The proposed project is a competing renewal of RO1AA014512 and will continue a program of research concerned with alcohol?s effects on women?s risk-related decision making. The original project applied a cognitive mediation model to understanding alcohol?s effects, in conjunction with other contextual and background factors, on women?s risk decisions. Alcohol consumption is known to increase risk-related behavior, and decision-making is cognitively and emotionally complex when a person is intoxicated. Understanding in-the-moment processes affecting women?s decisions while intoxicated is critical to informing prevention efforts. The proposed project will examine relationships among alcohol consumption, a partner?s coercion, and women?s risk-related decisions. It will draw on four theoretical lines: 1) the Cognitive Mediation Model (Norris et al., 2004), which examines the extent to which cognitive appraisals mediate the influence of background and situational factors on emotional and risk-related decisions;2) Alcohol Myopia Theory (Taylor &Leonard, 1983), which explicates the influence of alcohol-related cognitive impairment on behavior;3) the Appraisal-Disruption Model (Sayette, 1993), which addresses alcohol?s cognitive impairment effects on emotional responding;and 4) Alcohol Expectancy Theory (Goldman, 1999;MacAndrew &Edgerton, 1969), which describes how alcohol influences behavior through cultural and individual expectations about alcohol?s effects. The proposed research will include a laboratory-based alcohol administration experiment to establish causal connections between manipulated situational factors, including alcohol consumption, and cognitive appraisals, emotional responses, and in-the-moment risk-related decisions. It will also employ a longitudinal survey to examine how in-the-moment decisions translate to actual situations. Structural equation modeling will be used to examine background and situational factors, as well as situationbased cognitive and emotional mediators, as predictors of in-the-moment decisions. Background and situational models will be examined using longitudinal data analytic techniques, including survival analysis, latent transition analysis, and growth curve modeling. Relevance: Alcohol consumption increases the likelihood of risk-related decisions and outcomes. The proposed project will examine this major public health concern by studying the influence of alcohol on women?s decision making in high-risk situations.
Alcohol consumption puts women at risk for risky sexual decisions and sexual coercion. The proposed project will examine this major public health concern by studying the influence of alcohol on women's sexual decision making in coercive and consensual situations.
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