Counseling Psychology Students and Faculty Present Alcohol Research at Conference

The members of the College Alcohol Research Team are presenting their research at the Southeastern Psychological Association Conference in New Orleans, LA.

College Alcohol Research Team

Melissa Ambrosino, Dr. Ziegler Hill and Dr. Madson will present Conformity, Negative Consequences and Protective Strategy Use among College Drinkers. Resistance to peer influence was associated with fewer negative consequences when people consumed less alcohol, but did not make a difference at high levels of consumption. Further, the combination of high protective strategy use and resistance to peer influence led to less hazardous drinking even when people were consuming large amounts of alcohol.

Kayla Moorer, Dr. Ziegler Hill and Dr. Madson will present Alcohol Expectancies: A Moderated Mediation Analysis. The use of protective strategies partially mediated the relationship between positive alcohol expectancies and both alcohol consumption and negative consequences; however, gender qualified these relationships in that men were less likely to use protective strategies whether they held positive alcohol expectancies or not.


Ryan Ebersole, Jeremy Noble and Dr. Madson will present Drinking Motives, Consequences and Protective Strategies in LGB Students. The use of protective strategies partially mediated the associations between both coping with depression and enhancement motives and negative alcohol related consequences such that students with drinking motives for coping with depression and enhancing their drinking experience experienced fewer negative consequences when using more protective behavioral strategies.

Whitney Stubbs, Dr. Ziegler Hill and Dr. Madson will present Contingent Self-Esteem, Protective Behavioral Strategies and the Negative Consequences of Alcohol Consumption. Individuals with secure high self-esteem (i.e., high levels of self-esteem and low level of contingent self-esteem) reported the highest use of protective strategies, lower levels of hazardous drinking, and fewer negative consequences compared to those with fragile high self-esteem (i.e., high levels of self-esteem and high levels of contingent self-esteem). Men with true low self-esteem (i.e., low levels of self-esteem and low levels of contingent self-esteem) reported the highest level of consumption.

Missy Bonnell, Dr. Ziegler Hill and Dr. Madson will present Protective Behavioral Strategies Alcohol Consumption and Negative Consequences: Do Race and Gender Moderate these Relationships. White, non-Hispanics, men, and those who did not use the manner of drinking strategies drank the most. Serious harm reduction strategies led to drinking decreases for White, non-Hispanics but increases for African Americans. Negative consequences were higher for White non-Hispanics, and those who used fewer serious harm reduction and manner of drinking strategies. Limiting drinking strategies were associated with reduced negative consequences for everyone except African American women.
Trisha McMillon, Missy Bonnell & Dr. Madson will present Positive and Negative Alcohol Use Consequences and Protective Behavioral Strategies. Negative alcohol related consequences alcohol uniquely explained more protective strategy use than positive consequences.

Jeremy Noble, Marissa Ethridge, Dr. Ziegler Hill and Dr. Madson will present Examining the Relationship between Anxiety, Alcohol Consumption and Negative Consequences. The use of protective strategies mediated the association between alcohol consumption and negative consequences regardless of whether a student had high or low anxiety.

Drs. Madson, Arnau and Lambert will present Protective Behavioral Strategies Scale: Structural Invariance across Gender and Two Racial Groups. Results suggest that a four-factor model had the best fit to the data, and that the four-factor measurement model demonstrated partial invariance across men and women and across WNH and AA participants.

Kirsten Chodrick, Dr. Ziegler Hill and Dr. Madson will present Protective Behavioral Strategies, Injunctive Perception and College Student Drinking. Results suggest that alcohol consumption moderated the association injunctive norms had with hazardous drinking. Use of protective strategies use did not moderate any of these associations.