Decisional Balance for Immoderate Drinking in College Students

Abstract

Immoderate drinking in college is common and is associated with significant negative sequelae. In this study, measures of Decisional Balance for Immoderate Drinking were developed. This construct is proposed to represent the basic decision-making process that is used by students when deciding whether to drink at immoderate levels or not. Furthermore this construct is embedded in a larger model of behavior change, the Transtheoretical Model of Change, which has been shown to be effective in understanding many health-related behaviors across a wide variety of populations. A total of 629 college students were administered a 25-item decisional balance questionnaire in 1993-1994. Exploratory and confirmatory analyses suggested two different solutions, a two-factor solution and a three-factor solution, but did not provide clear evidence for the psychometric superiority of one over the other. The three-factor solution was chosen as it was seen as an elaboration of the two-factor solution, and validity evidence for this solution is presented. The three factors were labeled the Pros, the Cons-Actual, and the Cons-Potential of Immoderate Drinking. The Cons-Actual scale is a measure of negative affective states associated with current drinking whereas the Cons Potential measures the risk of more concrete negative effects of drinking. External validity was established by the significant and meaningful differences on a number of alcohol-related variables including consumption variables, three measures of negative sequelae of immoderate drinking, and Stage of Change, the organizing construct of the Transtheoretical Model of Change.

Motivations of the Ethical Consumer

“…This cost-benefit analysis has been widely utilised in the past in the domains of psychology and psychiatry to assess motivations for various behaviours or cessation measures. These include investigating substance use and misuse (Carey et al, 1999;Migneault, 1999), smoking cessation (Velicer et al, 1985;Fava et al, 1995), exercise behaviour in adolescents (Nigg and Courneya, 1998) and readiness for change in anorexia nervosa (Cockell et al, 2002). To date, however, no known published empirical study exists which applies the DBS construct to ethical decisionmaking and the trade off between consumers various personal and social values.…”

“…Past research has consistently found these eight categories balanced as two factors: positive gains and negative losses (Migneault et al, 1999). These are usually referred to, for brevity within the TTM literature, as ''pros'' and ''cons'' (e.g., Prochaska et al, 1992Prochaska et al, , 1993Rossi et al, 2001).…”

“…investigate whether ethical decision-making can be represented by the positive-negative dichotomy of values and motivations found in other decision-making contexts (e.g., Migneault et al, 1999); 2. test whether a decisional balance shift operates as individuals move through stages of ethical awareness, concern and action, analogous to the ÔStages of ChangeÕ represented within the Transtheoretical Model; 3. establish whether a ''tipping point'' occurs for ethical decision-making, at which the relative strengths of the positive decisional balance motives starts to exceed those of the negatives; 4. establish whether the relative strength of decisional balance motives is relatively stable across a number of different issues relevant to ethical purchasing decisions.…”

Seeking alcohol information on the Internet

“…The health behaviour, and related health promotion information seeking, considered in the present study is alcohol intake. There is considerable evidence that high levels of alcohol intake by university students can have negative consequences (Migneault, Velicer, Prochaska & Stevenson, 1999). In the present study, college students' information seeking of pro and anti drinking information is examined in light of their weekly alcohol unit intake, and their plans for behaviour change.…”

Testing Cross-Sectional and Prospective Mediators of Internalized Heterosexism on Heavy Drinking, Alcohol Problems, and Psychological Distress Among Heavy Drinking Men Who Have Sex With Men

“…Items were taken from the Alcohol and Drug Consequences Questionnaire (Cunningham et al, 1997) and the Decisional Balance for Immoderate Drinking Scale (Migneault et al, 1999). All responses were on a 5-point Likert scale, anchored by not important and extremely important.…”