Participants completed two subscales adapted from the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (AEQ) (Brown et al., 1980; Brown et al., 1987) at each assessment. Individuals were asked to respond to statements about the effects of alcohol with respect to their “own personal thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about alcohol now”. Positive reinforcement was measured by the “Physical and Social Pleasure” subscale consisted of 9 items regarding positive affective, social, or physical states anticipated from drinking, such as “drinking makes me feel good” and “some alcohol has a pleasant, cleansing, tingly taste”. Negative reinforcement was measured by the “Relaxation and Tension Reduction” subscale consisted of 9 items related to alleviations of negative affective or physical states by using alcohol, such as “if I am tense or anxious, having a few drinks makes me feel better” and “alcohol decreases muscular tension.” A list of all the items included in these measures is presented in the Appendix. Response options for each item ranged from 1 (disagree strongly) to 5 (agree strongly). Sum score was created for each scale. Cronbach’s alphas ranged from .85 to .89 and from .87 to .92 across ages for positive and negative reinforcement, respectively.
