Acute effects of subjective alcohol effects and negative alcohol consequences on next-day positive alcohol...

Acute subjective alcohol effects are theorized to impact next-day alcohol expectancies and future drinking likelihood. However, little research has focused on the acute impact of distinct subjective alcohol-related effects (i.e., high-arousal-positive/stimulation vs. low-arousal-positive/relaxation) on next-day expectancies and drinking likelihood, despite the two having divergent alcohol outcomes. Further, such relations may be dampened when simultaneously experiencing negative alcohol consequences. The current study fills these voids in the literature.

Young adults (N = 131) completed 21 days of ecological momentary assessments, reporting (1) subjective effects during user-initiated drink reports and (2) expectancies and use behavior during next-day reports. Two-level multilevel mediation models tested whether subjective effects and negative consequences experienced from past-day drinking episodes indirectly predicted changes in next-day drinking likelihood via changes in next-day expectancies, and whether negative consequences experienced moderated such links.

Past-day high- and low-arousal-positive subjective effects predicted increased next-day high- and low-arousal-positive expectancies, respectively. Further, past-day experiences of negative alcohol consequences predicted decreased next-day high (but not low) arousal positive expectancies. Thus, high-arousal-positive effects indirectly predicted higher likelihood of next-day drinking via increased next-day high-arousal-positive expectancies, whereas negative consequences predicted lower likelihood of next-day drinking via dampened next-day high-arousal-positive expectancies. Negative consequences moderated relations between low (but not high) arousal positive subjective effects and next-day expectancies, wherein past-day low-arousal-positive effects translated into stronger next-day low-arousal-positive expectancies when, surprisingly, experiencing higher-than-average (vs. lower-than-average) negative consequences.

Subjective effect-to-expectancy relations were present for both high- and low-arousal-positive effects, but negative consequences only served a "teachable moment" in terms of modifying next-day high arousal positive expectancies.