Alcohol PBS and Thinking About the Past

Summary

Individuals often think of how a situation or outcome could have turned out differently -- if only something was different or something had changed, then the outcome could have been better or worse. This is a common type of thinking, known as counterfactual thinking, that often takes the form of "if only" statements. These thoughts are frequent after negative events, but have also been found to occur after positive events and 'near misses'. Research has shown that their evaluative nature elicits a variety of consequences, such as biased decision making, changes in an event's meaningfulness, heightened positive or negative affect, and future behavioral changes (such as intentions, motivation, persistence/effort. Specifically, many areas of research involving counterfactuals have often looked into key elements that are often discussed in other health behavior literature, such as self-efficacy, motivation, and intentions. One such area that incorporates these elements is health promotion literature, such as Protective Behavioral Strategies (PBS) and alcohol consumption. The objectives of this study are laid out as such: First, to further explore the role counterfactuals play in increasing an individual's intentions toward behavioral change. Second, to further elucidate the inner and outer workings of Protective Behavioral Strategies for increasing positive health behaviors. Finally, to address the applicability of a counterfactual intervention on promoting intentions to use PBS.

Conditions

• Alcohol Drinking in College

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Negative Event + Counterfactual Task

Participants will complete a counterfactual based intervention where they come up with three if only..then statements about how a past drinking behavior could have been altered to be better and to think about protective behavioral strategies that they could use in a future similar situation to make the outcome better.

BEHAVIORAL

Personalized Normative Feedback

Participants will be asked to rate the frequency and quantity of students who use protective behavioral strategies while drinking. They will be given feedback on how close their estimate is from the national averages.

BEHAVIORAL

Negative Event + Factual Thinking Task

Active Control condition where participants write about a negative event and list three facts about it

BEHAVIORAL

Negative Event Only

Participants are asked to write about a negative event related to alcohol and write about it

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Central Florida

  collaborator OTHER

• Texas A&M University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Rob Dvorak, PhD · University of Central Florida

• Rachel Smallman, PhD · Texas A&M University

• Sherecce Fields, PhD · Texas A&M University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2022-02-15

Primary Completion

2022-11-20

Completion

2022-12-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations