Weighing the Pros and Cons of Using Alcohol Protective Behavioral Strategies: A Qualitative Examination among College Students

ABSTRACTBackground: Alcohol protective behavioral strategies (PBS) are behaviors engaged in immediately prior to, during, after, or instead of drinking with the explicit goal of reducing alcohol use, intoxication, and/or alcohol-related harms. Despite the quantitative support for alcohol PBS as a protective factor among college student drinkers, we know of no qualitative research aimed at determining college student drinkers' perceptions regarding the advantages and disadvantages of using PBS. Objectives: In the style of a decisional balance exercise, we asked college student drinkers (analytic n = 113) to identify 5 reasons they would not use PBS (cons) and 5 reasons they would use PBS (pros). Method: Participants (majority female, 77.0%) were recruited from a psychology department participant pool at a large, southeastern university in the United States. Within our analytic sample, participants on average consumed 6.38 (SD = 8.16) drinks per typical week of drinking and reported consuming alcohol on ave...