Social Contact Reinforces Cocaine Self-Administration in Young Adult Male Rats: The Role of Social Reinforcement in Vulnerability to Drug Use

Drug-using peers are recognized as a leading factor influencing drug use among adolescents and young adults. One mechanism by which peers influence drug use is by providing social reinforcement for using drugs. Social reinforcement may be provided in multiple ways, including by making social contact contingent on drug use (i.e., an individual must use drugs to gain/maintain access to a peer). The purpose of this study was to develop a preclinical model in which intravenous cocaine self-administration was positively reinforced by access to a social partner. Young adult male rats were trained to self-administer cocaine in operant conditioning chambers with a guillotine door that could be opened to an adjacent compartment housing either a social partner or a non-social stimulus. Once cocaine self-administration was established, the guillotine door was activated, and cocaine intake was reinforced by brief access to either a social (age- and sex-matched peer) or non-social (black-and-white athletic sock) stimulus. Contingent access to a social partner rapidly increased cocaine self-administration. Total cocaine intake was 2- to 3-fold greater in rats assigned to the social versus non-social condition across a 100-fold dose range. Cocaine intake rapidly increased when rats in the original non-social group were later provided with social partners, whereas cocaine intake resisted change and remained elevated when rats in the original social group had their partners removed. These data indicate that contingent access to a social partner increases drug intake and suggest that social reinforcement may represent a vulnerability factor that is particularly resistant to psychosocial interventions.

Mandating Inclusion: Critical Trans Perspectives on Domestic and Sexual Violence Advocacy

In 2013, the Violence Against Women Act became one of the first federal laws to explicitly prohibit discrimination against transgender people, yet little is known about its impact in practice. This qualitative study draws on in-depth interviews with transgender people working in domestic and sexual violence advocacy organizations. Building on critical and intersectional perspectives, the findings suggest that the persistence of inequities for trans survivors are tied to the reliance on criminal legal responses, contingent access to gender-specific services, compliance-focused approaches to inclusion, operating theories of gender-based violence, and the diversion of responsibility to LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) programs. This study highlights the participants’ recommendations for change.

Combining Reward and Escape DRO to Reduce the Problem Behavior of Students with Severe Disabilities

During instruction, the occurrence per minute of problem behavior was studied across three students with severe disabilities. Following a functional assessment identifying problem behavior as being related to teacher demands, reinforcement schedules based upon reward DRO, escape DRO, and combined DRO were analyzed for their relative effectiveness in decreasing problem behavior across three tasks. The three DRO schedules were studied using an alternating treatments design with intervention by task Latin square counterbalancing. Reward DRO used contingent access to a preferred event following the omission of problem behavior as a positive reinforcer. Escape DRO allowed the termination of instruction contingent on the omission of problem behavior. Combined DRO employed both types of reinforcer functions used in the reward and escape DRO schedules. Reduction in the frequency of problem behavior was greatest for all three students using the combined DRO schedule.