A brief behavioral economic intervention moderates the impact of self regulation on alcohol use and problems

Impaired self‐regulatory ability among young adult drinkers is a significant risk factor for risky drinking behavior and problems. Further, poor self‐regulation has been shown to predict poor response to brief motivational interventions. Given this, it seems important to examine brief interventions that work to increase self‐regulation. The present study was a secondary analysis from a randomized controlled trial evaluating a brief behavioral economic intervention focused on goal‐setting related to academic and personal goals, and increasing engagement in constructive future‐orientated alternatives to alcohol (Murphy et al., 2012). These elementsmight be especially useful for heavy drinkers with low self‐regulation. The original results revealed the behavioral economic intervention reduced alcohol problems compared to a relaxation control, and also reduced binge‐drinking relative to control among heavy drinkers with elevated depressive symptoms. The present study extended those results by testing the hypothesis that baseline self‐regulation would interact with brief intervention condition to predict problems, consumption, and binge‐drinking at follow‐up. Participants were 82 heavy‐drinking college students (50% female, M = 16.9 drinks per week) randomized to one of two conditions (brief alcohol intervention with relaxation or with substance‐free activity session; SFAS). Self‐regulation was measured using the Short Self‐Regulation Questionnaire, typical weekly consumption with the Daily Drinking Questionnaire, and alcohol‐related problems with the Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire. Self‐regulation was significantly negatively correlated with alcohol problems at baseline (r = ‐0.37, p = 0.001) but not with typical weekly consumption or binge‐drinking. Regression analyses were run to determine whether the interactions between selfregulation and condition significantly predicted alcohol‐related outcomes at 1‐month. Each model controlled for condition and predictor variable alone, along with gender and baseline score of the dependent variable. The interaction between self‐regulation and condition predicted problems (beta = 0.83, p = 0.001), consumption (beta = 0.58, p = 0.03), and binge‐drinking (beta = 0.82, p = 0.01) at 1‐month. Participants with low baseline self‐regulation assigned to the SFAS condition reported greater reductions in alcohol problems, typical weekly consumption, and binge‐drinking compared to participants assigned to Relaxation. The interactions, however, were not significant at 6‐month. These results suggest that, particularly for students with low self‐regulation, a substancefree activity session may enhance the short‐term effects of the brief alcohol intervention. Further, these individuals may benefit from booster contact to extend these salutary effects.