Untitled Essay Research Paper Abstract — страница 5

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battery that was a part of a larger research project. For the purpose of the present study, the following measures, administered in a fixed order, were employed to assess the variables of interest. Weekly Alcohol Consumption. Subjects were given a chart which contained the days of the week. For each day they were instructed to indicate the number of standard alcoholic drinks and the amount of time it would take to consume these drinks in a typical week. A standard alcohol drink was defined as either a regular size can/bottle of beer, 1.5 ounce shot of liquor, or a 5 ounce glass of wine. Subjects who drank less than once a month were instructed to skip this section. The total number of drinks in one week was summed and used as the dependent variable. Adapted Short Michigan

Alcoholism Screening Test (Adapted SMAST). The adapted SMAST (Sher & Descutner, 1986) is a 13 item self-report questionnaire designed to measure family history of alcoholism. Specifically, the questionnaire assesses the extent of an individual’s mother’s and father’s alcohol abuse. Assessment is based on a two point scale consisting of 0=no and 1=yes. For the purpose of the present study only 10 items were used, and the mother/father answer categories were extended to biological mother/ father and step or adoptive mother/father. Comprehensive Effects of Alcohol (CEOA). The CEOA (Fromme, Stroot, & Kaplan, 1993) is a 38 item self-report questionnaire designed to assess alcohol outcome expectancies and their subjective valence. It is composed of seven expectancy

scales, four positive (sociability, tension-reduction, liquid-courage, and sexuality) and three negative (cognitive-behavioral impairment, risk and aggression, and self perception). Expectancy assessment is based on a four point scale from 1=disagree to 4=agree. The valence of these expectancies is assessed on a five point scale from 1=bad to 5=good. Both items and instructions were carefully worded to ensure that the elicited expectancies were neither dose-specific, nor situation specific. Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). The PSS (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983) is a 14 item self-report questionnaire designed to assess the degree to which situations in one’s life are appraised as stressful. An equal number of 7 positive and 7 negative statements make up the

questionnaire. Assessment is based on a five point scale from 0=never to 4=very often. Scores are obtained by reversing the scores on the seven positive items (i.e., 0=4, 1=3, 2=2, etc.), and then summing across all 14 items. COPE. The COPE (Carver et al., 1989) is a 53 item self-report questionnaire designed to assess individual coping dispositions. The questionnaire is comprised of 14 scales which are categorized into three coping styles: Problem-Focused Coping (Active coping, Planning, Suppression of competing activities, Seeking social support for instrumental reasons, and Restraint coping), Emotion-Focused Coping (Acceptance, Seeking social support for emotional reasons, Positive reinterpretation, Turning to religion, and Focus on and venting of emotion), and Less than

Useful Coping (Denial, Behavioral Disengagement, and Mental Disengagement). For the purpose of the present study the Alcohol-drug disengagement scale was excluded from these categories, and was treated as a separate category called Drinking to Cope. Assessment is based on a four point scale from1=I usually don’t do this at all to 4=I usually do this a lot. Both items and instructions were worded such that dispositional , rather than situational, styles of coping were assessed. Procedure All participants were recruited from undergraduate psychology courses at York University. The questionnaire was administered in a classroom setting. Participants completed the questionnaire in a group format of mixed sex ranging in size from 10 to 30 individuals. Informed consent was obtained

from all participants, and a phone number was provided in case any concerns arose. The complete questionnaire required approximately 40 minutes to administer. Respondents were compensated for their time by being entered in a lottery with a 1 in 50 chance of winning $ 50.00. Results Correlational Analyses Table 1 presents zero-order correlations, computed for all relevant study variables. Conceptually variables may be grouped into one of five categories: weekly drinking (variable 1), perceived stress (variable 2), family history of alcoholism (variable 3), coping variables (Variables 4-7), and expectancy variables (variables 8-21). Examining the pattern of correlations between these variables suggests several conclusions. First, family history of alcoholism was neither