Psychometric validation of measures of alcohol expectancies, retrospective subjective response, and positive drinking consequences for use with adolescents

Abstract The Anticipated Effects of Alcohol Scale (AEAS), the Subjective Effects of Alcohol Scale, and the Positive Drinking Consequences Questionnaire (PDCQ) are psychometrically sound measures of alcohol expectancies (expectancies), subjective response to alcohol, and positive drinking consequences, respectively, for use with adults. Prior research using these measures suggests that expectancies, subjective response, and positive drinking consequences are related yet distinct determinants of drinking. The current study presents psychometric evaluations of these measures for use with adolescents including confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) of the previously identified latent structures, internal consistency, and test-criterion relationships. Legally, alcohol cannot be administered to adolescents, so we assessed retrospective subjective response (during the first drinking episode ever [SEAS First] and the most recent drinking episode [SEAS Recent]). The sample comprised 248 Connecticut high school students (53.6% male; mean age 16.50 [1.19] years; 71.4% White) who completed an anonymous survey. CFA confirmed the latent factor structures for each measure. The AEAS, SEAS First, SEAS Recent and the PDCQ were internally consistent (mean α AEAS = 0.83; SEAS First = 0.88; SEAS Recent = 0.89, PDCQ = 0.87). AEAS subscales evidenced moderate overlap with corresponding SEAS First subscales (mean = 0.36) and SEAS Recent subscales (mean = 0.46) and modest overlap with the PDCQ (mean = 0.17). Expectancies, subjective response, and positive drinking consequences also accounted for significant variance in monthly drinking, lifetime maximum number of drinks consumed, and alcohol-related problems. In sum, the AEAS, the retrospective SEAS, and the PDCQ are psychometrically sound measures for use with adolescents.