The “alcoholic other”: Harmful drinkers resist problem recognition to manage identity threat

Behavioral economic and value-based decision-making constructs that discriminate current heavy drinkers versus people who reduced their drinking without treatment.

“…We also administered the following self-report questionnaires: the 10-item Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT; Saunders et al, 1993; McDonald’s ω = .82, McDonald, 1970, 1999) to examine alcohol use and related problems, the 10-item Meaning in Life Questionnaire (Steger et al, 2006, presence, ω = .93, search, ω = .92) to measure the presence of meaning and search for meaning in life, the 13-item Brief Self-Control Scale (Tangney et al, 2004, ω = .85) to measure self-control, the four-item Stages of Change Readiness and Treatment Eagerness Scale (Miller & Tonigan, 1996, ω = .89) as used in other research (Morris et al, 2020, 2022) to measure alcohol problem recognition, and the nine-item Drinking Refusal Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (Young et al, 1991) as used in other research (Field, Puddephatt, et al, 2020) to measure drinking refusal self-efficacy across three subscales (social pressure, ω = .84, emotional relief, ω = .91, opportunistic, ω = .85). Finally, we measured participant demographics, duration of current and previous (prior to moderation) levels of alcohol consumption, and questions about COVID-19 (see for a detailed description of all questionnaire measures and the participant demographic breakdown).…”

The stigma of alcohol-related liver disease and its impact on healthcare

“…People with unhealthy alcohol use exposed to stigmatising descriptions of alcohol problems showed lower recognition of their own drinking problems in an online study in the United Kingdom. 13 Higher recognition of personal drinking problems, in turn, has been shown to be associated with more self-stigma in people with ALD. 51 Avoiding self-identification with the group of people with alcohol problems thus protects the self from the negative consequences of stigma, 53 both in terms of self-stigma and public stigma.…”

“…10 While many conditions are stigmatised, people with AUD are exposed to particularly severe stigma when compared to other mental and medical disorders. 11,12 Stigma complicates conversations about alcohol in medical settings and has been shown to interfere with illness recognition and insight, 13 timely help-seeking, 14 treatment adherence 15 and recovery. 16 Due to their impaired health, people with ALD are especially susceptible to this interference, and stigma might tip the balance towards unfavourable health outcomes.…”

Behavioral economic and value-based decision-making constructs that discriminate current heavy drinkers versus people who reduced their drinking without treatment

“…We also administered the following self-report questionnaires: the 10-item Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT; Saunders et al, 1993, McDonald's ω = .82 (McDonald, 1970, 1999) to examine alcohol use and related problems, the 10-item Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ; Steger et al, 2006, presence, ω = .93, search, ω = .92) to measure presence of meaning and search for meaning in life, the 13-item Brief Self-Control Scale (BSCS; Tangney et al, 2004, ω = .85) to measure self-control, the 4-item Stages of Change Readiness and Treatment Eagerness Scale (SOCRATES; Miller & Tonigan, 1996, ω = .89) as used in other research (Morris et al, 2020(Morris et al, , 2021 to measure alcohol problem recognition, and the 9-item Drinking Refusal Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (Young et al, 1991) as used in other research (Field, Puddephatt, et al, 2020) to measure drinking refusal self-efficacy across three subscales (social pressure, ω = .84, emotional relief, ω = .91, opportunistic, ω = .85). Finally, we measured participant demographics, duration of current and previous (prior to moderation) level of alcohol consumption, and questions about COVID-19 (see supplementary materials for a detailed description of all questionnaire measures and the participant demographic breakdown).…”

“…Tonigan, 1996): we administered 4-items from the original SOCRATES to assess alcohol problem recognition which has been used in previous research (Morris et al, 2020(Morris et al, , 2021.…”