title: The moderating role of working memory capacity and alcohol-specific rule-setting on the relation between approach tendencies and alcohol use in young adolescents.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Dual process models of alcohol addiction propose that the transition from normative alcohol consumption to heavy drinking is the result of an imbalance in interplay between relatively impulsive or automatic and reflective or controlled processes. The current study examines whether impulsive and reflective processes are also detectable in a sample of adolescents with limited alcohol use.
  
  
  METHODS
  Specifically, we tested the interaction between alcohol approach tendencies and 2 types of reflective processes, working memory capacity (WMC) and alcohol-specific rule-setting, on changes in alcohol use of 238 young adolescents (mean age: 13.82 years). Gender differences in these associations were also explored.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results showed that WMC did not moderate the relation between approach tendencies and subsequent alcohol use, whereas rule-setting did, with stronger associations between approach tendencies and alcohol use for male adolescents reporting more permissive parents than male adolescents with parents enforcing stricter rules involving alcohol use. Associations between approach tendencies and subsequent alcohol use did not emerge for female adolescents.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results indicate that even in a sample of adolescents with limited drinking experience, automatic processes are positively associated with alcohol use for male adolescents that are not motivated by parents to control their drinking.
authors.affiliation: Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. sarapieters@gmail.com
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pieters
authors.forename: William J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Burk
authors.forename: Haske
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Van der Vorst
authors.forename: Reinout W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Wiers
authors.forename: Rutger C M E
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Engels
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D016487:Parenting; D012737:Sex Factors