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

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.