Daily-Level Associations between Situational Familiarity with Location and People and Use of Alcohol-related Protective Behavioral Strategy Among Adolescents and Young Adults.

OBJECTIVE: Despite protective behavioral strategies (PBS) being an important part of alcohol prevention programs, utilization of PBS is sub-optimal, and research is needed to determine factors associated with use and non-use of PBS. The present study examined daily-level associations between situational familiarity (i.e., familiarity with locations and people) and the use of alcohol-related PBS among adolescents and young adults. METHOD: Participants (analysis N = 564, 55.1% females, 45.2% White, Non-Hispanic, ages 15 to 25, mean = 21.07 years [SD = 2.79]) were part of a longitudinal ecological momentary assessment burst study on cognitions and alcohol use. Mixed effects Poisson models were used to analyze data for engagement in PBS (i.e., serious harm reduction, stopping/limiting, and manner of drinking PBS). RESULTS: Within-person results indicated when participants had elevated (i.e., higher than their own average) familiarity with their location, they were less likely to use serious harm reduction PBS (Rate ratio [RR] = 0.94, p < 0.001) and stopping/limiting PBS (RR = 0.95, p < 0.001). Results showed that on drinking days with elevated familiarity with people, individuals were more likely to use serious harm reduction PBS (RR = 1.03, p = 0.01). There were no significant daily-level associations between familiarity with people or location and manner of drinking PBS. CONCLUSION: The study suggests PBS use, particularly for serious harm reduction and stopping/limiting strategies, varies among adolescents and young adults based on familiarity with location and people. Alcohol prevention interventions, including just-in-time interventions, should consider how to promote PBS use particularly in familiar locations and with less familiar people.

A daily-level examination of willingness to pregame, blackout, and hook up across drinking days: Associations with respective behavioral outcomes among adolescents and young adults.

Research indicates general willingness to drink (i.e., "How willing are you to drink tonight?") fluctuates day-to-day and is associated with daily-level drinking. However, it is unknown whether willingness to engage in specific alcohol-related behaviors is associated with actual engagement in those behaviors above and beyond general willingness to drink at the daily level. The present study examined whether daily-level willingness to engage in specific behaviors (i.e., pre-gaming, blacking out, hooking up) predicted engaging in those respective behaviors on drinking days above and beyond one's general willingness to drink. Participants included adolescents and young adults who were part of a longitudinal ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study on cognitions and alcohol use. Participants (N = 675; 43 % male) who reported drinking on weekend days (i.e., Friday and Saturday [N = 3,727 days]), were included. The study involved a 3-week EMA burst design with bursts occurring quarterly over 12 months. Multilevel logistic regressions indicated on drinking days when participants reported being more willing than their own average to pre-game (OR = 1.77, p <.001), black out (OR = 1.46, p <.05), or drink before hooking up (OR = 1.68, p <.001), they were more likely to pregame, black out, and hook up, respectively, whereas general willingness to drink was not associated with any outcomes at the daily level.Results suggest willingness to engage in specific behaviors may be essential to target in prevention programming in comparison to general willingness to drink when aiming to reduce specific risk behaviors.

Daily level examination indicates that positive affect, but not negative affect, is associated with alcohol and marijuana use among adolescents and young adults.

OBJECTIVE: Although there is growing evidence that alcohol use at the daily level is associated with positive but not negative affect, results are mixed when examining marijuana use and simultaneous alcohol and marijuana (SAM) use (i.e., use with overlapping effects). In addition, less is known about these daily level associations among diverse samples of adolescents and young adults. The present study will address these gaps. METHOD: Participants (N = 1,006; 57.3% female, 43.1% White, Non-Hispanic, ages 15-25; Mage = 20.0) were part of a study on substance use that consisted of a 3-week ecological momentary assessment (EMA) burst design (eight surveys per week, up to 2×/day) that was repeated quarterly over a 12-month period. RESULTS: Within-person results indicated that on days with elevated positive affect, participants reported consuming more drinks, whereas positive affect was not significant for hours high from marijuana. In addition, on days with elevated negative affect, participants reported fewer hours high from marijuana. No association was found between negative affect and number of drinks. Finally, within-person results indicated that on alcohol or marijuana days with elevated positive affect, individuals were more likely to report SAM use. There was no association found between negative affect and SAM use. CONCLUSIONS: Results have implications such that in-the-moment interventions for alcohol and SAM use may be more salient when individuals have higher positive affect than average, whereas such interventions may be more relevant for marijuana use when negative affect is lower compared to average levels. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Frequency and Timing of Sent and Received Alcohol-Related Text Messages: Associations with Alcohol Use and Related Consequences among Adolescents and Young Adults.

Background: Research supports the notion that adolescents and young adults communicate about alcohol via text messages and that this form of communication is associated with alcohol use. However, little is known about how this compares to social media content sharing or about the timing of sending and receiving alcohol-related text messages and associations with alcohol-related outcomes. The present study aimed to 1) document whether adolescents and young adults are willing to share alcohol content via text messages they are not willing to share via social media, and 2) determine associations between frequency and timing of alcohol-related text messages (both sent and received) with self-reported alcohol use and consequences. Methods: A total of 409 participants (63.30% female; age 15-25, M = 21.10, SD = 2.69) completed a baseline survey as part of a larger study. Results: While 84.50% of participants reported that they were willing to send text messages referencing alcohol that they would not share on social media, 90.00% reported that their friends would be willing to do so. Results of negative binomial regressions indicated that sending and receiving more alcohol-related text messages per week and sending and receiving text messages before and during drinking, but not after drinking, were positively associated with typical drinks per week. Neither frequency of sending and receiving text messages or timing (before, during, after) were associated with negative consequences. Conclusions: Results suggest that frequency and timing of alcohol-related text messaging may provide insights into alcohol consumption patterns among adolescents and young adults and warrants future research.

