Force of Habit: the Role of Routinized, Automatic Behaviors along the Path of Self-Regulation and Alcohol-Related Proble
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Force of Habit: the Role of Routinized, Automatic Behaviors along the Path of Self-Regulation and Alcohol-Related Problems Kyle J. Walters 1
&
Jeffrey S. Simons 1
# International Society of Behavioral Medicine 2020
Abstract Background Dual-Process models of self-regulation suggest different facets of self-regulation predict adaptive (e.g., academics, exercise) and maladaptive (e.g., drinking) behaviors. Engagement in these behaviors may ultimately result in automatic habits that either promote or inhibit alcohol use and related problems. Method This study tested a structural equation model of relationships between self-regulation constructs, health and drinking habits and automaticity, effortful inhibition, and alcohol problems in a college student sample (N = 405). Results As expected, effortful control was positively associated with health habits, which were positively associated with health automaticity. Automaticity was inversely associated with effortful inhibition. Thus, effortful control was indirectly associated with less effortful inhibition, as hypothesized. Contrary to hypothesis, effortful inhibition was inversely associated with alcoholrelated problems, which resulted in a positive indirect association between effortful control and alcohol problems. Reactivity was positively associated with drinking automaticity via drinking habits and positively associated with effortful inhibition and alcohol problems. Conclusions Results indicate effortful control and reactivity exhibit unique associations with health and drinking habits, automaticity, and effortful inhibition. Results suggest a somewhat paradoxical process whereby effortful control achieves its ends via decreased effort to engage in adaptive behaviors. Validity of using self-report and word association measures of automaticity was supported by the observed associations with predictors and outcomes. Keywords Habits . Automaticity . Alcohol . Effortful inhibition . Self-regulation
Introduction People typically desire to act in accordance with their goals. Self-regulation involves the ability to guide goal-directed activities across time and environmental context [1]. For a college student, goal-directed activities may involve studying, exercising, and eating healthy foods. When these behaviors are executed on a routine basis in the same social and physical environment, they may take on a habitual form [2, 3]. Habits are often associated with a sense of automaticity [2], which may be functional. If many actions are performed via automatized, unconscious processes, cognitive effort can be conserved for goal pursuit and self-regulation. Although college * Kyle J. Walters [email protected] 1
Department of Psychology, The University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD 57069, USA
students’ behaviors are often guided by adaptive goals (e.g., health, academics), common competing alternative behaviors often involve alcohol use. Indeed, approximately 60% of young adults from 18 to 25 years of age report past-year alcohol u
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