Psychology Commons^™

Performance Of Alcohol And Safer Sex Change Rulers Compared With Readiness To Change Questionnaires, Joseph W. Labrie, Thomas Quinlan, Jason E. Schiffman, Mitchell E. Earleywine

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As part of a larger intervention study, the authors hypothesized that change rulers created for alcohol and safer sex would be equivalent to longer questionnaires. Ninety-six male college students completed rulers and questionnaires for assessing behavior change readiness. Participants' scores on the rulers significantly correlated with their scores on the questionnaires (r = .77 for alcohol; r = .77 for safer sex). In both domains, the rulers outperformed the questionnaires in predicting behavioral intentions, suggesting that the rulers had at least comparable concurrent criterion validity. This finding is the first of its kind in the safe sex literature and suggests …

A Group-Administered Timeline Followback Assessment Of Alcohol Use, Joseph W. Labrie, Eric R. Pedersen, Mitch Earleywine

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Objective: The current study compares retrospective self-reports of quantity and frequency of drinking with the Timeline Followback (TLFB) method administered in groups or to individuals to determine the equivalence of these methods.

Method: Two-hundred and eleven male college students who reported drinking at least two times per week participated; 118 completed the TLFB in a group setting and 93 completed it individually. Drinking variables assessed were drinking days, average drinks and total drinks during a 30-day period.

Results: Pearson's correlation coefficients revealed significant correlations between single-item quantity and frequency measures and the TLFB on all three variables for the two …