Alcohol and Health: Personalized Feedback

Heavy episodic drinking (HED) among college students remains a concern within the U.S., as rates of HED are still high in this population. Though a variety of brief motivational interventions for alcohol use in college students have demonstrated significant effects, these effects are often small and not consistently maintained over time. Personalized feedback interventions (PFIs) are a particularly promising approach, as these are often acceptable to college students, as well as low-cost, and easy to disseminate. Though presentation of interperson discrepancy via descriptive and injunctive norms has shown consistent effects within PFIs and received much attention in the literature, intraperson, or ideal-actual self discrepancies, has largely been ignored. Drawing from cognitive dissonance theory, self-regulation theory, and motivational interviewing, the current study aims to evaluate the efficacy of an alcohol PFI with a values component to incorporate ideal-self discrepancy into a typical intervention.

The PFI with values will include information commonly included in personalized feedback interventions for alcohol use, such as norms information and drinking profile, as well as feedback on three of the assessed values that are highly important to the participant.

This PFI will include information on drinking profile, norms, behavioral strategies used while drinking, and practical costs related to drinking reframed as monetary values and caloric values.

measured by the BYAACQ to determine number of consequences experienced in the past month post-baseline

Measured by the VLQ-A to measure change in behavioral consistency with values specifically related to alcohol use one month post-baseline

Inclusion Criteria: Must be at least 18 years of age Must be able to speak and read English Must report consuming alcohol in a typical week over the past month Exclusion Criteria: Must not deny drinking within the past month Non-English speaking Under the age of 18