An Expanded Daily Alcohol Expectancies Measure: Results on the Multilevel Factor Structure and Psychometric...

Alcohol expectancies are beliefs people have about the likelihood of experiencing various positive or negative consequences related to alcohol use. Expectancies have most commonly been treated as traitlike characteristics of individuals, but some researchers have assessed expectancies as state-level characteristics that vary within persons across days. Previous work developed a 13-item daily alcohol expectancies measure. This study evaluated an expanded version of that measure that includes 10 additional expectancy items.

Participants were 2- and 4-year college students (N = 201; 63.7% female; 55.2% White non-Hispanic; 75.1% 4-year students) randomized to the control group of a longitudinal study designed to test the efficacy of a just-in-time adaptive intervention delivered via mobile app to reduce high-risk alcohol use. Multilevel exploratory factor analysis was used to determine the factor structure at the daily and person levels. Multilevel models were used to evaluate the convergent validity of the resulting subscales.

Two factors, broadly representing positive and negative alcohol expectancies, were retained at the daily and person levels. Composite reliability (omega) estimates ranged from .85 to .96 and suggested that the reliability of the resulting subscales was good to strong. Associations between the daily expectancy subscales and baseline scores on an established expectancies measure provided preliminary evidence of convergent validity.

Findings indicate that this expanded 23-item daily alcohol expectancies measure is psychometrically sound. This measure is appropriate for use in daily or just-in-time expectancy challenge interventions. It is suitable for use among 2- and 4-year college students who drink alcohol regularly and occasionally in heavy quantities and who experience alcohol-related negative consequences.