TY - JOUR
T1 - Differences in alcohol-related protective behavioral strategies among female and male college students
AU - Blanchard, Brittany E.
AU - Stevens, Angela K.
AU - Littlefield, Andrew K.
N1 - Funding Information:
Manuscript preparation supported by the Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship Award from Texas Tech University, in part by grant number T32 MH020021 (PI: Unützer) from the National Institute of Mental Health, and in part by grant number T32 DA016184 (PI: Rohsenow) from the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health. Funding sources had no role in the study design, collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2021/9
Y1 - 2021/9
N2 - Alcohol use is prevalent among college students, and some are at risk for developing alcohol use disorders. However, many students report using alcohol without experiencing negative consequences, which may be due, in part, to use of protective behavioral strategies (PBS). Although evidence of PBS effectiveness on reducing alcohol use and negative consequences is mixed, gender/sex differences in PBS use remain a consistent finding. To further explore these associations, we used item response theory models and assessed item-level PBS correlations with alcohol outcomes separately for female and males. Results indicated specific items exhibited significant sex differences in the amount of information and location of information across the latent trait. Some items provided little information across females and males, suggesting these items can be removed. All PBS items significantly associated with alcohol outcomes were negative in direction, but effects ranged from small to large in magnitude. These findings suggest strategies that are effective against alcohol-related harms vary across females and males, and PBS measurement may be improved by establishing sex-specific norms and analyzing females and males separately when studying PBS. Future research priorities include examining PBS among intersex, trans, and nonbinary people.
AB - Alcohol use is prevalent among college students, and some are at risk for developing alcohol use disorders. However, many students report using alcohol without experiencing negative consequences, which may be due, in part, to use of protective behavioral strategies (PBS). Although evidence of PBS effectiveness on reducing alcohol use and negative consequences is mixed, gender/sex differences in PBS use remain a consistent finding. To further explore these associations, we used item response theory models and assessed item-level PBS correlations with alcohol outcomes separately for female and males. Results indicated specific items exhibited significant sex differences in the amount of information and location of information across the latent trait. Some items provided little information across females and males, suggesting these items can be removed. All PBS items significantly associated with alcohol outcomes were negative in direction, but effects ranged from small to large in magnitude. These findings suggest strategies that are effective against alcohol-related harms vary across females and males, and PBS measurement may be improved by establishing sex-specific norms and analyzing females and males separately when studying PBS. Future research priorities include examining PBS among intersex, trans, and nonbinary people.
KW - Alcohol
KW - College students
KW - Harm reduction
KW - Item response theory
KW - Protective behavioral strategies
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85105883718&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.addbeh.2021.106969
DO - 10.1016/j.addbeh.2021.106969
M3 - Article
C2 - 34000650
AN - SCOPUS:85105883718
VL - 120
JO - Addictive Behaviors
JF - Addictive Behaviors
SN - 0306-4603
M1 - 106969
ER -