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Prototype Willingness Model Drinking Cognitions Mediate Personalized Normative Feedback Efficacy

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Abstract

Personalized normative feedback (PNF) interventions have been shown to be efficacious at reducing college student drinking. Because descriptive norms have been shown to mediate PNF efficacy, the current study focused on examining additional prototype willingness model social reaction cognitions, namely, prototypes and willingness, as mediators of intervention efficacy. We expected the PNF interventions to be associated with increased prototype favorability of students who do not drink, which would in turn be associated with decreased willingness to drink and subsequently, less drinking. The current study included 622 college students (53.2% women; 62% Caucasian) who reported one or more heavy drinking episodes in the past month and completed baseline and three-month follow-up assessments. As posited by the framework of the prototype willingness model, sequential mediation analyses were conducted to evaluate increases in abstainer prototype favorability on willingness on drinking, and subsequently willingness to drink on drinking behavior. Mediation results revealed significant indirect effects of PNF on three-month drinking through three-month prototypes and willingness, indicating that the social reaction pathway of the prototype willingness model was supported. Findings have important implications for PNF interventions aiming to reduce high-risk drinking among college students. Study findings suggest that we should consider looking at additional socially-based mediators of PNF efficacy in addition to perceived descriptive norms.

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Acknowledgements

Data collection and manuscript preparation were supported by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Grant R01AA014576. Manuscript preparation was also supported by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Grant R01AA021379.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Box 354944, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA

    Melissa A. Lewis & Dana M. Litt

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA

    Mary Tomkins & Clayton Neighbors

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  1. Melissa A. Lewis
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  2. Dana M. Litt
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  4. Clayton Neighbors
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Correspondence to Melissa A. Lewis.

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Data collection and manuscript preparation were supported by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Grant R01AA014576.

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This study has been approved by the appropriate institutional committee and has been performed in accordance with the ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study, and the study was performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Lewis, M.A., Litt, D.M., Tomkins, M. et al. Prototype Willingness Model Drinking Cognitions Mediate Personalized Normative Feedback Efficacy. Prev Sci 18, 373–381 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-016-0742-4

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