Family History of Problem Drinking is Associated With Reduced Sensitivity of Alcohol Demand to Next-Day Responsibilities: A Replication and Extension

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Murphy et al. (2014) found that university students with a family history (FH) of alcohol problems exhibit a reduced sensitivity of alcohol demand to next-day academic responsibilities. Considering the ongoing replication crisis, the objective of this study was to replicate and extend this research in community adults, including a range of non-academic responsibilities. METHOD: We conducted a secondary analysis of 461 adults who reported past-year alcohol consumption (39% women; mean age = 38.42 years), recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Participants were coded as FH+ (40%) or FH- (60%) based on reporting if any biological parents or grandparents had a history of alcohol problems. Participants completed alcohol purchase tasks (APT) involving a typical drinking situation or next-day responsibility (e.g., work, caregiving). FH status was examined as a moderator of reductions in observed indices of alcohol demand in separate analyses of covariance, controlling for participant sex and severity of alcohol misuse. RESULTS: Alcohol demand did not significantly differ by FH status on the no-responsibility APT (ps >.56). Compared with FH- participants, FH+ participants showed a smaller magnitude reduction in the responsibility condition for breakpoint (p = .002, ηp2 = .036), Omax (p = .002, ηp2 = .041), and Pmax (p = .001, ηp2 = .040), and nonsignificant effects for intensity (p = .053, ηp2 = .015). CONCLUSIONS: These findings replicate and extend Murphy et al. (2014) by confirming that FH confers a greater risk of alcohol consumption despite upcoming responsibilities. People with a FH of problem drinking may require specific interventions that make the impact of drinking on next-day responsibilities more salient.

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Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs

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