Validation of a measure of college students' intoxicated behaviors: associations with alcohol outcome expectancies, drinking motives, and personality.

OBJECTIVE

The authors aimed to develop a measure of college students' intoxicated behaviors and to validate the measure using scales assessing alcohol outcome expectancies, motives for drinking, and personality traits. PARTICIPANTS AND METHOD SUMMARY: The authors administered these measures and an inventory describing 50 intoxicated behaviors to 198 college students and conducted factor analysis on intoxicated behaviors. Logistic regression models examined relationships between intoxicated behavior dimensions and expectances, motives, and personality traits.

RESULTS

Self-reported behaviors during intoxication episodes were reducible to 3 basic dimensions that formed reliable and valid scales: social, antisocial, and emotionally labile intoxication.

CONCLUSIONS

Researchers can use the Intoxicated Behaviors Inventory to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions targeting drinking or to identify college students at risk for problematic consequences of alcohol use. In addition, results point to the need for community efforts to encourage more moderate drinking among college students.