Murphy, Philip and Murphy, Lisa and Garavan, Hugh (2014) Different measures of Behavioural Activation System (BAS) sensitivity uniquely predict problem drinking among college students. The Irish Journal of Psychology, 35, (1), https://doi.org/10.1080/03033910.2013.853201.
This study investigated the predictive value of two alternative and most widely used measures of Behavioural Activation System (BAS) sensitivity on problematic alcohol use. Participants were 84 college students who completed a measure of alcohol problem severity (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, AUDIT) and two different measures of BAS sensitivity [the BAS and Sensitivity to Reward (SR) scales]. They were divided into 42 problem drinkers and 42 non-problem drinkers based on the AUDIT scores. In a logistic regression controlling for gender and age, BAS and SR scale scores uniquely predicted problem from non-problem drinking. Similarly, multiple regression of the entire sample revealed that, after gender and age had been controlled, BAS and SR scale scores predicted unique variance in AUDIT scores. Moreover, both regressions showed that the SR scale was superior in terms of predictive power. The findings indicate the advantage of including both scales when predicting problematic drinking, but that, if choosing between the two, the SR scale is the better predictor of problem drinking.
A Substance use and dependence > Substance related societal (social) problems
B Substances > Alcohol
F Concepts in psychology > Behaviour
HA Screening, identification, and diagnostic method > Physical / medical screening, assessment and diagnostic method
J Health care, prevention, harm reduction and treatment > Risk and protective factors > Risk factors
J Health care, prevention, harm reduction and treatment > Identification and screening > Identification and screening for substance use
N Communication, information and education > Educational environment / institution (school / college / university)
T Demographic characteristics > Young adult
T Demographic characteristics > Undergraduate or graduate college student
VA Geographic area > Europe > Ireland
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