Evaluating Change in Drinking Identity as a Mechanism for Reducing Hazardous Drinking - Study 2

Evaluating Change in Drinking Identity as a Mechanism for Reducing Hazardous Drinking - Study 2

The purpose of the proposed research is to evaluate whether changes in drinking identity (DI; how much one associates one's self with drinking) can reduce hazardous drinking (HD; heavy alcohol use and negative alcohol-related consequences) among current college students. The study seeks to explore whether manipulating DI among participants will have changes in self-efficacy, craving, and HD. If such an effect can be found, DI may be a mechanism for HD behavior change and will allow researchers to develop and improve interventions aimed at HD behaviors in high-risk young adults.

Experimentally manipulate DI to increase self-efficacy, decrease alcohol craving and reduce HD. We will recruit 328 student hazardous drinkers and use an expressive writing task to manipulate their DI, the salience of their social network, and their writing perspective. The last factor is included because writing in a self-distanced (3rd person) vs. self-immersed (1st person) perspective has been linked to greater cognitive control. We will evaluate the manipulation's immediate effects on DI, self-efficacy, and craving. Participants will also complete two weekly follow-up "booster" sessions. Longer-term effects on DI, self-efficacy, craving and HD will be evaluated at additional 2-week, 1-month, and 3-month follow-ups.

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, new subject enrollment was paused between March and September 2020. In light of the continued COVID-19 pandemic, the study team made the decision to move the in-person, lab-based session (where participants completed the writing task) to online sessions as of October 2020. With the move to online sessions, we have discontinued the cue reactivity task and the accompanying craving assessment. Inclusion criteria have shifted slightly -- we now explicitly require participants to be currently living in Washington State (this criterion was implicit in our previous criteria and procedures) . The structure of the study otherwise remains the same.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Participants must be full-time UW students, fluent in the English language, and recent (past week) drinkers who self-report drinking hazardously (i.e., score an 8 or above on the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test, AUDIT). Participants must also own a smartphone.

Exclusion Criteria:

• None.