Decreasing Alcohol Use Among High School Students By Challenging Alcohol Expectancies

Altering alcohol expectancies has reduced alcohol use among college students and may lead to successful prevention of alcohol use among high school students. We randomly assigned 379 12th-grade students to an expectancy challenge, traditional alcohol information, or control condition, and used Individual Differences Scaling to map expectancies into memory network format with Preference Mapping to model likely paths of association. After expectancy and traditional alcohol interventions, higher drinking male participants exhibited a greater likelihood to associate alcohol use with negative and sedating consequences and a decreased likelihood to associate alcohol with positive and arousing consequences. Drinking decreases paralleled the magnitude of changes in their likely path of expectancy activation. Children and adults who emphasize negative and sedating effects have been found to be less likely to use alcohol. Therefore, expectancy challenge interventions that have been successful at modifying expectancies and subsequently decreasing alcohol consumption among heavy drinking college students may be useful in the development of prevention curricula for high school students.

Author dc:creator

• Cruz, Iris

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dunn, Michael

• alcohol expectancies
• memory processes
• drinking prevention
• high school students
• Psychology

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

CFE0001232

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:etd-1931