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Binge Drinkers Shouldn’t Set Their Own Alcohol Reduction Goals! Evaluating the Effectiveness of Different Goal-Based Alcohol Reduction Interventions among Young People

Rubin, M.; Hutton, A.

Binge Drinkers Shouldn’t Set Their Own Alcohol Reduction Goals! Evaluating the Effectiveness of Different Goal-Based Alcohol Reduction Interventions among Young People Thumbnail


Authors

A. Hutton



Abstract

The present research aimed to investigate the relative effectiveness of three types of alcohol reduction intervention. Participants were 354 university students from an Australian university. After completing an initial survey, they were randomly assigned to either (a) follow national guidelines for alcohol consumption, (b) set their own personal alcohol consumption reduction goal, or (c) work with their peers to set a goal. Participants then recorded their alcohol consumption in a drinking diary over a period of four weeks. The results showed that participants in the personal goal condition reported significantly higher alcohol consumption than those in the national guidelines conditions, with participants in the group goal condition reporting mid-level alcohol consumption. This effect was moderated by binge drinking propensity. Personal goal setting was most likely to lead to higher alcohol consumption when participants scored relatively high on measures of binge drinking propensity. These findings highlight the point that different types of alcohol reduction interventions may be effective for different types of people. In particular, people who have a relatively high propensity for binge drinking should be encouraged to follow goals that have been set by authorities (e.g., national guidelines) rather than by themselves.

Citation

Rubin, M., & Hutton, A. (2022). Binge Drinkers Shouldn’t Set Their Own Alcohol Reduction Goals! Evaluating the Effectiveness of Different Goal-Based Alcohol Reduction Interventions among Young People. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, 40(3), 311-321. https://doi.org/10.1080/07347324.2022.2037486

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jan 31, 2022
Online Publication Date Feb 4, 2022
Publication Date 2022
Deposit Date Sep 5, 2022
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly
Print ISSN 0734-7324
Publisher Taylor and Francis Group
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 40
Issue 3
Pages 311-321
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/07347324.2022.2037486

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Copyright Statement
© 2022 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided
the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.




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