Moderated mediation of motivation and self-efficacy in a brief motivational interviewing intervention to reduce youth alcohol use

Abstract

Background

Adolescent alcohol use is a significant public health concern, particularly in Latin America where rates are high. Despite the increasing use of evidence-based interventions in this region, there is a need for further research to understand how and for whom the programs work best.

Objectives

This study examines at how motivation and self-efficacy affected an alcohol prevention intervention among students in Zacatecas, Mexico. We tested whether motivation mediated the relationship between alcohol use risk and the success of the intervention, and whether self-efficacy moderated this relationship.

Methods

We analyzed data from 5,955 middle school students using correlation and mediation analyses to assess the indirect effects of motivation. We then conducted a moderated mediation analysis to see if the indirect effect differed between students with low and high self-efficacy.

Results

Students with higher motivation had lower risk for alcohol use and were more successful in achieving the intervention outcome. Motivation was a stronger mediator in the high self-efficacy group compared to the low self-efficacy group.

Conclusions

This study deepened our understanding of the mechanisms of change for the program and emphasized the importance of personal self-efficacy in targeting motivation. It also highlights the need for testing mechanisms in Latin America.

Keywords:

• Prevention
• motivational interviewing
• brief intervention
• alcohol
• moderated mediation
• motivation
• self-efficacy
• Latin America
• mechanisms
• theory
• adolescents
• IBEM

Disclosure statement

The first author, Francisco Cardozo, declares not to have been influenced or advised to interfere in the study’s validity by any source. All his contributions are covered by a scholarship stipend (approx. 75% Colombian government, 25% the University of Miami) and 100% tuition from the University of Miami. The second author, Dr. Eric C. Brown, is a former member of the AB InBev Foundation Scientific Partners Task Force and was a consultant for the Foundation on underage drinking prevention in 2018. The third and fourth authors, Juliana Mejía-Trujillo and Dr. Augusto Pérez-Gómez, declare that IBEM was applied in the City Pilot Project, which involves cities in six countries: China, South Africa, Belgium, the United States, Mexico, and Brazil, with funding from the ABINBEV Foundation. Nuevos Rumbos was completely autonomous in the application of IBEM as well as in the administration of its data. No member of the ABINBEV Foundation were involved with any of the project’s implementation phases, neither in its planning nor in the collection or analysis of data or the writing of the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

The intervention analyzed in this manuscript was implemented as part of a larger prevention project funded by the ABINBEV Foundation in 2019. This study consists of a secondary analysis of data from this project.