title: Conceptualizing and Measuring Weekend versus Weekday Alcohol Use: Item Response Theory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis.
abstract: Culturally, people tend to abstain from alcohol intake during the weekdays and wait to consume in greater frequency and quantity during the weekends. The current research sought to empirically justify the days representing weekday versus weekend alcohol consumption. In study 1 (N = 419), item response theory was applied to a two-parameter (difficulty and discrimination) model that evaluated the days of drinking (frequency) during the typical 7-day week. Item characteristic curves were most similar for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (prototypical weekday) and for Friday and Saturday (prototypical weekend). Thursday and Sunday, however, exhibited item characteristics that bordered the properties of weekday and weekend consumption. In study 2 (N = 403), confirmatory factor analysis was applied to test six hypothesized measurement structures representing drinks per day (quantity) during the typical week. The measurement model producing the strongest fit indices was a correlated two-factor structure involving separate weekday and weekend factors that permitted Thursday and Sunday to double load on both dimensions. The proper conceptualization and accurate measurement of the days demarcating the normative boundaries of "dry" weekdays and "wet" weekends are imperative to inform research and prevention efforts targeting temporal alcohol intake patterns.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, 1420 Austin Bluffs Pkwy, Colorado Springs, CO, 80918, USA. alac@uccs.edu.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lac
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Claremont Graduate University, 150 E. 10th St., Claremont, CA, 91711, USA.
authors.forename: Lindsay
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Handren
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Claremont Graduate University, 150 E. 10th St., Claremont, CA, 91711, USA.
authors.forename: William D
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: Crano
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Alcohol; Confirmatory factor analysis; Item response theory; Weekday drinking; Weekend drinking