Abstract
Beliefs about the consequences of using alcohol, alcohol expectancies, are powerful predictors of underage drinking. The Alcohol Expectancies Questionnaire-Adolescent form (AEQ-A) has been widely used to measure expectancies in youth. Despite its broad use, the factor structure of the AEQ-A has not been firmly established. It is also not known whether it assesses similar constructs (i.e., measurement invariance) between boys and girls. This article reports on a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of a shortened version of the AEQ-A with 310 youth, ages 10-16, to determine whether a two factor, positive and negative expectancy structure held for this sample and to test measurement invariance across gender. The results support evidence of a 2-factor, positive and negative structure for the abbreviated version of the AEQ-A and show that it assesses equivalent alcohol expectancy constructs among males and females. These findings have important implications for cognitive based approaches to alcohol prevention.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 939-948 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Journal of Youth and Adolescence |
Volume | 35 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 2006 |
Funding
Acknowledgements Work on this project was supported by a grant from the Florida State University awarded to Karen A. Randolph. The original study was supported by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Grant R01 AA007554-11S1 awarded to Brenda A. Miller. The authors gratefully acknowledge comments from Francis Berry, Frank Fincham, Alan Lang, and Eugene Maguin on earlier drafts. A copy of the Alcohol Expectancies Questionnaire-Adolescent form can be obtained by contacting the Alcohol & Substance Use Research Institute, Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, (813)-974-6963, [email protected].
Keywords
- AEQ-A
- Alcohol expectancies
- Measurement invariance
- Youth
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Psychology
- Education
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
- Social Sciences (miscellaneous)