Examining daily variability in willingness to drink in relation to underage young adult alcohol use

A key component of the Prototype Willingness Model is willingness, which reflects an openness to opportunity to perform a behavior in situations that are conducive to that behavior. Willingness has traditionally been tested using global, hypothetical assessments, and has not been examined at the daily level. We expected to find within-person variability in willingness to drink, such that on days with greater willingness, individuals would report greater drinking. A national sample (N = 288) of young adults aged 18 to 20 (31.60% female) completed a Web-based survey that was comprised of measures of drinking and sexual behavior, including the Timeline Follow-Back (Sobell & Sobell, 1992). Findings show daily variability in willingness to drink (ICC = 0.54), which suggests that there are substantial differences from day-to-day in this drinking-related cognition. Participants drank more on days when individuals also reported feeling more willing to drink than their own average level across the two weeks. Daily process level mechanisms allow greater insight into factors contributing to increased risk in-the-moment, which may point to targets for interventions aimed at improving adolescents' and young adults' abilities to make healthier choices in moments when they may be at greater risk for engaging in risky behaviors.