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. 2023 Mar;47(3):540-548.
doi: 10.1111/acer.15023. Epub 2023 Mar 6.

Daily impulsivity and alcohol expectancies: A multilevel examination of the acquired preparedness model

Amy L Stamates  1 , Cathy Lau-Barraco  2   3 , Abby L Braitman  2   3
Affiliations

Daily impulsivity and alcohol expectancies: A multilevel examination of the acquired preparedness model

Amy L Stamates et al. Alcohol Clin Exp Res (Hoboken). 2023 Mar.

Abstract

Background: The acquired preparedness model (APM) integrates personality traits and psychosocial learning to posit amechanism whereby individuals initiate and continue alcohol use. The present study examined within-person associations between impulsivity, alcohol expectancies, alcohol use, and alcohol problems to inform daily process models of drinking and test the APM.

Methods: Participants were 89 college student drinkers who completed momentary reports (three random and two user-initiated reports) for 14 days. Multilevel mediation analyses examined whether daily associations between impulsivity and alcohol use and problems were mediated by positive and negative expectancies.

Results: Daily impulsivity was positively associated with daily positive expectancies, prior to drinking. Greater daily positive expectancies were associated with more alcohol consumed and alcohol problems that day. The indirect effects were significant, indicating greater than usual impulsivity was associated with greater alcohol use and alcohol problems through greater positive expectancies. Impulsivity was positively associated with negative expectancies at the within-subject and between-subject levels, but negative expectancies did not serve as a mediator between impulsivity and either alcohol outcome.

Conclusions: This is the first study to test the APM at the day level. Findings supported daily fluctuations in beliefs regarding the positive effects of alcohol as a salient mechanism explaining the link between daily impulsivity and level of alcohol use. Because impulsivity was linked to changes in expectancy states that were proximal to drinking that day, this information may be used to develop prevention and intervention programs to reduce alcohol harms.

Keywords: alcohol expectancies; alcohol use; ecological momentary assessment; impulsivity; young adults.

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Within- and between-level paths of multilevel mediation paths for alcohol use. Figure includes unstandardized path coefficients. Bold paths are significant. Nonsignificant paths are noted by dashed lines. Weekend versus weekday was controlled for in the model but omitted from the figure for clarity.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Within- and between-level paths of multilevel mediation paths for alcohol problems. Figure includes unstandardized path coefficients. Bold paths are significant. Nonsignificant paths are noted by dashed lines. Weekend versus weekday and alcohol use were controlled for in the model but omitted from the figure for clarity.
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