Measurement Considerations for Alcohol Use Consequences: Differentiating Negative Events from Alcohol-Related...

Background: Questionnaires assessing alcohol-related consequences potentially capture events that can also occur in the absence of alcohol use but are not assessed while sober. This lack of measurement specificity has likely led to an over-attribution of certain negative outcomes to drinking, which in turn may result in inaccuracies in our understanding of alcohol-related consequences and the impact of intervention on these outcomes. Objective: We examined negative events typically associated with alcohol use while drinking and while sober. Participants were 768 college students recruited from a large, southeastern university, who completed a one-time assessment related to alcohol use and negative events. We adapted an alcohol-related consequences questionnaire to collect data on negative events that occurred when drinking and sober. Results: Seven of eight negative events occurred more often while sober (OR = 1.80-8.20, ps < .001). None of the negative events examined, individually or in total, were more likely to occur when drinking. Conclusion: Findings may help to explain the persistence of high rates of consequences reported in relation to alcohol use despite decreases in drinking following intervention. Future research should refine measures of consequences to ensure that negative events that are labeled as alcohol-related can be more directly attributed to alcohol use.