Gender, Affect, and Expectancies in College Drinking

描述（由申请人提供）：尽管有记录的性别差异，在酒精使用和后果之间的大学生，性别对一些最显着的大学饮酒的相关性的影响已经研究不足。具体而言，理论和实证数据提供支持的病因概念化的大学饮酒，包括情感和认知因素，和文献表明，这些因素可能会影响饮酒性别差异。然而，这些关键变量之间的关系的性质以及它们可能影响酒精消费的方式仍然不清楚。现存的研究已经产生了不一致的结果，也许部分原因是严重依赖自我报告数据和相关设计来评估这些关联。这方面的实验室控制研究显然是必要的。这个新的研究者R21的目标是开发和进行必要的实验室研究，以阐明这些协会，并描绘情感和认知过程的基础大学饮酒。 拟议的研究计划包括一系列的三项研究。在第一项研究中，多维标度（MDS）将用于模拟不同性别和不同想象酒精剂量的酒精预期。在第二项研究中，实验诱导的情绪对酒精预期的可及性的影响将在2（性别）× 3（情绪）析因设计中进行检查。在第三项研究中，大学生将被随机分配到一种情绪状态。将在2（性别）× 3（情绪）析因设计中检查饮酒中的情绪相关变化。 适度的影响，预期和中介影响的预期可及性的影响饮酒协会将进行检查。 根据2000年健康人倡议的目标，这项研究计划是减少青少年酗酒的关键的第一步。总之，拟议的研究将产生关于性别，影响，期望和饮酒之间的独特和综合关联的基本知识。该方案在对这些协会进行系统的实验性检查方面具有创新性。这些研究的结果对预防性干预措施有直接和重要的影响，因为它们可能有助于制定有针对性的、适合性别的干预措施，以减少大学生酗酒及其后果。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Despite documented gender differences in alcohol use and consequences among college students, the impact of gender on some of the most salient correlates of college drinking has been understudied. Specifically, both theory and empirical data offer support for an etiological conceptualization of college drinking that includes both affective and cognitive factors, and the literature suggests that these factors may affect drinking differentially by gender. Yet, the nature of relations among these critical variables and the ways that they may influence alcohol consumption remain unclear. Extant studies have yielded dissonant findings, perhaps in part due to the heavy reliance on self-report data and correlational designs to assess these associations. Controlled laboratory studies in this area clearly are needed. The objective of this new investigator R21 is to develop and conduct necessary laboratory studies to explicate these associations and to delineate affective and cognitive processes underlying college drinking. The proposed research program consists of a series of three studies. In the first study, multidimensional scaling (MDS) will be used to model alcohol expectancies across genders and at differing imagined doses of alcohol. In the second study, the effects of experimentally induced mood on the accessibility of alcohol expectancies will be examined in a 2(gender) X 3 (mood) factorial design. In the third study, undergraduates will be randomly assigned to a mood condition. Mood related changes in drinking will be examined in a 2 (gender) X 3 (mood) factorial design. Moderational effects of expectancies and mediational effects of expectancy accessibility on the affect-drinking association will be examined. In accordance with the goals of the Healthy People 2000 Initiative, this research program represents a critical first step toward decreasing heavy drinking among youths. Together, the proposed studies will yield fundamental knowledge about the unique and aggregate associations among gender, affect, expectancies, and alcohol consumption. The program is innovative in its systematic experimental examination of these associations. Findings from these studies have direct and important implications for preventive interventions, as they may facilitate the development of targeted, gender-appropriate interventions to reduce heavy alcohol use and its consequences among college students.