Subjective happiness interrupts the association between alcohol expectancies and alcohol consumption among reserve-dwelling first nation adolescents.

Abstract

North American Indigenous (NAI) youth suffers disproportionately from consequences associated with alcohol use. Previous research has found that positive alcohol expectancies are robustly related to alcohol consumption among NAI youth and that changes in alcohol consumption are associated with concurrent changes in happiness. However, no work to date has examined the relation between happiness and alcohol expectancies, or the influence of happiness on the association between alcohol expectancies and alcohol consumption. First Nation adolescents between the ages of 11 and 18 living on a rural reserve in Eastern Canada (N = 106, Mage = 14.6 years, 50.0% female) completed a pencil-and-paper survey regarding their subjective happiness, positive alcohol expectancies, and alcohol consumption. Moderation analyses revealed a significant main effect of subjective happiness (b = -.10, p < .001) but not alcohol expectancies (b = .02, p = .14) on alcohol consumption. The interaction of alcohol expectancies and subjective happiness was significant, (b = -.01, p = .002). Analysis of simple slopes revealed that the effect of alcohol expectancies on alcohol consumption was significant for those reporting low (b = .07, p = .001), but not high levels of subjective happiness (b = -.02, p = .25). Results of the present study provide preliminary support for the utility of positive psychological interventions aiming to increase adolescent's subjective happiness to indirectly target alcohol consumption. Future work should test the effectiveness of such interventions and aim to replicate these findings in larger samples. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).