Context Effects of Alcohol Availability at Home: Implicit Alcohol Associations and the Prediction of Adolescents' Drinking Behavior

OBJECTIVE: Recent studies suggest that the predictive effect of implicit alcohol associations is context dependent. Findings indicate that implicit associations are more easily retrieved in an alcohol-associated setting or context (e.g., bar) compared with a neutral setting. In line with this reasoning, we hypothesized that alcohol availability at home might moderate the relationship between implicit alcohol associations and future drinking behavior of adolescents.

METHOD: Participants were 262 at-risk adolescents (235 boys, 27 girls, adolescents with externalizing behavioral problems) with a mean age of 14.11 years (SD = 0.86, age range: 12-16 years) at baseline. Adolescents completed a questionnaire and a modified version of the Implicit Association Test (i.e., Single Category Implicit Association Test; SC-IAT).

RESULTS: Stronger implicit alcohol associations predicted increase in frequency of alcohol use, only in adolescents who indicated that alcohol was available at home. No moderating effects were found for increase in quantity of alcohol use and problematic alcohol use, suggesting that implicit alcohol associations particularly influence the decision of whether to drink in adolescence.

CONCLUSIONS: The findings illustrate that the availability of alcohol in the home setting influences adolescents' implicit alcohol associations and consequently affects the frequency of alcohol use. In this way, alcohol availability at home may be an important contextual factor to consider when examining the effect of implicit alcohol associations on the future drinking behavior of adolescents.