Age and Fear of Missing Out as Moderators of the Association between Peak Drinks and Alcohol-Induced Blackouts among Adolescents and Young Adults.

Background: Alcohol-induced blackouts are periods of impaired memory in which an individual is unable to recount events that occurred while they were intoxicated and are associated with heavier drinking episodes. Objectives: The present study examined age and Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) as moderators of the association between peak number of drinks and experiencing alcohol-induced blackouts. Participants ages 15-25 (N = 411; Mean age = 21.4 (SD = 2.5); 61.6% female) completed baseline and daily surveys as part of a larger ecological momentary assessment study. Past month blackout experiences and peak number of drinks were reported at baseline and FoMO was reported in daily surveys one to three weeks following the baseline survey. Results: A zero-inflated negative binomial model was fit to examine the interaction between peak number of drinks with age and FoMO on alcohol-induced blacking out, controlling for relevant covariates. Findings indicated the association between peak number of drinks on the likelihood of alcohol-induced blacking out was significantly moderated by age. The association was stronger for younger compared to older individuals. Findings further indicated the associations between peak number of drinks on both the likelihood and average number of alcohol-induced blacking out was significantly moderated by FoMO. For individuals with higher levels of FoMO, the association between peak drinks and alcohol-induced blacking out was weaker for the likelihood of experiencing any blackouts and stronger for the number of blackouts. Conclusions: Findings provide support to previous literature examining age and FoMO as risk factors for alcohol-induced blackouts among adolescents and young adults.

Occasion-level investigation of playing drinking games: Associations with cognitions, situational factors, alcohol use, and negative consequences among adolescents and young adults.

The present study examined occasion-level associations between cognitions (willingness to drink, descriptive norms, and injunctive norms) and situational factors (familiarity with people and locations) with playing drinking games (DGs) among adolescents and young adults. Further, this study tested the associations between playing DGs, the number of drinks consumed, and the negative consequences experienced at the occasion level. Participants were 15-25-year-olds (N = 688; 43% male, 47% White, Non-Hispanic, Mean age = 21.18) who were part of a longitudinal ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study on cognitions and alcohol use. The study design consisted of a 3-week EMA burst design (8 surveys per week) that was repeated quarterly over the 12-month study (up to 2x/day) per participant. Multilevel models showed that occasion-level risks (higher willingness, higher descriptive norms, and less familiarity with people) were associated with playing DGs. When examining the within-person associations between DGs and number of drinks, results showed that playing DGs was associated with consuming more drinks. For consequences, DGs were not uniquely predictive of experiencing more consequences and riding in a vehicle with a driver who had been drinking. This study contributes to the literature by examining associations between cognitions and situational factors with DGs and the role DGs play in experiencing negative consequences among a diverse sample of adolescents and young adults.

Investigating Why and How Young Adults Use Protective Behavioral Strategies for Alcohol and Marijuana Use: Protocol for Developing a Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND: Young adulthood is associated with increased alcohol and marijuana use compared with other developmental periods. Alcohol and marijuana use place individuals at high risk for acute and long-term negative consequences. Despite the relatively large cross-sectional and longitudinal literature on protective behavioral strategies (PBS; behaviors that individuals can use to limit consequences and reduce substance use), little is known about why young adults choose to use PBS on specific occasions or why they might use PBS differently across occasions (ie, quality and consistency). There is significant room for improvement in the conceptualization, application, and understanding of PBS. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to develop a novel, brief web-based and SMS text messaging intervention, with input from young adults who use alcohol and marijuana, which addresses the extent to which motivations for PBS use and nonuse (marijuana or alcohol) and the quality of PBS use (the degree of effectiveness or degree of implementation) differ when using alcohol alone versus concurrently or simultaneously with marijuana. METHODS: This research will be conducted in 2 phases. Phase 1 will involve web-based focus groups (N=100) and cognitive interviews (N=10) to determine why young adults (aged 18-24 years) use or do not use specific PBS related to alcohol and marijuana use and elicit feedback on how motivations and the quality of PBS could be incorporated into a web-based and SMS text messaging PBS intervention as well as elicit feedback on developed intervention material. In phase 2, young adults (N=200; aged 18-24 years), who typically use alcohol and marijuana for at least 2 days per week, will be randomized to either the intervention or waitlist control group. The intervention will be brief, web-based, focusing on self-selected alcohol and marijuana PBS messages and motives for using alcohol- and marijuana-related PBS, and including intervention content delivered via SMS text messages 3 days a week (random day, Friday, and Saturday) over 8 consecutive weeks. All participants will report on PBS use, motivations for PBS use (and nonuse), quality of PBS use, and alcohol and marijuana use in morning surveys timed to occur the day after the intervention SMS text messages for those in the intervention group. RESULTS: Recruitment and enrollment for phase 1 began in January 2022. Recruitment for phase 2 is anticipated to begin in January 2023. Upon completion of the phase 2 pilot, we will examine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effect sizes of the newly developed brief web-based and SMS text messaging intervention. CONCLUSIONS: This study will provide an in-depth understanding of young adults' PBS use and has the potential to develop a more efficacious intervention for co-occurring or simultaneous alcohol and marijuana behaviors. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04978129; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04978129. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/37106.