A dual process account of adolescent and adult binge drinking

This study adopted a dual process perspective to investigate the relative contributions of implicit and explicit cognitions to predicting binge drinking in adolescents and adults. Two hundred and seventy-two participants (136 teen–parent pairs) completed measures of alcohol memory associations (reflecting implicit cognition), expectancies about potential costs and benefits of alcohol use (reflecting explicit cognition), and self-reported binge drinking. Adolescents had stronger alcohol memory associations and perceived drinking benefits to be more probable than did adults. In turn, higher scores on the memory association and expected benefit measures were both associated with significantly higher levels of binge drinking. Moderation analyses revealed that alcohol memory associations and expected benefits of drinking were stronger predictors of binge drinking for adolescents than for adults. The findings suggest that both implicit and explicit cognitions may play important roles in alcohol use decisions, and these roles may differ for adolescents and adults.

Research Highlights
► Adolescents have stronger implicit alcohol associations relative to adults.
► Adolescents have more positive drinking expectancies than do adults.
► Implicit cognitions are more predictive of drinking for adolescents than for adults.
► Drinking prevention programs should target both implicit and explicit cognitions.