Exploring Whether Self-affirmation Promotes Reduced Alcohol Consumption in Response to Narrative Health Information

Seven days after the intervention, participants are contacted and asked to report their alcohol consumption over the previous 7-day period via self-report items. Participants report the type of alcohol (e.g., beer, spirit), type of container (e.g., small glass, pint, single measure) and the number of each type of drink they had consumed on each day over the previous 7 days using the adapted version (Armitage, Harris, & Arden, 2011) of the timeline fallback technique (Sobell & Sobell, 1992). The total number of units consumed by each participant was then calculated using the UK NHS alcohol unit calculator (NHS Choices, 2013: www.nhs.uk/tools/pages/alcohol-unit-calculator.aspx).

Measures to assess whether the intervention affected the extent to which people accepted information about the risks of alcohol consumption were taken immediately after the intervention via self-report items. Acceptance items included personal relevance, negative affect, attitudes, anticipated regret and intentions. Responses to items were given on 7-point scales with relevant anchors (e.g. strongly disagree [1] to strongly agree [7]). A mean score was calculated for each participant on each measure, with higher scores indicating greater levels of that construct.

Measures to assess whether the intervention affected the extent to which people engaged with the information were taken immediately after the intervention via self-report items. Engagement items included perspective taking, attention, emotion and visualization. Responses to items were given on 7-point scales with relevant anchors (e.g. strongly disagree [1] to strongly agree [7]). A mean score was calculated for each participant on each measure, with higher scores indicating greater levels of that construct.