Assessing Reasons For Limiting Heavy Drinking Among College Students: Development and Preliminary Analysis

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-30-2023

School

Psychology

Abstract

Background: Existing measures of reasons for limiting alcohol use are over 30 years old or don’t distinguish between limiting drinking/abstinence and limiting heavy drinking. The present study describes the development and evaluation of the Reasons for Limiting Heavy Drinking (RFLHD), a 15-item measure assessing reasons to limit heavy drinking.

Method: Participants were 591 college students from two southern universities identifying primarily as White (68%) and female (82.3%) who completed the RFLHD, Protective Behavioral Strategies Survey-20, US-Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test Consumption scale, and the Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire.

Results: Exploratory factor analyses supported a two-factor solution – Avoiding Consequences (i.e., limiting use to reduce alcohol related negative consequences) and – Personal and Other’s Values (i.e., limiting use in accordance with personal, or other people’s values, regarding alcohol consumption). Generally, the RFLHD was negatively correlated with measures of alcohol use measures and positively correlated with measures of alcohol harm reduction.

Conclusion: The RFLHD displayed promising preliminary psychometric properties in this study. Harm reduction interventions aimed at the behavioral component of alcohol use may benefit from using the RFLHD to examine cognitive motivations for limiting heavy drinking. Further investigation of the RFLHD is needed to advance the measure.

Publication Title

Journal of Substance Use

Volume

29

Issue

3

First Page

450

Last Page

456

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