Candice D. Donaldson

Alcohol attitudes, motives, norms, and personality traits longitudinally classify nondrinkers, moderate drinkers, and binge drinkers using discriminant function analysis

INTRODUCTION Binge drinking is commonly defined in the literature as consuming at least 5 drinks for males and 4 drinks for females. These quantities correspond to approximately a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08%, the level of intoxication making it illegal to drive in the United States. METHODS The study scrutinized the longitudinal classification of three drinker types using male (n=155) and female (n=351) college students. Measures of personality (sensation seeking, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness), alcohol attitudes, alcohol motivations (social, coping, enhancement, and conformity), and alcohol social norms (typical students, friends, closest friends, and parents) were administered at Time 1. Drinker type (nondrinkers, moderate drinkers, or binge drinkers) was assessed one month later. RESULTS Discriminant function analyses revealed that the set of measures statistically distinguished among the three drinker types. The first function was significant and yielded high loadings for attitudes, social motives, enhancement motives, coping motives, closest friend norms, and friend norms for both genders. Model classification accuracy was 73% for the male and 67% female samples. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) compared mean differences in a 2 (gender: males or females)×3 (drinker type: nondrinkers, moderate drinkers, or binge drinkers) design. Measures systematically differing across all pairwise comparisons of the three drinker types, starting from the strongest effect (eta-squared), were as follows: alcohol attitudes, social motives, enhancement motives, closest friend norms, friend norms, coping motives, sensation seeking, and extraversion. CONCLUSIONS Attitude, motivation, and norm variables tended to be more important than personality in distinguishing drinker types. Considering the malleability of attitudes and belief motivations, the risk variables of alcohol attitudes, social motives, and enhancement motives identified in this research warrant consideration in prevention and campaign efforts targeting problematic drinking.

Higher-Order and Bifactor Models of the Drinking Motives Questionnaire Examining Competing Structures Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis

The Drinking Motives Questionnaire, previously postulated and documented to exhibit a measurement structure of four correlated factors (social, enhancement, conformity, and coping), is a widely administered assessment of reasons for consuming alcohol. In the current study (N = 552), confirmatory factor analyses tested the plausibility of several theoretically relevant factor structures. Fit indices corroborated the original four-factor model, and also supported a higher-order factor model involving a superordinate motives factor that explicated four subordinate factors. A bifactor model that permitted items to double load on valence type (positive or negative reinforcement) and source type (external or internal) generated mixed results, suggesting that this 2 × 2 motivation paradigm was not entirely tenable. Optimal fit was obtained for a bifactor model depicting a general factor and four specific factors of motives. Latent factors derived from this structure exhibited criterion validity in predicting frequency and quantity of alcohol usage in a structural equation model. Findings are interpreted in the context of theoretical implications of the instrument, alternative factor structures of drinking motives, and assessment applications.

Applying Multilevel Modeling to Understand Individual and Cross-Cultural Variations in Attitudes Toward Homosexual People Across 28 European Countries

Individual and cross-cultural factors associated with attitudes toward homosexual people were examined in this study. Using cross-sectional data from the sixth biennial European Social Survey, which represents 36,959 individuals nested within 28 European countries, successive nested models were tested using multilevel modeling (MLM). Results found that attitudes varied cross-culturally as a function of people’s country of residence—this clustering effect was controlled for in all subsequent models. Individual-level predictors (Level 1) of male gender, older age, less education, being an immigrant to one’s residing country, conservative political affiliation, high religiosity, perceptions that politics in one’s country were unfair, low openness to change values, low self-transcendence values, high conservation values, and high self-enhancement values were significantly linked with anti-homosexuality attitudes. At the country level (Level 2), a high emphasis on social conservatism and fewer civil rights for homosexuals was connected with more unfavorable attitudes. Findings indicate main effects of predictors at both levels; however, country-level variables tended to yield stronger coefficients than individual-level factors, highlighting the contributions of macro- and microfactors in simultaneously shaping attitudes toward homosexuality. Beyond these effects, interactions of country- and individual-level variables show political affiliation, religiosity, self-enhancement values as stronger predictors in liberal countries, but openness to change values, younger age, and higher education as stronger predictors in conservative countries. Implications are discussed for understanding the wide continuum of views toward homosexuality across people and countries.

Nonmedical use of prescription stimulants in college students: Attitudes, intentions, and vested interest.

INTRODUCTION Research on vested interest theory (VIT) indicates that the importance and hedonic relevance of attitudes moderates the link between attitudes and attitude-congruent behavior. Though largely untested in prevention research, this relationship may prove crucial in determining the success or failure of prevention efforts. The current study was designed to determine if subjectively perceived vested interest maximized the association between attitudes and intentions regarding the nonmedical use of prescription stimulants (NUPS). METHODS A cross-sectional survey was conducted with college student respondents (N=162) using Amazons MTurk. Participant age ranged from 19 to 49years old. A subsample analysis (n=129) was also conducted with younger respondents, as the typical college student is usually under the age of 30. RESULTS Four-step hierarchical regression analysis indicated that both attitudes and perceived vested interest were significantly associated with NUPS behavioral intentions (p<.001). Further, vested interest moderated the relationship between stimulant-related attitudes and usage intentions (p<.001). Attitudes were significantly associated with intentions of moderately and highly vested respondents (p<.001), but not those of participants expressing low levels of perceived vested interest. CONCLUSIONS Findings support the proposition that vested interest may be a useful target for attenuating NUPS. Rather than attempting to weaken positive attitudes toward NUPS, campaigns may prove more successful if designed to convince receivers that NUPS is not in their best interest.

Validation and psychometric properties of the Alcohol Positive and Negative Affect Schedule: Are drinking emotions distinct from general emotions?

People vary in experiences of positive and negative emotions from consuming alcohol, but no validated measurement instrument exclusively devoted to assessing drinking emotions exists in the literature. The current research validated and evaluated the psychometric properties of an alcohol affect scale based on adjectives from the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) and tested the extent that emotions incurred from drinking were distinct from general trait-based emotions. Three studies tested independent samples of adult alcohol users. In Study 1 (N = 494), exploratory factor analyses of the Alcohol PANAS revealed that both the 20-item model and the 9-parcel model (represented by similar mood content) supported the 2-factor dimensionality of alcohol positive and negative affect. In Study 2 (N = 302), confirmatory factor analyses corroborated the measurement structure of alcohol positive and negative affect, and both constructs evidenced statistical independence from general positive and negative affect. In Study 3 (N = 452), alcohol positive and negative affect exhibited discriminant, convergent, and criterion validity with established alcohol scales. Incremental validity tests demonstrated that alcohol positive and negative affect uniquely contributed (beyond general positive and negative affect) to alcohol expectancies, use, and problems. Findings support that alcohol emotions are conceptually distinct from trait emotions, and underscore the necessity of an assessment instrument tailored to the former to examine associations with alcohol beliefs and behaviors. The Alcohol PANAS confers theoretical and practical applications to understand the emotional consequences of drinking.

Testing competing models of injunctive and descriptive norms for proximal and distal reference groups on alcohol attitudes and behavior

INTRODUCTION Injunctive norms represent perceptions regarding the extent that others approve of a behavior, whereas descriptive norms represent perceptions of the extent that others engage in a behavior. This study evaluated competing path models, varying in the representation of injunctive and descriptive norm constructs, to forecast alcohol attitudes and use. METHODS College students (N=326) answered questions about their normative perceptions regarding three relevant reference groups (typical students, friends, and parents) in the form of alcohol injunctive and descriptive norms. Personal alcohol attitudes (approval) and usage were assessed one month later. RESULTS The path analysis model arranged by injunctive versus descriptive found that injunctive norms explained attitudes, but descriptive norms contributed to behavior. In the path analysis model of constructs organized by reference groups, friend and parent norms uniquely contributed to attitudes, but typical student, friend, and parental norms contributed to use. Finally, the comprehensive model based on each reference group combination with injunctive and descriptive norms (e.g., typical student injunctive) determined that friend injunctive norms and parent injunctive norms uniquely forecasted alcohol attitudes, whereas typical student injunctive norms, typical student descriptive norms, and friend descriptive norms forecasted behavior. CONCLUSIONS A novel contribution of the study is the scrutiny of competing models of alcohol norms using the same multifaceted measures. Disparate implications emerge about the role of subjective norms as a function of the approach to compute the constructs. The most nuanced insights were obtained in the final comprehensive model involving the representation of norms at the finest level of specificity.

Comparing the predictive validity of the four-factor and five-factor (bifactor) measurement structures of the drinking motives questionnaire

INTRODUCTION The Drinking Motives Questionnaire (DMQ-R) is the most widely administered instrument to assess reasons for consuming alcohol and is conventionally premised on a four-factor structure. Recent research instead reveals that a bifactor measurement model of five motive factors (one general and four specific) represents a superior psychometric embodiment of the scale. The current study evaluated and compared the predictive validity of the four-factor and five-factor models of drinking motives in longitudinally explaining alcohol use and problems. METHODS Adult participants (N=413; age range=18-79 years) completed measures of drinking motives (Time 1) and alcohol use and problems one month later (Time 2). RESULTS Confirmatory factor analyses corroborated the four-factor (social, enhancement, conformity, and coping motives) and five-factor (each item double loading on general motives and a specific motives factor) measurement structures, but the latter rendered stronger fit indices. Structural equation models revealed that lower social motives, higher enhancement motives, and higher coping motives prospectively contributed to alcohol use. Furthermore, lower social motives, higher conformity motives, higher coping motives, and greater alcohol use contributed to alcohol problems. DISCUSSION The same set of paths emerged as significantly predictive in both models, but general motives additionally explained alcohol use and problems in the five-factor model. The incremental contribution of general motives (beyond the specific motives) on alcohol intake and detrimental consequences supports the predictive validity of the drinking reasons paradigm embodied by the inclusion of a global factor.