(PS1-22) Event-level Estimates of Impaired Control over Alcohol Use: Association with Protective Strategies and Consequences

Impaired control over alcohol use, or difficulty limiting or controlling drinking, is one of the earliest symptoms of an alcohol use disorder and is predictive of alcohol use severity. Impaired control may be operationalized at the event level as consuming alcohol without prior intention (i.e., an unplanned drinking episode) or as a continuous representation of the number of drinks consumed that exceeded one’s intended amount (i.e., a discrepancy statistic, or consumed minus intended drinks). Though unplanned drinking episodes are a risk factor for alcohol-related consequences, less is known about the potential adverse influence of discrepancy size. It is possible that interactive effects exist between the two types of impaired control behaviors, such that the discrepancy statistic is more influential when the overall drinking episode was unplanned. Research has neither investigated this potential interaction, nor how other factors, like the utilization of protective behavioral strategies (PBS) may buffer the effects of impaired control. This study utilized data from a single, typical drinking occasion to determine if event-level alcohol-related consequences could be predicted by (1) a two-way interaction between event-level estimates of impaired control (i.e., unplanned drinking episode and discrepancy statistic) and (2) a three-way interaction between unplanned drinking episode, discrepancy statistic, and PBS use. Participants were 105 (85% female, 55% White, M_age = 20.61) heavy drinking college students who completed surveys before and after a weekend of their choosing. Participants reported on their intended and actual drinking behaviors during the pre- and post-surveys, respectively. To be included, participants must have had at least one day where drinking exceeded intended amounts. Results revealed a significant two-way interaction between unplanned drinking episodes and discrepancy statistics, such that a larger discrepancy statistic predicted higher alcohol-related consequences only when the overall drinking episode was unplanned (B = 0.20, p = .036). The three-way interaction incorporating PBS was nonsignificant. Overall, this study is the first to utilize an event-level discrepancy statistic as a unique predictor of alcohol-related consequences. Our findings shed light on the risky influence of the discrepancy statistic during a subset of drinking episodes (i.e., those that are unplanned). It may be that individuals struggling with impaired control view intention violations in an all-or-none manner, such that after an initial intention to abstain from drinking is violated, individuals are less likely to attempt to control the number of unintended drinks consumed. In support of this notion, we observed relatively higher discrepancy statistics during unplanned (M = 3.18) versus planned episodes (M = 2.97). Alternatively, this finding may be explained by prior research highlighting cyclical effects in which unplanned drinking leads to guilt, prompting increased drinking. Interventions targeting impaired control over alcohol use may benefit from disrupting potential all-or-nothing cognitive distortions or by increasing self-compassion skills specific to failed drinking regulation attempts.