A Daily Measure of Positive and Negative Alcohol Expectancies and Evaluations: Documenting a Two-Factor Structure and Within- and Between-Person Variability

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Objective: Despite the documented importance of alcohol outcome expectancies in predicting alcohol use and related consequences, little research has explored within-person variability in expectancies. This article details the construction and psychometric analysis of a measure of alcohol expectancies specifically designed for daily assessment. Method: We developed a 15-item instrument to measure the likelihood of experiencing various outcomes from drinking, as well as the subjective evaluation of these outcomes. College students (N = 352; mean age = 19.7 years, SD = 1.26; 53.4% female) participated in a yearlong study wherein they completed three computerized interviews daily via mobile phones for 2 weeks in each academic quarter. Multilevel exploratory factor analysis was used to examine dimensionality at between-person and within-person levels, and generalizability coefficients were calculated to establish reliability. Results: Intraclass correlation coefficients were generally between .30 and .40, demonstrating both between-person and within-person variability. Exploratory factor analysis resulted in a two-factor solution of positive and negative effects of alcohol, and two items with equivocal loadings were dropped from the final scale. The two subscales showed excellent reliabilities at within-and between-person levels, and the measure demonstrated good convergent and discriminant validity with a commonly used expectancy measure. Conclusions: Drinkers hold many expectations about the effects of alcohol, and measures are needed that are designed to capture both stable and context-dependent aspects of these beliefs. Results demonstrated significant day-to-day variation in the strength and valuation of alcohol expectancies, and the scale demonstrated good psychometric properties that establish its appropriateness for use in daily process studies of alcohol use. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 76, 326-335, 2015)

Effects of within‐ and between‐person assessments of alcohol expectancies and valuations on use and consequences moderated by sex

“…Further, men and women differed significantly in terms of withinperson variability of AE and valuations over time. The finding is consistent with studies examining daily associations between AE, valuations, and alcohol-related outcomes (Lee et al, 2015;Ramirez et al, 2020). However, the current study extends these findings in 2 ways.…”

“…First, the current study utilized self-report data collected with several months between timepoints, limiting the ability to assess how AE and valuations, as well as other contextual variables, may contribute to specific drinking events. However, examining between-and within-person associations using longitudinal data mitigates limitations associated with findings from cross-sectional studies, and complements findings from daily or EMA studies by demonstrating that variability in AE and valuations occurs over both short (e.g., daily or weekly) and long (e.g., monthly) periods of time (Lee et al, 2015;Ramirez et al, 2020). Second, the CEOA measures positive and negative AE and valuations, and our outcome measure (RAPI) only assessed negative consequences.…”

“…To address these limitations, daily studies have compared within-and between-person associations between AE, valuations, and alcohol-related outcomes, which show variability in these relationships across individuals over short periods of time (Butler et al, 2010;Lee et al, 2015;Ramirez et al, 2020). Such studies have the ability to parse out within-and between-person effects of AE and valuations on drinking outcomes.…”

Event‐Level Correlates of Drinking Events Characterized by Alcohol‐Induced Blackouts

“…When prior‐day drinking was endorsed, participants were asked whether they had experienced any of 18 negative and positive consequences of drinking. Items were derived from several measures including the BYAACQ (Kahler et al., ), the Positive Drinking Consequences Questionnaire (Corbin et al., ), and a daily study of consequences (Lee et al., , ). Additionally, we previously conducted qualitative research to assess the consequences experienced by contemporary college students (Merrill et al., ), and a subsequent small pilot ( n = 11) of our measures and methods, to assess the need for further adaptations.…”

Alcohol mixed with energy drinks: Expectancies of use and alcohol-related negative consequences among a young adult sample

“…In one study of college students, the four most highly rated motivations for AmED use among regular users were to feel less tired, get drunk faster, drink more, and AmED is a common drink ( Marczinski, 2011 ). In the alcohol field, positive and negative expectancies—the expected outcome of drinking—play a notable role in motivation for alcohol use as well as risk for alcohol-related problems ( Howland et al, 2011 , Lee et al, 2015 , Oei and Baldwin, 1994 ) and have been associated with drinking patterns among college students ( Jones et al, 2001 , Young et al, 2007 ).…”