 |
| Research article summary (published 30 Dec 2002): |
Rethinking positive and negative aspects of alcohol use: suggestions from a comparison of alcohol expectancies and decisional balance.
Full Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
Few studies have compared similar alcohol-related constructs such as alcohol expectancies and decisional balance:
two conceptualizations of the positive and negative aspects of alcohol. The purpose of this study was to compare these constructs and to examine their ability to predict alcohol use and problems.
METHOD:
A sample of 406 college students recruited from Psychology courses at a mid-sized Northeastern University completed a questionnaire that included measures of alcohol expectancies, decisional balance, drinking indices and drinking problems. Of these students, N = 389 (73% female) were drinkers and were included in analyses.
RESULTS:
Positive expectancies (PE) and the pros were more related to one another than were negative expectancies (NE) and the cons. The 8-item pros scale outperformed 20 items measuring PE in the prediction of alcohol problems and performed equally well in the prediction of alcohol indices. The negative relationship of cons to alcohol indices, something not found with NE, suggested that the cons scale may include components important to the measurement of negative aspects of alcohol.
CONCLUSIONS:
Although expectancies, particularly PE, have been a common choice for use by researchers, these data suggest that decisional balance scales may be a better choice because their predictive ability is equal to or better than that of expectancies, and their response burden on participants is lower. Instruments that aim to measure the negative aspects of alcohol use should include severe and distal items to better capture this negative attitudinal domain.
Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills
Author information
Author/s: Noar, Seth M (SM); Laforge, Robert G (RG); Maddock, Jason E (JE); Wood, Mark D (MD);
Affiliation: Department of Psychology and Cancer Prevention Research Center, University of Rhode Island, 2 Chafee Road, Kingston, Rhode Island 02881, USA. snoar2@uky.edu
Journal and publication information
Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article
Journal: Journal of studies on alcohol (J Stud Alcohol), published in United States. (Language: eng)
Reference: 2003-Jan; vol 64 (issue 1) : pp 60-9
Dates: Created 2003/02/28; Completed 2003/05/23; Revised 2006/11/15;
PMID: 12608484, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)
Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.
External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):
Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.
This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.
MeSH headings (categories)
This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.
|
Related articles
This article has not been indexed for related articles as yet, however you can still use the live related article search links below.
See a large map of 100+ related articles.