Table 2.
Top-rated, expert-created messages among respondents, with theme coding performed by the study team in phase 1a,b,c.
| Themes and expert-created messages | Score, mean (SD) | ||||
| Warning about adverse outcomes | |||||
|
|
Career | ||||
|
|
|
“You should develop a plan if you drink alcohol to avoid the risk of harming your Air Force career.” | 4.21 (0.90) | ||
|
|
|
“No one who gets an ARId ever planned to get one.” | 3.92 (1.27) | ||
|
|
|
“An ARI is potentially career ending in the Air Force.” | 3.78 (1.34) | ||
|
|
Impaired judgment | ||||
|
|
|
“Drinking can lower your inhibitions, leading to poor social judgement. Limit your drinking or don’t drink at all.” | 4.13 (1.08) | ||
|
|
|
“Drinking impairs your judgement. Plan to keep your drinking under control so you won’t make decisions that you later regret.” | 4.13 (1.02) | ||
|
|
|
“Set your limit ahead of time. Once you’ve had two drinks, you’re no longer the best judge of what should come next.” | 4.02 (1.13) | ||
|
|
|
“Drinking can lead to aggression (verbal and physical). If you are going to drink, avoid people and places that could lead to conflicts.” | 3.96 (0.98) | ||
|
|
Assault | ||||
|
|
|
“WARNING, almost all sexual assaults in Technical Training involved heavy drinking.” | 4.06 (0.88) | ||
|
|
Financial costs | ||||
|
|
|
“You’ve earned that paycheck, so make it last. Consider slowly sipping on a drink instead of gulping it. Non-alcoholic drinks cost much less than alcoholic ones. Water is free.” | 4.00 (1.07) | ||
| Recommendation | |||||
|
|
Planning | ||||
|
|
|
“You should develop a plan if you drink alcohol to avoid the risk of harming your Air Force career.” | 4.21 (0.90) | ||
|
|
|
“You want to have a successful plan for your future in the Air Force and are willing to take the time to work at making responsible decisions when it comes to drinking alcohol.” | 4.10 (0.95) | ||
|
|
|
“Set your limit ahead of time. Once you’ve had two drinks, you’re no longer the best judge of what should come next.” | 4.02 (1.13) | ||
|
|
Moderation | ||||
|
|
|
“Drinking can lower your inhibitions, leading to poor social judgement. Limit your drinking or don’t drink at all.” | 4.13 (1.08) | ||
|
|
Low-risk drinking | ||||
|
|
|
“Drinking impairs your judgement. Plan to keep your drinking under control so you won’t make decisions that you later regret.” | 4.13 (1.02) | ||
| Reminder of values and goals | |||||
|
|
“You want to have a successful plan for your future in the Air Force and are willing to take the time to work at making responsible decisions when it comes to drinking alcohol.” | 4.10 (0.95) | |||
aMean scores for the item, “This statement discourages me from wanting to drink alcohol excessively.”
bResponse range 1-5 [21].
cMessages could have multiple theme codings and appear more than once in the table.
dARI: alcohol-related incident.