Evaluation of an Expectancy Challenge Intervention for Food and Alcohol Disturbance Among College Students (FAD)

February 26, 2025 updated by: Katherine Berry, University of Wyoming

Feasibility, Acceptability, and Preliminary Efficacy of an Expectancy Challenge Intervention for Food and Alcohol Disturbance Among College Students

This study aims to create and test an intervention that helps college students re-evaluate their beliefs about food and alcohol disturbance (FAD) and, in turn, reduce how often they engage in it or intend to in the future. The main questions it aims to answer are:

  1. Does the intervention help students have less positive beliefs about the effects of FAD and more negative beliefs about its effects?
  2. If college students' beliefs about FAD change, does that lead them to engage in it less often or plan to do it less?
  3. Will college students who engage in FAD sign up for the study, complete it, and feel that the intervention is helpful and valuable?

Participants will take part in one 2-hour in-person laboratory-based study session where they will fill out surveys, learn about FAD, and engage in exercises designed to challenge their existing beliefs about it. They will also complete a follow-up survey online one month after their in-person study visit.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Food and alcohol disturbance (FAD) is the use of any compensatory behavior (e.g., caloric restriction) within the context of a drinking episode for the purpose of 1) compensating for alcohol-related calories and/or 2) enhancing the effects of alcohol. FAD occurs at alarmingly high rates among undergraduates and is associated with a myriad of deleterious consequences. Expectancy effects (i.e., beliefs regarding the anticipated outcomes of a behavior) have been shown to influence the initiation and maintenance of alcohol and disordered eating behaviors. Prior work suggests that expectancies for these behaviors can be modified via expectancy challenges (i.e., ECs; interventions that aim to undermine expectancies by providing learning opportunities that demonstrate the discrepancy between the actual versus perceived effects of a behavior). An EC has never been applied to FAD. However, given that FAD is comprised of both alcohol and disordered eating behaviors, and preliminary work suggests that FAD expectancies share some similarities with alcohol and restriction expectancies, it is likely that an EC could be similarly applied to FAD. Thus, the purpose of the proposed project is to develop an effective and acceptable EC designed to modify FAD expectancies and reduce FAD among undergraduates, informed by the alcohol EC literature.

Participants will be randomized to a 120-minute in-person non-experiential (i.e., no alcohol administration) EC designed to undermine FAD expectancies (experimental group) or a control group. To make existing expectancies salient, the EC will include audio recordings of reported FAD expectancies from students who engaged in FAD in my preliminary qualitative work (Berry & Looby, 2024). Participants will then engage in discussions to evaluate whether these effects are pharmacological or perceived. The intervention will also provide psychoeducation on expectancies, FAD, alcohol, and the effects of compensatory behaviors on weight, which will prompt participants to reevaluate their extant expectancies. This will be followed by a reflective writing exercise to allow participants to further elaborate on any changes to their challenged expectancies. FAD expectancies will be assessed at baseline, immediately post-intervention, and one-month follow-up. FAD frequency will be assessed at baseline and follow-up. Additionally, participants in the experimental group will provide feedback on the intervention's acceptability and feasibility post-intervention.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

75

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

  • Name: Alison Looby, PhD
  • Phone Number: 307-314-2314
  • Email: alooby@uwyo.edu

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Wyoming
      • Laramie, Wyoming, United States, 82071
        • University of Wyoming
        • Contact:
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Katherine A Berry, MS
        • Sub-Investigator:
          • Alison Looby, PhD

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Must be between the ages of 18 and 25
  2. Must report engaging in FAD at least two times over the past month

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. They have a current or past history of receiving psychological treatment for their alcohol use and/or eating behaviors
  2. They are currently trying to reduce their drinking

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: FAD Expectancy Challenge Condition
Participants in the experimental condition will be delivered the FAD expectancy challenge intervention.
Behavioral: Food and alcohol disturbance expectancy challenge
The intervention will focus on strengthening negative FAD expectancies and weakening positive FAD expectancies.
No Intervention: Disordered Eating Psychoeducation
Participants in the control condition will receive psychoeducation on disordered eating behaviors, with only a brief mention of FAD, and excluding any discussion of expectancies and consequences.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Food and Alcohol Disturbance Expectancy Questionnaire
Time Frame: This measure will be administered to all participants at baseline, immediately post-intervention, and at the study's one-month follow-up
The Food and Alcohol Disturbance Expectancy Questionnaire is a 30-item self-report questionnaire that assesses positive and negative expectancies for FAD. Participants will be asked to indicate the extent to which they believe or expect each FAD-related outcome to occur if they engaged in FAD, using a five-point scale from 0 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree). Scores on each factor will be summed and averaged, with higher scores indicating stronger expectancies.
This measure will be administered to all participants at baseline, immediately post-intervention, and at the study's one-month follow-up
Food and Alcohol Disturbance Intentions Questions
Time Frame: This measure will be administered to all participants at baseline, immediately post-intervention, and at the study's one-month follow-up
Two questions will be used to assess intentions to engage in FAD for both caloric compensation and alcohol enhancement motives. Items will be rated on a scale from 0 (Very unlikely) to 10 (Very likely), with higher scores indicating greater intentions to engage in FAD.
This measure will be administered to all participants at baseline, immediately post-intervention, and at the study's one-month follow-up
College Eating and Drinking Behaviors Scale
Time Frame: This measure will be administered at baseline and at the one-month follow-up
The CEDBS is a 21-item questionnaire that measures the frequency of past-month FAD. Items are rated on a scale from 1 (Never) to 6 (Always), with higher scores indicating more frequent FAD.
This measure will be administered at baseline and at the one-month follow-up
Food and Alcohol Disturbance Timeline Followback
Time Frame: This measure will be administered at baseline and at the one-month follow-up
This measure will assess past-month FAD frequency, including FAD motives and compensatory behaviors. The number of days that participants reported engaging in FAD will be summed, with higher scores indicating more frequent FAD.
This measure will be administered at baseline and at the one-month follow-up

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire
Time Frame: This measure will be administered at baseline and at the one-month follow-up
The Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire is a 24-item self-reported questionnaire that assesses past-month alcohol-related negative consequences using a dichotomous "Yes" or "No" response item format. A composite score indicating how many consequences participants experienced will be created by summing the number of alcohol problems reported. Higher scores will represent greater alcohol consequences.
This measure will be administered at baseline and at the one-month follow-up

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Wyoming

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Katherine A Berry, MS, University of Wyoming
  • Study Chair: Alison Looby, PhD, University of Wyoming

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

February 24, 2025

Primary Completion (Estimated)

May 8, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

May 8, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 30, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 30, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

March 25, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 25, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 26, 2025

Last Verified

February 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • IRB-2024-467

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

We might decide to share the study protocol, analytic code, and other relevant study information with other researchers. However, we do not plan to share any data at the individual level.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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