Increasing Effectiveness of an Alcohol Use Reduction Exercise Using Self-Talk Videos

The goal of the current study is to develop and test an innovative, low-burden method of post-intervention contact that is based on principles of motivational interviewing and the elicitation of change talk. Participants will be randomly assigned to an assessment only control group, a standard BMI group or a BMI + video group. Participants in the BMI and BMI + video groups will complete a semi-structured, motivational intervention. Following the intervention, participants in the BMI + video group will be asked to create a personalized video in which they speak to their future self and describe their reasons for wanting to reduce their alcohol use and their commitment to change. Doctoral level psychology graduate students will assist participants in idea generation and creation of the post-intervention video. Video group participants will then be sent their personalized videos 21 days after the baseline session, a time when motivation to reduce drinking often begins to wane. It is hypothesized that participants in the BMI + video group will rate the video exercise as helpful, encouraging, and easy to complete. It is further hypothesized that, over the 6-week intervention period, (1) participants in the BMI + video group will reduce their alcohol use more than those in the standard BMI and control groups and (2) participants in the standard BMI group will reduce their alcohol use more than those in the control group.