Development and evaluation of the Marijuana Reduction Strategies Self-Efficacy Scale.

To evaluate several psychometric properties of a questionnaire designed to assess college students' self-efficacy to employ 21 cognitive-behavioral strategies intended to reduce the amount and/or frequency with which they consume marijuana, we recruited 273 marijuana-using students to rate their confidence that they could employ each of the strategies. Examination of frequency counts for each item, principal components analysis, internal consistency reliability, and mean interitem correlation supported retaining all 21 items in a single scale. In support of criterion validity, marijuana use-reduction self-efficacy scores were significantly positively correlated with cross-situational confidence to abstain from marijuana, and significantly negatively correlated with quantity and frequency of marijuana use and marijuana-related problems.

Examining perceived stereotype threat among overweight/obese adults using a multi-threat framework.

Objective: The Multi-Threat Framework accounts for potentially different forms of stereotype threat that differ in target (i.e., the individual or the group) and source (i.

Step-down approach to behavioural weight loss treatment: a pilot of a randomised clinical trial.

Background: In a stepped-down approach, patients begin with a more intensive treatment and are stepped down to a less intensive treatment based on achieving treatment goals. This study compared a standard behavioural weight loss programme (BWLP) to a stepped-down approach to treatment.

Methods: Fifty-two overweight/obese adults (Age: M = 47 years, SD = 13.

Evaluation of the criterion and predictive validity of the Alcohol Reduction Strategies-Current Confidence (ARS-CC) in a natural drinking environment.

To evaluate several psychometric properties of a questionnaire designed to assess young people's self-efficacy to employ 31 alcohol reduction strategies, we assessed breath alcohol concentration, self-reported drinking, current strategy self-efficacy, and recent past use of these strategies in 100 young adults as they walked to and from the local bar district of a Midwestern college town. In support of criterion and predictive validity of the questionnaire, we found that lower self-efficacy at the initial assessment was significantly correlated with higher scores on a screening measure of consumption, with having engaged in more heavy drinking episodes in the past 30 days, and with higher levels of intoxication and use of fewer reduction strategies later that evening. Frequency counts indicate that 10 of the alcohol reduction strategies had been used by at least half of the sample to reduce their drinking earlier that evening.

Development of a questionnaire to assess university students' intentions to use behavioral alcohol-reduction strategies.

Objective: To evaluate the psychometric properties of a new self-report questionnaire designed to assess college students' intentions to employ 31 specific alcohol-reduction strategies.

Method: Students attending a large public university were recruited to complete alcohol-reduction, drinking history, and personality questionnaires online.

Results: Based on item-total correlations and principal components analysis, the authors eliminated 3 items and calculated average intention ratings across the remaining 28 items.

Assessing self-efficacy to reduce one's drinking: further evaluation of the Alcohol Reduction Strategies-Current Confidence questionnaire.

Aims: To evaluate the psychometric properties of a previously published questionnaire designed to assess young drinkers' self-efficacy to employ 31 cognitive-behavioral alcohol reduction strategies.

Methods: Undergraduates (n = 353) recruited from a large Midwestern university completed the previously published Alcohol Reduction Strategies-Current Confidence questionnaire (and other measures) for a self-selected heavy drinking setting.

Results: Item loadings from a principal components analysis, a high internal consistency reliability coefficient, and a moderate mean inter-item correlation suggested that all 31 items comprised a single scale.

Assessing university students' self-efficacy to employ alcohol-related harm reduction strategies.

Objective: Develop and evaluate key psychometric properties of a self-report questionnaire specifically designed to assess student drinkers' self-confidence to employ a variety of strategies intended to reduce unhealthy consequences of high-risk drinking.

Methods: Four hundred ninety-eight participants rated their confidence (from "not at all confident" to "completely confident") to employ 17 harm reduction strategies when drinking.

Results: Factor analysis and internal consistency reliability analyses indicated that the 17 items constitute a single scale with good test-retest reliability.

Measuring university students' self-efficacy to use drinking self-control strategies.

Using a Web-based, self-administered questionnaire, we assessed 498 university-student drinkers' self-efficacy to use 31 different behavioral strategies to reduce excessive drinking in each of three different locations (bar, party, own dorm/apartment). Averaging all 31 items within each drinking situation to create a single scale score revealed high internal consistency reliabilities and moderate inter-item correlations. Testing the association of self-efficacy with drinking location, sex, and frequency of recent binge drinking, we found that respondents reported higher self-efficacy to use these strategies when drinking in their own dorm/apartment than when drinking in bars and at parties; women reported higher mean self-efficacy than men; and drinkers who engaged in 3-or-more binges in the previous 2 weeks reported lower self-efficacy than those who reported either 0 or 1-or-2 binges in the same time period.