@article{ref1,
title="Weighing the pros and cons of using alcohol protective behavioral strategies: a qualitative examination among college students",
journal="Substance use and misuse",
year="2018",
author="Bravo, Adrian J. and Pearson, Matthew R. and Stevens, Leah E. and Henson, James M.",
volume="53",
number="13",
pages="2190-2198",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Alcohol protective behavioral strategies (PBS) are behaviors engaged in immediately prior to, during, after, or instead of drinking with the explicit goal of reducing alcohol use, intoxication, and/or alcohol-related harms. Despite the quantitative support for alcohol PBS as a protective factor among college student drinkers, we know of no qualitative research aimed at determining college student drinkers' perceptions regarding the advantages and disadvantages of using PBS. <br><br>OBJECTIVES: In the style of a decisional balance exercise, we asked college student drinkers (analytic n = 113) to identify 5 reasons they would not use PBS (cons) and 5 reasons they would use PBS (pros). <br><br>METHOD: Participants (majority female, 77.0%) were recruited from a psychology department participant pool at a large, southeastern university in the United States. Within our analytic sample, participants on average consumed 6.38 (SD = 8.16) drinks per typical week of drinking and reported consuming alcohol on average 7.5 days (SD = 5.83) in the last 30 days. <br><br>RESULTS: Using a descriptive phenomenological approach, we identified 2 themes for pros (prevention of specific negative alcohol-related consequences and general safety) and 4 themes for cons (goal conflict, ineffectiveness, difficulty of implementation, and negative peer/social repercussions). Overall, participants reported more pros than cons and this discrepancy (i.e., number of PBS pros minus number of PBS cons) was positively related to self-reported frequency of PBS use. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS/Importance: Taken together, we hope that clinicians/researchers will probe individual's reasons for choosing to use (or not use) PBS in order to tailor or improve existing PBS-based interventions.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1082-6084",
doi="10.1080/10826084.2018.1464026",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10826084.2018.1464026"
}