Alcohol PBS and Thinking About the Past

Study 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.

Primary Outcome

The Protective Behavioral Strategy-20 measure is a 20-item questionnaire assessing the use of three types of Protective Behavioral Strategies: serious harm reduction (8 items), stopping/limiting drinking (7 items), and manner of drinking (5 items). Each item has response options consisting of 1 (Never), 2 (Rarely), 3 (Occasionally), 4 (Sometimes), 5 (Usually), 6 (Always); there is also a Do not wish to respond option. Protective Behavioral Strategy Use scores are average scores for each subscale

Interventions

• BEHAVIORAL Personalized Normative Feedback
• BEHAVIORAL Negative Event + Counterfactual Task
• BEHAVIORAL Negative Event + Factual Thinking Task
• BEHAVIORAL Negative Event Only