An interventional study of Food and alcohol disturbance expectancy challenge in College Drinking and Disordered Eating, sponsored by University of Wyoming. Not yet recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 25 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-02-27.
Sponsored by University of Wyoming · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
This study aims to create and test an intervention that helps college students re-evaluate their beliefs about food and alcohol disturbance (FAD) and, in turn, reduce how often they engage in it or intend to in the future. The main questions it aims to answer are:
Participants will take part in one 2-hour in-person laboratory-based study session where they will fill out surveys, learn about FAD, and engage in exercises designed to challenge their existing beliefs about it. They will also complete a follow-up survey online one month after their in-person study visit.
Food and alcohol disturbance (FAD) is the use of any compensatory behavior (e.g., caloric restriction) within the context of a drinking episode for the purpose of 1) compensating for alcohol-related calories and/or 2) enhancing the effects of alcohol. FAD occurs at alarmingly high rates among undergraduates and is associated with a myriad of deleterious consequences. Expectancy effects (i.e., beliefs regarding the anticipated outcomes of a behavior) have been shown to influence the initiation and maintenance of alcohol and disordered eating behaviors. Prior work suggests that expectancies for these behaviors can be modified via expectancy challenges (i.e., ECs; interventions that aim to undermine expectancies by providing learning opportunities that demonstrate the discrepancy between the actual versus perceived effects of a behavior). An EC has never been applied to FAD. However, given that FAD is comprised of both alcohol and disordered eating behaviors, and preliminary work suggests that FAD expectancies share some similarities with alcohol and restriction expectancies, it is likely that an EC could be similarly applied to FAD. Thus, the purpose of the proposed project is to develop an effective and acceptable EC designed to modify FAD expectancies and reduce FAD among undergraduates, informed by the alcohol EC literature.
Participants will be randomized to a 120-minute in-person non-experiential (i.e., no alcohol administration) EC designed to undermine FAD expectancies (experimental group) or a control group. To make existing expectancies salient, the EC will include audio recordings of reported FAD expectancies from students who engaged in FAD in my preliminary qualitative work (Berry \& Looby, 2024). Participants will then engage in discussions to evaluate whether these effects are pharmacological or perceived. The intervention will also provide psychoeducation on expectancies, FAD, alcohol, and the effects of compensatory behaviors on weight, which will prompt participants to reevaluate their extant expectancies. This will be followed by a reflective writing exercise to allow participants to further elaborate on any changes to their challenged expectancies. FAD expectancies will be assessed at baseline, immediately post-intervention, and one-month follow-up. FAD frequency will be assessed at baseline and follow-up. Additionally, participants in the experimental group will provide feedback on the intervention's acceptability and feasibility post-intervention.
38 studies on the registry are indexed under Alcohol Drinking in College; 8 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 75 is below the median of 258 across 36 interventional studies indexed under Alcohol Drinking in College.
Browse Alcohol Drinking in College studies →University of Wyoming is the lead sponsor of 19 studies on the registry; 6 are open to participants now.
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Exclusion Criteria:
Participants in the experimental condition will be delivered the FAD expectancy challenge intervention.
Behavioral: Food and alcohol disturbance expectancy challenge
Participants in the control condition will receive psychoeducation on disordered eating behaviors, with only a brief mention of FAD, and excluding any discussion of expectancies and consequences.
The intervention will focus on strengthening negative FAD expectancies and weakening positive FAD expectancies.
Food and Alcohol Disturbance Expectancy Questionnaire
The Food and Alcohol Disturbance Expectancy Questionnaire is a 30-item self-report questionnaire that assesses positive and negative expectancies for FAD. Participants will be asked to indicate the extent to which they believe or expect each FAD-related outcome to occur if they engaged in FAD, using a five-point scale from 0 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree). Scores on each factor will be summed and averaged, with higher scores indicating stronger expectancies.
Time frame: This measure will be administered to all participants at baseline, immediately post-intervention, and at the study's one-month follow-up
Food and Alcohol Disturbance Intentions Questions
Two questions will be used to assess intentions to engage in FAD for both caloric compensation and alcohol enhancement motives. Items will be rated on a scale from 0 (Very unlikely) to 10 (Very likely), with higher scores indicating greater intentions to engage in FAD.
Time frame: This measure will be administered to all participants at baseline, immediately post-intervention, and at the study's one-month follow-up
College Eating and Drinking Behaviors Scale
The CEDBS is a 21-item questionnaire that measures the frequency of past-month FAD. Items are rated on a scale from 1 (Never) to 6 (Always), with higher scores indicating more frequent FAD.
Time frame: This measure will be administered at baseline and at the one-month follow-up
Food and Alcohol Disturbance Timeline Followback
This measure will assess past-month FAD frequency, including FAD motives and compensatory behaviors. The number of days that participants reported engaging in FAD will be summed, with higher scores indicating more frequent FAD.
Time frame: This measure will be administered at baseline and at the one-month follow-up
Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire
The Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire is a 24-item self-reported questionnaire that assesses past-month alcohol-related negative consequences using a dichotomous "Yes" or "No" response item format. A composite score indicating how many consequences participants experienced will be created by summing the number of alcohol problems reported. Higher scores will represent greater alcohol consequences.
Time frame: This measure will be administered at baseline and at the one-month follow-up
PDFs hosted by the registry, ClinicalTrials.gov.
Plan to share: No
Start is estimated for Feb 2025; primary completion for May 2026, 14 months later.
Of 23 interventional studies with no phase under Alcohol Drinking in College, half reached primary completion within 9 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 7 and three quarters within 20. This study's planned 14 months is above that.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Feb 2025. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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University of Wyoming