Date of Award

2018-01-01

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Psychology

Advisor(s)

Craig A. Field

Abstract

Self-determination theory (SDT) may be useful for understanding alcohol use and alcohol-related consequences among college students. A version of the Treatment Self-Regulation Questionnaire (TSRQ; Ryan & Connell, 1989) exists for assessing motivations proposed by SDT for responsible drinking, but no study has evaluated its psychometric properties. Thus, the purpose of the present studies was to provide a psychometric evaluation of this version of the TSRQ. In Study 1, among a convenience sample of college student drinkers (n = 308), a four-factor structure of the TSRQ that is theoretically consistent with SDT was supported; however, the amotivation subscale demonstrated unacceptable internal consistency. In Study 2, among a sample of college student drinkers (n = 192) who were recruited from a random sample of students, mixed evidence was found for the concurrent and incremental validity of the TSRQ. Generally, the findings of Study 2 support the proposals of SDT that motivations for responsible drinking exist on a continuum of self-determination and that motivation is increasingly related to positive alcohol-related outcomes as motivation increases in self-determination. There were, however, exceptions to this pattern of findings. More specifically, psychometric limitations emerged for the introjected regulation and amotivation subscales. These two subscales contain only two items each and may lack content validity. Future studies are needed to refine the TSRQ for assessing motivations for responsible drinking to further research on the application of SDT to understanding alcohol use and alcohol-related consequences among college students.

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

54 pages

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Dylan Keith Richards

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