Development & validation of an implicit measure of alcohol-related self-identity

描述（由申请人提供）：本R03申请是对PA-08-214（行为与社会科学的方法论和测量）的回应，要求支持开发和验证一种用于估计酒精相关自我认同的内隐评估工具。对与危险行为（如饮酒和吸烟）相关的身份的内隐评估，比外显评估更能预测未来的危险行为。不幸的是，没有容易管理的工具来评估与酒精有关的内隐自我认同；因此，风险评估和预防项目在大学等地方不太可能使用现有的评估，尽管可能有好处。鉴于大学生和其他人中持续存在的酒精滥用问题，一个易于管理的风险评估可能对研究和实践都有用。为此，拟议的研究特别寻求支持：(1)开发酒精身份内隐联想测试（AI-IAT），以衡量个人在酒精与他或她之间的联系强度；(2)检验AI-IAT的信度（即重测稳定性、内部一致性）；(3)检验AI-IAT的有效性（即收敛性、发散性、预测性、增量性）。该研究将使用300名大学生来完成这些任务，我们将在基线和3个月和6个月的随访中对他们进行评估。我们还将对20%的样本进行为期两周的重测评估。建立一种与酒精相关的自我认同的隐性测量方法，即AI-IAT，将为该领域的研究带来一些好处，并为在许多现实世界环境中具有实际重要性的其他与身份相关的举措奠定基础。我们打算通过R01申请来遵循拟议的研究，该申请扩展了当前申请（即药物和赌博）中描述的措施开发工作以及这些措施将被测试的环境（即临床环境）。通过AI-IAT进行的自动化风险评估将在实践中对预防专家和临床医生产生很少的需求，同时为有效的治疗和预防计划提供重要的信息。公共卫生相关性：酗酒是大学生发病率和死亡率的最大单一因素。近年来，尽管加大了预防力度，但大学生酗酒的普遍程度仍未改变，这表明需要采用新的风险评估方法。大多数大学生酒精滥用风险评估方法要求大学生自我报告其饮酒行为的前因。这种评估存在两个主要的局限性：(1)它们对内隐认知结构相对不敏感，内隐认知结构在意识意识之外运作；(2)他们容易受到学生希望以积极形象出现的愿望的影响。拟议的研究将开发并验证一种新的风险评估工具，该工具不太容易受到自我表现欲望的影响，而对一个重要的内隐结构——酒精相关的自我认同更敏感。证据表明，与酒精相关的自我认同可能是危险饮酒行为的重要前提。因此，该工具的开发将提高前瞻性评估大学生危险饮酒行为的能力，从而导致更有效的早期干预计划。额外的调整可以很容易地将该工具扩展到临床人群，提高治疗提供者估计个体客户治疗成功可能性的能力。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This R03 application, in response to PA-08-214 (Methodology and Measurement in the Behavioral and So- cial Sciences), requests support to develop and validate an implicit assessment tool for estimating alcohol- related self-identity. Implicit assessments of identity related to risky behavior, such as drinking and smoking, predict future risky behavior above and beyond explicit assessments. Unfortunately, there are no easily admin- istered tools for assessing implicit alcohol-related self-identity; consequently, risk assessment and prevention programs in locations such as colleges are unlikely to use available assessments despite possible benefits. In light of ongoing alcohol abuse problems among college students and others, an easily administered risk as- sessment could prove useful for both research and practice purposes. To that end, the proposed research seeks support specifically to: (1) develop the Alcohol Identity Implicit Associations Test (AI-IAT), to measure the strength of the association an individual holds between alcohol and him- or herself; (2) examine the reliabil- ity of the AI-IAT (i.e., test-retest stability; internal consistency); and (3) examine the validity of the AI-IAT (i.e., convergent, divergent, predictive, incremental). The proposed research will complete these tasks using a co- hort of 300 college students, whom we will assess at baseline and at 3-month and 6-month follow-ups. We also will complete a two-week test-retest assessment on 20% of our sample. The establishment of an implicit measure of alcohol-related self-identity, the AI-IAT, will provide the field with several research benefits and lay the foundation for additional identity-related initiatives that hold practical importance in a number of real world settings. It is our intention to follow the proposed research study with an R01 application that extends both the measure-development work described in the current application (i.e., to drugs and gambling) and the settings in which these measures will be tested (i.e., to clinical settings). Automated risk assessment via the AI-IAT will create few demands for prevention specialists and clinicians in practice, while simultaneously yielding vital in- formation for effective treatment and prevention planning. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Alcohol abuse is the greatest single contributor to morbidity and mortality among the college student population. The unchanging prevalence of alcohol abuse among college students in recent years, despite increasing prevention efforts, suggests the need for novel approaches to risk assessment. Most approaches to risk assessment for alcohol abuse among college students require college students to self-report about the antecedents of their drinking behavior. Such assessments present two main limitations: (1) they are relatively insensitive to implicit cognitive structures, which operate outside of conscious awareness; and (2) they are susceptible to students' desires to present themselves in a positive light. The proposed research will develop and validate a new risk assessment tool that is less susceptible to self-presentation desires and more sensitive to an important implicit construct, alcohol-related self-identity. Evidence suggests that alcohol-related self- identity may be an important antecedent to risky drinking behavior. Therefore, the development of this tool will improve the ability to prospectively assess risky drinking behavior among college students, leading to more effective early intervention programs. Additional adaptations could easily extend this tool to clinical populations, improving treatment providers' abilities to estimate for individual clients the likelihood of treatment success.