Objective: Behavioral economic (BE) approaches to understanding and reducing risky drinking among college students are well established, but little is known about the generalizability of prior findings to peers who currently are not traditional college students and are more difficult to reach for assessment and intervention. This cross-sectional survey investigated whether drinking practices and negative consequences were associated with greater alcohol demand, alcohol reward value, and delay discounting in this target population. Method: Community-dwelling emerging adult drinkers aged 21 to 29 (N = 357) were recruited using Respondent-Driven Sampling adapted to a digital platform (Mage = 23.6 years, 64% women). Peers recruited peers in an iterative fashion. Participants completed a web-based survey of drinking practices, negative alcohol-related consequences, and BE measures of alcohol demand, alcohol reward value, and delay discounting. Results: Regression analyses supported the study hypotheses. Higher alcohol demand (intensity and elasticity) predicted higher drinks per drinking day, more past-month drinking days, and more negative consequences. Higher alcohol reward value (discretionary alcohol spending and alcoholinvolved activities) and stronger preference for sooner smaller versus later larger rewards predicted select drinking risk variables in the hypothesized direction ( p < .05). Conclusions: BE risk characteristics were generalized to community-dwelling emerging adult risky drinkers, with the most consistent associations found between alcohol demand and drinking risk measures. The findings lay a foundation for extending successful BE interventions with college drinkers to this underserved population. Public Health Significance StatementThis cross-sectional survey found that established associations of behavioral economic variables with risky drinking among traditional college students are generalizable to young adults who currently reside in the community. It lays a foundation for extending behavioral economic interventions with college drinkers to the underserved population of community-dwelling young adult risky drinkers. The study also showed that online peer-driven sample recruitment using Respondent-Driven Sampling is an efficient, effective method to recruit community-dwelling risky drinkers who are harder to reach than groups accessible by location.

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