Health Policy, Management, and Behavior

Despite support for the effectiveness of alcohol use disorders (AUD) treatment programs and the positive impact of policy changes related to alcohol use, AUD remains a major public health concern in the United States. As part of an effort to encourage transdisciplinary research, the integration of objective biological measures for AUD risk and existing psychosocial-based risk measures (e.g., demographic variables, personality characteristics, comorbid psychological disorders) are emerging as important areas of inquiry, with implications for the prevention and treatment of AUD. Theories of alcohol use emphasize the fundamental role of emotional regulation in drinking behaviors, and multiple psychosocial factors have been identified which influence such motivations for alcohol use. Through three separate, laboratory-based experimental investigations, this dissertation aimed to gain an understanding of the physiological mechanisms underlying the relationship between psychosocial factor...

Objective: Alcohol expectancies are developed, in part, through exposure to health messages, the understanding of which may be influenced by health literacy. This study explores the relationships among health literacy, alcohol expectancies, and alcohol use behaviors in teens. Methods: We studied alcohol use behaviors in the past six months in youths aged 14-19 recruited from two adolescent medicine clinics. We assessed covariate-adjusted bivariate relationships between HL, expectancies, and four measures of alcohol use and tested health literacy as a moderator of the relationship between expectancies and use. Results: Of the 293 study teens, 45 percent reported use of alcohol in the past six months. Use behaviors were positively associated with higher health literacy and positive expectancies. Our moderation model suggested that health literacy moderates the relationship between expectancies and use, with the expectancy/use relationship being significantly stronger in higher literacy teens. Conclusion: Findings suggest that health literacy can influence alcohol expectancies and behaviors.