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Sources of Environmental Reinforcement and Engagement in Risky Behaviors Among a General Population Sample of Adults
L'Insalata, Alexa
L'Insalata, Alexa
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Abstract
Background: Behavioral economics theory hypothesizes that the degree to which an individualseeks out reinforcement through substances is inversely related to the degree to which an individual seeks out alternative sources of reinforcement from their environment. The Pleasant Events Schedule (PES) is a commonly used measure designed to assess sources of environmental reinforcement; however, no study has examined the factor structure of this measure. Further, although research supports the premise that greater substance use is associated with less environmental reinforcement, it is largely unclear whether specific types of environmental reinforcement (e.g., social activities, occupational activities) may influence substance use. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to more restricted access to activity engagement which may influence substance use, thus research is needed to determine how COVID-19 lockdowns may have influenced the relationship between environmental reinforcement and substance use behaviors. The purpose of the current study was to: test the factor structure of PES (Aim 1a); test the measurement invariance of the PES to determine whether the structure was similar or if there were significant differences among individuals before the COVID-19 pandemic compared to during the initial COVID-19 pandemic stay-at-home orders (Aim 1b); and, test the association between different sources of environmental reinforcement (e.g., social, work, family) and engagement in multiple risky behaviors common in the general population (alcohol use, nicotine use, and binge eating), as well as food addiction (Aim 1c). Methods: A general sample of adults in the US (N = 596; n = 300 pre-pandemic; n = 296 duringpandemic) completed self-report questionnaires assessing environmental reinforcement, alcohol use, nicotine use, and binge eating, and food addiction. Exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) was conducted to characterize different areas of environmental reinforcement and their relationship with risk behavior and health outcomes. Results: A five factor structure demonstrated the most conceptually cohesive model withacceptable model fit, and full scalar invariance. Findings suggested that social-related environmental reinforcement, was positively associated with both alcohol consumption (b = 0.35, p < .001) and binge eating behaviors (b = 0.29, p < .001), while work/school-related environmental reinforcement was negatively associated with binge eating behaviors (b = -0.23, p = .001). No areas of environmental reinforcement were significantly associated with current nicotine use or food addiction status. While timepoint was not significantly associated with any of the outcome measures, findings suggested individuals experienced lower reinforcement from social (b = -0.33, p < .001) and work/school-related (b = -0.27, p < .001) environmental reinforcement during the COVID-19 stay at home orders compared to pre stay at home orders. Conclusion: Results from the current study suggest a possible five factor structure for thePES as it relates to types of environmental reinforcement and identified correlations between social and work/school related areas of reinforcement with multiple health risk behaviors. These findings add to the limited literature on the relationship between types of environmental reinforcement and health risk behaviors, which can be used to inform future prevention efforts.
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Date
2022-08-01
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University of Kansas
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Keywords
Clinical psychology, Behavioral economics, Binge eating behavior, Health risk behaviors, Pleasant Events Schedule, Reinforcement, Substance use