Personal value of alcohol use as a predictor of intention to decrease post-college alcohol use

This study examines the utility of a new measure of personal value of alcoh ol use in predicting intentions to reduce post-college alcohol use. This me asure is intended to distinguish college students who drink due to situatio nal norms versus intrinsic commitment to alcohol use. As expected, alcohol consumption quantity/frequency and frequency of consuming five or more drin ks per occasion were unrelated to intention to reduce alcohol use after col lege. When these alcohol consumption measures were controlled using partial correlation, the personal value of alcohol measure was significantly and n egatively related to intention to reduce alcohol use. Conversely, when pers onal value of alcohol use was controlled in partial correlations, the relat ionship between alcohol consumption variables and intention to reduce alcoh ol use after college became positive, though only at marginally significant levels. Implications are discussed.