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Abstract: Underage drinkers typically have not developed regular patterns of drinking and so are likely to exhibit situational variation in alcohol intake, including binge drinking. Information about such variation is not well captured by quantity/frequency (QF) measures, which require that drinkers blend information over time to derive a representative estimate of “typical” drinking. The Timeline Followback (TLFB) method is designed to retrospectively capture situational variations in drinking during a specific period of time. We compared our newly-developed Self-administered TLFB (STLFB) measure to a QF measure for reporting alcohol intake. Our sample of 429 (men=204; women=225) underage (i.e., age 18–20 years) drinkers completed the two drinking measures and reported on alcohol problems. The STLFB and QF measures converged in assessing typical daily intake, but the STLFB provided more information about situational variations in alcohol use and better identification of regular versus intermittent binge drinkers. Regular binge drinkers reported more alcohol problems. The STLFB is an easy-to-administer measure of variations in alcohol intake, which can be useful for understanding drinking behavior. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article is a summary of a symposium presented at the 2005 Research Society on Alcoholism annual conference organized by Dan J. Neal and chaired by William R. Corbin. Event-level data, wherein each “event” (e.g., day) is captured as its own data point, capture the complex patterns of drinking and other high-risk behaviors in ways that the typical aggregate approach cannot. Because of their richness, methodologies that incorporate event-level data are becoming more common in alcohol research. At least 3 distinct forms of event-level data can be gathered: retrospective data (those collected on a single occasion, using memory aids to help each participant reconstruct all drinking events over a specific period of time), daily monitoring data (reporting on all events for that day), and momentary assessment (those recorded immediately following a drinking event or in response to a prompt from researchers). The goal of this symposium was to address many issues associated with event-level methodology, as well as demonstrate projects that are currently implementing such innovative data collection. The 4 presentations included in this symposium were “Realizing the Promise and Avoiding the Pitfalls of Retrospective Daily Estimation Assessments of Alcohol Use” by Frances K. Del Boca; “Using Interactive Voice Response Technology to Assess the Alcohol-Victimization Link” by Kathleen Parks, Linda King, and Ann Pardi; “Methodological Issues in Using Personal Data Assistants to Self-monitor Alcohol Consumption” by R. Lorraine Collins, Mark Muraven, and Charlene Vetter; and “Collecting Event-level Data Using the World Wide Web” by Dan J. Neal and Kim Fromme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We designed the current study to assess the rates of risky sexual behavior among women bar drinkers, as well as differences in predictors of risky sexual behavior, based on partner type-new or regular. Method: We conducted comprehensive, in-person interviews with 241 young women who reported weekly drinking in bars. Several constructs (e.g., individual characteristics, social and sexual behavior, substance use) that we hypothesized would predict risky sexual behavior were assessed in two separate hierarchical regression models for new and regular sexual partners. Results: Rates of risky sexual behavior were significantly higher with regular partners compared with new partners. Increased risky sexual behavior with new partners was significantly associated with having had a riskier regular partner in the past 6 months, lower sexually transmitted disease (STD)/pregnancy prevention assertiveness, increased expectations of sexual disinhibition when drinking, a greater history of prior sexual risk taking, and more frequent drinking in bars. Increased risky sexual behavior with a regular partner was significantly associated with being older, the use of oral contraceptives, lower assertiveness for STD/pregnancy prevention, a greater history of prior sexual risk taking, and increased drug use. Conclusions: Among young women who regularly drink in bars, sexual risk taking was significantly higher with regular partners than with new partners. The predictors of risky sexual behavior differed based on partner type. These findings have implications for including information about the role of alcohol, drinking context, and drug use, as well as individual difference characteristics and partner type in targeted prevention strategies to reduce sexual risk taking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]