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

NCT ID: NCT02681900

Last Updated: 2016-02-15

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 142 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2014-10-31
• Study Completion Date: 2014-12-31

Brief Summary

This study tests the effects of a self-affirmation manipulation on (i) acceptance of a health message detailing the risks of alcohol consumption, (ii) engagement with the health message and (iii) alcohol consumption at 7-day follow-up. Half of the participants complete a self-affirmation manipulation, where they reflect on their most important values, whereas the other half complete a control equivalent, where they reflect on their least important values. Immediately post-intervention, all participants then receive information about the risks of alcohol consumption and complete measures of message acceptance and engagement with the materials. Seven days after intervention, participants self-report their alcohol consumption in the previous 7 days.

Conditions

Alcohol Drinking

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: PREVENTION
• Blinding Strategy: TRIPLE

Study Groups

Self-affirmation

Participants in the self-affirmation arm write about their most important value, reasons why is important and an example of when they enacted that value. This is the Self-affirmation manipulation task as described in the intervention.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Self-affirmation manipulation task

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants in the self-affirmation condition indicate their most important value, give three examples of why this value is important to them and one example of something they had done to demonstrate its importance.

Control

Participants in this arm complete a control equivalent of the self-affirmation task, where they write about their least important value, reasons why is may be important to someone else and an example of when another person may have enacted that value. This is the Control task as described in the intervention.

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Control task

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

People in the control condition indicate their least important value, three examples of why that value could be important to someone else, and describe something that person could do to show its importance.

Interventions

Self-affirmation manipulation task

Participants in the self-affirmation condition indicate their most important value, give three examples of why this value is important to them and one example of something they had done to demonstrate its importance.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Control task

People in the control condition indicate their least important value, three examples of why that value could be important to someone else, and describe something that person could do to show its importance.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Female
• Drinkers

Exclusion Criteria

• Male
• Non-drinkers

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: FEMALE
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Economic and Social Research Council, United Kingdom

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of Sussex

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Kerry J Fox, MSc

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Sussex

Locations

University of Sussex

Falmer, Brighton, United Kingdom

Countries

United Kingdom

References

Fox KJ, Harris PR, Jessop DC. Experimentally Manipulated Self-Affirmation Promotes Reduced Alcohol Consumption in Response to Narrative Information. Ann Behav Med. 2017 Dec;51(6):931-935. doi: 10.1007/s12160-017-9912-2.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 28484982 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

ER/KJF25/4

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id