poorer health and lesser alcohol use, greater neuroticism and cigarette smoking, but did not predict fast LHS or overall liability for substance use among young adults. Young adult neuroticism was independent of substance use controlling for fast LHS. The surprising finding of independence between parent and child LHS casts some uncertainty upon the identity of the parent and child LHS variables. Fast LHS may be the primary driver of young adult use of common psychoactive substances. However, it is possible that the young adult fast LHS variable is better defined as young adult mating competition. We discuss our findings in depth, chart out some intriguing new directions for life history research that may clarify the dimensionality of LHS and its mediation of the intergenerational transmission of substance use, and discuss implications for substance abuse prevention and treatment.
Bibliography Citation
Richardson, George B., Ching-Chen Chen, Chia-Liang Dai, Patrick H. Hardesty and Christopher M. Swoboda. "Life History Strategy and Young Adult Substance Use." Evolutionary Psychology 12,5 (December 2014): 932-957.
2. Richardson, George B.
Chen, Ching-Chen
Dai, Chia-Liang
Swoboda, Christopher M.
Nedelec, Joseph L.
Chen, Wei-Wen
Substance Use and Mating Success
Evolution and Human Behavior 38,1 (January 2017): 48-57.
Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090513816301246
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Alcohol Use; Cigarette Use (see Smoking); Drug Use; Modeling, Structural Equation; Sexual Activity; Substance Use

Psychoactive substance use has been typical of most traditional and modern societies and is maintained in the population despite the potential for abuse and related harms, raising the possibility that it (or its underlying causes) confers fitness benefits that offset its costs. Although it seems plausible that psychoactive substances have facilitated survival among ancestral and modern humans, it is not clear that this enhancement has translated into Darwinian fitness through mating and ultimately reproductive success. In the current study, we discuss potential mechanisms by which substance use might make unique contributions to mating success, attend to the possibility that the effects between substance use and mating success are instead confounded, and use structural equations and nationally representative data to determine whether these effects are more likely causal or spurious. Our findings indicate that once we know participants' scores on "third" variables at each round in early young adulthood, their substance use gives us little additional information about their current prospects for acquiring sexual partners and no additional information about of their future prospects. Thus, if adaptations for substance use evolved, their adaptive value does not seem to be found in mating success.
Bibliography Citation
Richardson, George B., Ching-Chen Chen, Chia-Liang Dai, Christopher M. Swoboda, Joseph L. Nedelec and Wei-Wen Chen. "Substance Use and Mating Success." Evolution and Human Behavior 38,1 (January 2017): 48-57.
3. Richardson, George B.
Dai, Chia-Liang
Chen, Ching-Chen
Nedelec, Joseph L.
Swoboda, Christopher M.
Chen, Wei-Wen
Adolescent Life History Strategy in the Intergenerational Transmission and Developmental Stability of Substance Use
Journal of Drug Issues 46,2 (April 2016): 102-121.
Also: http://jod.sagepub.com/content/46/2/102
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: College of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Keyword(s): Alcohol Use; Cigarette Use (see Smoking); Delinquency/Gang Activity; Depression (see also CESD); Drug Use; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Life Course; Personality/Big Five Factor Model or Traits; Substance Use

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Research suggests that fast life history strategy (LHS) may be a primary driver of substance use among young adults. However, a recent study reported that (a) young adult fast LHS did not subsume all theorized indicators of LHS during this period and (b) fast LHS among parents did not predict young adult fast LHS or liability for use of common substances. In this study, we used structural equations and national data to test whether these findings generalized to adolescence. In addition, given that LHS and substance use share genetic and neuropsychological bases, we examined whether fast LHS could explain the developmental stability of substance use. Overall, our results extend the findings discussed above and suggest that fast LHS fully explains the developmental stability of substance use among youth. We discuss implications for life history models, research applying life history theory and substance use, and substance abuse prevention and treatment.
Bibliography Citation
Richardson, George B., Chia-Liang Dai, Ching-Chen Chen, Joseph L. Nedelec, Christopher M. Swoboda and Wei-Wen Chen. "Adolescent Life History Strategy in the Intergenerational Transmission and Developmental Stability of Substance Use." Journal of Drug Issues 46,2 (April 2016): 102-121.