Discriminating reinforcement expectancies for studying from future time perspective in the prediction of drinking problems.

In recent work, Levy and Earleywine [Addict. Behav. (2003)] have proposed an expectancy framework of choice for the study of alcohol abuse. Within this framework, the link between alcohol expectancies and drinking problems is studied in the context of expectancies for alternative behaviors. Preliminary findings showed that studying expectancies predicted drinking problems among college students who hold high positive alcohol expectancies. Since the expected gain from studying is inherently long-term, further validation of these results requires to discriminate studying expectancies from the personality construct of future time perspective (FTP), which has been previously shown to predict substance use. In this study, studying expectancies produced larger group differences than FTP on all measures of drinking problems and habits. These differences remained significant after controlling for FTP. The results of the current study thus replicate previous findings and provide further support for an expectancy model of choice. Future research may explore whether enhancing studying expectancies can reduce drinking problems among college and high school students.