Dueling Dual Processes: Implicit and Explicit Decision-Making Processes Associated with Drinking Behavior Among Adolescents.

摘要

The present study investigated the mediating effect of implicit alcohol associations and moderating effect of temptation coping strategies on the relationship between affective decision-making and alcohol use among adolescents. The design and interpretation of results followed the theoretically distinct, yet complementary dual process models of adolescent cognition and addictive behavior (Steinberg, 2007; Thush & Weirs, 2007). A total of 100 adolescents from a northwest urban high school were recruited to participate in a single session of assessment. After removal of 22 participants through data screening, the final sample ranged in age from 14--18 years (M=15.6; 54% female); ethnic representation included 60.4% Caucasian, 17.2% Multiracial, 9.6% Asian/Pacific Islander, 7.3% Hispanic, and 5.5% Black/African-American. Results indicated partial support for a developmentally informed, dual process model of alcohol use. Supporting H1, results of regression analyses indicated that affective decision-making predicted alcohol use (beta = -.33, t = -3.09, p .01). Affective decision-making did not predict implicit alcohol associations, and thus, H2 was not supported (beta = .00, t = .17, p = .86). Supporting H3, implicit alcohol associations were found to predict alcohol use (beta = .36, t = 3.35, p .01). Results of a Preacher and Hayes (2008) mediation analysis with bootstrapped resampling methods did not indicate support for the mediating effect of implicit alcohol associations on the relationship between affective decision-making and alcohol use (H4); the indirect effect was a1b1+a 2b2 = -.0281, CI = -.015 to .007. Utilizing a critical value of p .10 to determine a statistically significant moderation effect (Aguinis, 2004), results of regression analyses indicated that temptation coping significantly moderated the relationship between affective decision-making and alcohol use (beta = .001, t = 1.96, p = .05), supporting H5. Post-hoc multiple regression was conducted to investigate unique independent effects of study variables. Following the proposed pathways, alcohol use was significantly predicted by affective decision-making, implicit alcohol associations, and temptation coping F(3, 73) = 30.06, p .01. Together, these predictors accounted for 70% of variance in alcohol use. Findings replicate and extend previous research on adolescent drinking and may improve screening of at-risk youth.