title: A daily measure of positive and negative alcohol expectancies and evaluations: documenting a two-factor structure and within- and between-person variability.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Despite the documented importance of alcohol outcome expectancies in predicting alcohol use and related consequences, little research has explored within-person variability in expectancies. This article details the construction and psychometric analysis of a measure of alcohol expectancies specifically designed for daily assessment.
  
  
  METHODS
  We developed a 15-item instrument to measure the likelihood of experiencing various outcomes from drinking, as well as the subjective evaluation of these outcomes. College students (N = 352; mean age = 19.7 years, SD = 1.26; 53.4% female) participated in a yearlong study wherein they completed three computerized interviews daily via mobile phones for 2 weeks in each academic quarter. Multilevel exploratory factor analysis was used to examine dimensionality at between-person and within-person levels, and generalizability coefficients were calculated to establish reliability.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Intraclass correlation coefficients were generally between .30 and .40, demonstrating both between-person and within-person variability. Exploratory factor analysis resulted in a two-factor solution of positive and negative effects of alcohol, and two items with equivocal loadings were dropped from the final scale. The two subscales showed excellent reliabilities at within- and between- person levels, and the measure demonstrated good convergent and discriminant validity with a commonly used expectancy measure.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Drinkers hold many expectations about the effects of alcohol, and measures are needed that are designed to capture both stable and context-dependent aspects of these beliefs. Results demonstrated significant day-to-day variation in the strength and valuation of alcohol expectancies, and the scale demonstrated good psychometric properties that establish its appropriateness for use in daily process studies of alcohol use.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
authors.forename: Christine M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Atkins
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
authors.forename: Jessica M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Cronce
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
authors.forename: Theresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Walter
authors.affiliation: Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
authors.forename: Barbara C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Leigh
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult