Associations Between Behavioral Economic Constructs and Alcohol Use and Consequences among Young Adult Alcohol Users

Abstract

Alcohol use among young adult college students is a significant public health concern. Behavioral economic (BE) research provides a framework for understanding maladaptive health behaviors, such as alcohol use/misuse. BE theory posits that problematic substance use is maintained through reinforcer pathology. Two key BE concepts used in examining reinforcer pathology are alcohol-related reinforcement and delay discounting (DD). DD refers to the reduction in reward value as a function of its delay. Individuals with higher rates of alcohol use/misuse typically: 1) derive more reinforcement from alcohol-related activities relative to alcohol-free activities and 2) exhibit higher rates of DD, seemingly demonstrating a general preference for immediate outcomes.The current study examined the associations between measures of BE and alcohol use/consequences of young adult college students (N = 70) who self-reported engaging in hazardous drinking in the last 30-days. This study utilized a measure of alcohol-related reinforcement and a fully parametric combination of alcohol and money outcomes in single-commodity and cross-commodity DD tasks. This study hypothesized that alcohol-related and alcohol-free reinforcement would be positively and negatively associated with measures of alcohol/consequences, respectively, and that participants with greater alcohol use/consequences would prefer alcohol outcomes in DD tasks, independent of the delay. Results generally supported study hypotheses. Measures of alcohol-related reinforcement were associated with alcohol use/misuse measures as expected. Moreover, greater levels of reinforcement derived from alcohol-related relative to alcohol-free activities were a significant predictor of alcohol use measures (all p’s < 0.05). In addition, alcohol use/misuse measures were positively associated with rate of DD in the alcohol now-money later task and negatively associated with rate of DD in the money now-alcohol later task. Further, when considering the predictive utility of the various DD tasks on alcohol use measures, the money now-alcohol later task provided unique explanatory power for individual alcohol use/consequences. Overall, results from the current study support the use of BE constructs in the study of young adults who engage in problematic alcohol use. Findings indicate that individuals with hazardous drinking behaviors and alcohol-related problems receive greater reinforcement from alcohol use than other activities. Results also suggest that elevated alcohol use and related consequences are associated with a willingness to invest in future drinking and not with the inability to wait for delayed outcomes. Findings also highlight the utility of cross-commodity DD tasks when using BE constructs to assess for problematic alcohol use.