The influence of context in the subjective evaluation of “negative” alcohol-related consequences.

Abstract

College students may subjectively evaluate the consequences of drinking in unexpected ways, rating "negative" consequences as neutral or even positive experiences. We previously gathered qualitative evidence for several contextual factors that may influence one's subjective evaluations (e.g., social influences, intoxication level, concurrent positive consequences). The purpose of the present study was to quantitatively investigate whether student evaluations of consequences differ by various contextual factors. We administered an anonymous online survey to 214 college students (76% female, 69% drinkers, 48% heavy drinkers) in return for academic credit, on which they reported how positively or negatively they would evaluate 6 alcohol-related consequences (e.g., vomiting, being rude, blacking out) under different conditions. Paired samples tests were used to compare evaluation ratings, averaged across consequences, under different hypothetical contextual conditions (e.g., among friends vs. strangers). Out of 16 contextual comparisons, all but one (first-time vs. repeated consequence) revealed significant differences in subjective evaluations; the pattern held in reduced samples of just drinkers or just heavy drinkers. Examples include that consequences were viewed more negatively (a) if occurring at either a party or bar versus alone in one's home/dorm, (b) if friends express concern versus find it funny, (c) if the consequence was expected versus unexpected, and (d) if there are lasting consequences versus none. When using recent consequences in feedback-based interventions to build motivation to change, it may be useful to discuss the context of a consequence and how this influences the perceived aversiveness of that consequence. (PsycINFO Database Record

How do college students subjectively evaluate “blackouts”?

“…3.2.1 Social Influences.-Three of the themes that emerged-all relevant to social influences -converge with prior work on contextual influences on consequence evaluations (Merrill et al, 2018a;2018b). Specifically, we found evidence for an influence on blackout evaluations of perceived social norms, immediate social context, and discussions with friends.…”

Physical Disorders are Associated with Health Risk Behaviors in Chinese Adolescents: A Latent Class Analysis

“…The incidence of vomiting in non-drinkers was 11% and it increased to 30% in alcoholics [16]. The alcohol-related consequences have also been confirmed in other studies [17]. It should be noted that the injury caused by smoking and drinking is cumulative and that smoking and drinking at a young age can cause more serious health injury than starting these behaviors in adult, such as high incidence of cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, and even cancer [18].…”

“…These findings indicated that different HRBs had different effects on different physical disorders of adolescents. We speculate that the moderate-risk class 2 increased the incidence of cough due to the existence of unintentional injuries [58,59], and drinking and smoking in the moderate-risk class 1 often cause vomiting and fever [16,17].…”

Secondary effects of myPlaybook on college athletes’ avoidance of drinking games or pregaming as a protective behavior strategy: A multisite randomized controlled study

“…This may explain the limited potency that alcohol education (with or without personalized feedback), skills-building interventions such as myPlaybook, or BMIs have on college students' DG or pregaming behaviors. Given that young adults' experiences with alcohol-related consequences are highly nuanced, Merrill et al (2018) have cautioned against assuming that young adults perceive the consequences that occur on all drinking occasions to be negative. Thus it may be helpful to have student-athletes consider what kinds of consequences have occurred as a result of playing DGs or pregaming and then assess the extent to which they perceive these consequences as positive or negative (Merrill et al, 2018).…”

“…Given that young adults' experiences with alcohol-related consequences are highly nuanced, Merrill et al (2018) have cautioned against assuming that young adults perceive the consequences that occur on all drinking occasions to be negative. Thus it may be helpful to have student-athletes consider what kinds of consequences have occurred as a result of playing DGs or pregaming and then assess the extent to which they perceive these consequences as positive or negative (Merrill et al, 2018). Finally, because the sports team culture tends to promote social cohesion among teammates (Zhou and Heim, 2014), and given the competitive lifestyle of many studentathletes, the presence of team drinking activities like playing competitive DGs could make participation in these games difficult to avoid.…”