Efficacy of a non-drinking mental simulation intervention for reducing student alcohol consumption
Article
Conroy, D., Sparks, Paul and de Visser, Richard 2015. Efficacy of a non-drinking mental simulation intervention for reducing student alcohol consumption. British Journal of Health Psychology. 20 (4), pp. 688-707. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjhp.12133
Authors | Conroy, D., Sparks, Paul and de Visser, Richard |
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Abstract | Objectives To assess the impact of a mental simulation intervention designed to reduce student alcohol consumption by asking participants to imagine potential positive outcomes of and/or strategic processes involved in not drinking during social occasions. English university students aged 18–25 years (n = 211, Mage = 20 years) were randomly allocated to one of four intervention conditions. The dependent variables were weekly alcohol consumption, heavy episodic drinking (HED) frequency and frequency of social occasions at which participants did not drink alcohol when others were drinking alcohol (‘episodic non‐drinking’). Measures of alcohol‐related prototypes (i.e., prototypical non‐drinker, prototypical regular drinker) were used to compute sociability prototype difference scores as a potential mediator of any intervention effects. All measures were taken at baseline and at 2‐ and 4‐week follow‐up. Participants completed one of four exercises involving either imagining positive outcomes of non‐drinking during a social occasion (outcome condition); imagining strategies required for non‐drinking during a social occasion (process condition); imagining both positive outcomes and required strategies (combined condition); or completing a drinks diary task (control condition). Latent growth curve analyses revealed a more substantial rate of decrease in weekly unit consumption and HED frequency among outcome condition and process condition participants, relative to control condition participants. Non‐significant differences were found between the combined condition and the control condition. Across the whole sample, an inverted U‐shape trend indicated an initial increase in episodic non‐drinking before it returned to baseline levels. This study provides preliminary evidence that mental simulation interventions focused on non‐drinking can successfully promote behaviour change. |
Journal | British Journal of Health Psychology |
Journal citation | 20 (4), pp. 688-707 |
ISSN | 1359107X |
Year | 2015 |
Publisher | Wiley and The British Psychological Society |
Accepted author manuscript | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1111/bjhp.12133 |
Web address (URL) | https://doi.org/10.1111/bjhp.12133 |
Publication dates | |
Online | 09 Feb 2015 |
Publication process dates | |
Deposited | 04 Apr 2018 |
Funder | Economic and Social Research Council |
Copyright information | © 2015 The British Psychological Society. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Conroy, et. al, Efficacy of a non-drinking mental simulation intervention for reducing student alcohol consumption, British Journal of Health Psychology, 20(4): 688-707, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/bjhp.12133. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving. |
https://repository.uel.ac.uk/item/8572w
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