Family History of Problem Drinking Is Associated With Reduced Sensitivity of Alcohol Demand to Next-Day...

Murphy et al. (2014) found that university students with a family history (FH) of alcohol problems exhibit a reduced sensitivity of alcohol demand to next-day academic responsibilities. Considering the ongoing replication crisis, the objective of this study was to replicate and extend this research in community adults, including a range of non-academic responsibilities.

We conducted a secondary analysis of 461 adults who reported past-year alcohol consumption (39% women; mean age = 38.42), recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Participants were coded as FH+ (40%) or FH- (60%) based on reporting if any biological parents or grandparents had a history of alcohol problems. Participants completed alcohol purchase tasks involving a typical drinking situation or next-day responsibility (e.g., work, caregiving). FH status was examined as a moderator of reductions in observed indices of alcohol demand in separate analyses of covariance controlling for participant sex and severity of alcohol misuse.

Alcohol demand did not significantly differ by FH status on the no-responsibility APT (ps >.56). Compared to FH- participants, FH+ participants showed a smaller magnitude reduction in the responsibility condition for breakpoint (p =.002, η_p2=.036), O_max (p =.002, η_p2=.041), and P_max (p =.001, η_p2=.040), and nonsignificant effects for intensity (p =.053, η_p2=.015).

These findings replicate and extend Murphy et al. (2014) by providing necessary confirmation that FH confers risk for greater alcohol consumption despite upcoming responsibilities. People with a FH of problem drinking may require specific interventions that make the impact of drinking on next-day responsibilities more salient.