The Temptation and Restraint Inventory for measuring drinking restraint.

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Behavioral Science
• Addiction Research

Background:

• Measuring drinking restraint is complex, involving cognitive and behavioral regulation of alcohol intake.
• Previous scales like the Restrained Drinking Scale (RDS) captured some aspects but lacked comprehensive cognitive characterization.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a refined measure of drinking restraint that incorporates cognitive factors.
• To test a factor structure representing both successful and unsuccessful regulation of alcohol intake.
• To introduce the Temptation and Restraint Inventory (TRI) as a new measure.

Main Methods:

• Developed new cognitive items to assess drinking restraint.
• Tested a three-component structure of the Restrained Drinking Scale (RDS).
• Extracted two factors from new cognitive items and combined them with RDS clusters to form the TRI.

Main Results:

• Confirmed the previously observed three-component structure of the RDS.
• The new Temptation and Restraint Inventory (TRI) demonstrated a factor structure aligning with successful and unsuccessful regulation.
• The TRI significantly predicted self-reported weekly alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems.

Conclusions:

• The Temptation and Restraint Inventory (TRI) offers a more comprehensive assessment of drinking restraint, including cognitive elements.
• The TRI's structure supports the conceptualization of restraint as involving both regulation and its failure.
• This new measure has implications for understanding and potentially intervening in alcohol use patterns.