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CDP-2011-38-2-06-Wells. Measuring Young Men’s Expected Effects of Alcohol in Provoking Situations in Bars

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BY SAMANTHA WELLS, KATHRYN GRAHAM, PAUL F. TREMBLAY, and JENNIE REYNOLDS

A newly-developed measure of the expected effects of alcohol in
provoking situations was examined in terms of its factor structure,
differences by situation, and associations with barroom aggression
in a sample of male postsecondary students. Participants rated the
extent that 49 effects of alcohol would affect their reaction to one
of three randomly assigned provoking situations (i.e., guy “hits on”
your girlfriend, guy punches your friend, or guy shoves you over
spilled drink). Principal component analysis identified three
dimensions: Cognitive Impairment, Power/Aggression, and
Hyper-Emotional effects. One-way analysis of variance revealed
significantly lower means on each of the three scales for the
“spilled drink” situation than for the other two situations. All three
scales were associated with barroom aggression in multivariate
logistic regression models. This new measure provides an important
tool for understanding how people perceive the effects of alcohol
on their own aggression and the extent that these effects differ by
situation.

Season: 
2011
Volume: 
38
Number: 
2
Keywords: 
Expected effects of alcohol, alcohol expectancies, provoking situations, barroom aggression, factor analyses.

SAMANTHA WELLS is a Scientist in the Social and Community Interventions and Policy
Research Group, Social and Epidemiological Research Department, at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

KATHRYN GRAHAM is a Senior Scientist and Head of the Social and Community Interventions and Policy Research Group at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in London, Ontario, Canada.

PAUL F. TREMBLAY received his doctorate in psychology (measurement) from the University of Western Ontario, Canada, in 1998.

JENNIE REYNOLDS is a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Western Ontario