title: Interactions among drinking identity, gender and decisional balance in predicting alcohol use and problems among college students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of the present study was to test promising constructs (decisional balance and drinking identity) and their interaction with gender as predictors of risky college drinking. We expected that, consistent with previous work, drinking identity would be positively associated with alcohol consumption and problems. We further expected that drinking identity would be more strongly related to outcomes among individuals scoring low in decisional balance. Additionally, we expect the relationship between drinking identity and alcohol behavior to vary as a function of decisional balance.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants included 329 undergraduates (M=23.11; SD=5.63; 74.47% female) who met heavy drinking criteria (defined as women who consumed 4 or more drinks per occasion and men who consumed 5 or more drinks per occasion) and completed an online survey comprised of self-report measures.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Decisional balance was negatively correlated with both drinking and problems, which partially supported expectations. As expected, drinking identity was positively correlated with drinking and problems. A two-way interaction emerged between drinking identity and decisional balance regarding problems, indicating that drinking identity was associated with more problems, especially among those lower in decisional balance. A three-way interaction between drinking identity, decisional balance, and gender emerged regarding problems such that drinking identity was associated with more problems for those lower in decisional balance and this effect was stronger among men.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Findings lend support to the perspective that decisional balance, drinking identity, and gender are all influential factors that are associated with the experience of alcohol problems.
authors.affiliation: Yale School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, New Haven, CT, United States. Electronic address: dawn.foster@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Dawn W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Foster
authors.affiliation: University of Houston, Department of Psychology, Houston, TX, United States.
authors.forename: Chelsie M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Young
authors.affiliation: University of Houston, Department of Psychology, Houston, TX, United States.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bryan
authors.affiliation: University of Houston, Department of Psychology, Houston, TX, United States.
authors.forename: Mai-Ly N
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Steers
authors.affiliation: University of Houston, Department of Psychology, Houston, TX, United States.
authors.forename: Nelson C Y
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Yeung
authors.affiliation: University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Cancer Prevention and Health Promotion Department, New Haven, CT, United States.
authors.forename: Alexander V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Prokhorov
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000523:psychology*; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D012737:Sex Factors; D012933:Social Identification; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Alcohol; Decisional balance; Drinking; Drinking identity; Gender