Resisting temptation: alcohol specific self-efficacy mediates the impacts of compensatory health beliefs and behaviours on alcohol consumption

Abstract

Awareness of health risks linked with excessive alcohol consumption appears to have little influence on how much some people drink. Compensatory health beliefs (CHBs), in which the consequences of unhealthy behaviour are considered to be neutralised by additional healthy behaviours, are one way of justifying poor health choices. Currently, the role of CHBs within the context of drinking behaviour is not well understood. This research examined associations between alcohol specific compensatory health beliefs (ACH-Beliefs) and behaviours (ACH-Behaviours), alcohol consumption and alcohol specific self-efficacy (ASE), via an online survey completed by 249 participants, aged 18 + years (63.1% female; M age = 41.62 years; SD = 14.80). Higher ACH-Beliefs were associated with increases in ACH-Behaviours. While both predicted alcohol consumption, a greater proportion of variance was explained by ACH-Behaviours. ASE was a significant mediator of those relationships, suggesting that those with higher ASE may be better equipped to regulate drinking behaviour. Recommendations for future research include measuring both CHBs and behaviours within an experimental design, and further investigation of related cognitions such as compensatory behaviour intentions. Alcohol misuse interventions may wish to consider the potential roles of CHBs and behaviours in facilitating maladaptive coping strategies, and how addressing these may reduce harms.

Compensatory Health Beliefs on Breastfeeding Varying by Breastfeeding Status; A Scale Development

“…Though no previous work on CHB addressed breastfeeding, studies on other health behaviors provide ample empirical evidence of holding CHB as a means of ameliorating cognitive discomfort in various situations. For example, smoking-specific CHBs were found to be significantly negatively related to the intention to stop smoking [ 24 ]; alcohol-specific CHB were associated with an increase in alcohol consumption [ 26 ]; and post-exercise beliefs licensing the consumption of unhealthy snacks were higher among people driven by control motivation (rather than by autonomy) [ 35 ]. In the context of breastfeeding, our findings indicate that women who do not breastfeed (or do not do so exclusively) hold more CHBs, suggesting an attempt to resolve the contradiction between how they view themselves as mothers and the normative social portrayal of breastfeeding, which was probably partially internalized.…”

“…Nor was the possibility of compensatory behavior (in relation to non-breastfeeding) [ 24 ] examined; for example, whether non-breastfeeding mothers spend more time with their babies. Related antecedents or moderators, examined in other studies in more oft-researched areas, were also not addressed: For example, whether self-efficacy in breastfeeding [ 20 , 26 ] is associated with CHB. Lastly, the data collection method—the online convenience survey—resulted in a non-representative sample of Israeli birth-giving women, specifically this sample was more affluent and more educated than the population of women of this age group in the country.…”

“…CHBs have been linked to a variety of health behaviors, for example eating, smoking [ 24 ], physical activity [ 25 ], alcohol consumption [ 26 ], and vaccination [ 27 , 28 ]. For example, compared to people who had high intentions to vaccinate, those with low intentions to vaccinate for influenza were more likely to believe that their healthy lifestyle protected them from influenza; furthermore, the adoption of such CHB was associated with decreased uptake of the flu shot [ 27 ].…”

Do compensatory health beliefs predict behavioural intention in a multiple health behaviour change context? Evidence in individuals with cardiovascular diseases?

“…Kaklamanou et al (2013) suggested to include a time dimension on CHBs scales, to target the behaviour rather than the belief itself, and that items should be phrased at the first person. Our scale is derived from these recommendations, and from recent measures of CHBs (e.g., Matley & Davies, 2017). Rather than focusing on frequency of healthy behaviours, our scale focuses on the unhealthy behaviours adoption frequency, and considers thus the behaviouralsub-dimension of the CHBs more than the belief in the compensatory effect itself.…”

“…CHBs may negatively contribute to the intention formation process, independently from behaviour-specific factors (self-efficacy, risk perceptions, outcome expectancies) (Berli, Loretini, Radtke, Hornung, & Scholz, 2014;Fleig et al, 2015;Radtke, Scholz, Keller, & Hornung, 2012), and through the self-efficacy mediating role (Matley & Davies, 2017). CHBs may also interact with self-efficacy (they negatively predict intention when self-efficacy is low, Storm et al, 2016) and risk perception (they positively predict intention when risk perception is high, Radtke, Kaklamanou, Scholz, Hornung, & Armitage, 2014).…”