Sobriety Stigma and Dating
Creators: name: Moran, James
Publisher: name: Open Science Framework
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences

description: Hypotheses Aim 1: To characterize sober (from alcohol) people’s dating decisions and perspectives on dating since becoming sober. We will collect data on sobriety, sobriety discrimination, dating status, sober dating history, dating app usage, and partner preferences. No hypotheses are put forth; instead, we will present descriptive statistics on people’s dating decisions and perspectives since becoming sober. Aim 2: Investigate the relationship between (1) time since becoming sober and (2) time spent dating as a sober individual on experiences of sobriety discrimination. We hypothesize (H1) both time since becoming sober and time spent dating as a sober person will be negatively related to experiencing dating discrimination on the premise that as time since becoming sober increases, sober individuals may start dating differently (i.e., use sober apps, start dating over sober individuals) and may become more comfortable with their sobriety over time spent dating. Aim 3: Understand how trait-level sobriety discrimination can impact a sober person's dating psychology. We hypothesize (H2) that higher scores on perceived others’ attitudes towards one's abstinence and felt-sobriety stigma will be positively related to (A) dating anxiety and (B) fear of being single on the premise that the pressure of being discriminated against from previous dates will increase one’s anxiety about their dating perspective. Aim 1: Frequencies and percentages describing participants’ sobriety, experiences of sobriety discrimination, dating status, sober dating history, dating app usage, and partner preference will be reported. Aim 2: We will run two separate logistic regressions. Both regression analyses will have the sobriety length (days of sobriety) and sober dating history) as the independent variables. The first DV will be a binary Yes or No question "Do you feel that people skip over you on dating because you are sober?" The second is: "Do you feel that people skip over you for a date because you are sober?" We will then use bivariate correlations and linear regressions for two continuous variables (1) I feel that I get skipped over on dating apps because I am sober, and (2) I feel that I get passed up on dates in the real world because I am sober. Aim 3: Bivariate correlations and linear regressions will be used to ass the OPATA and Felt Stigma on Dating Anxiety and Fear of Being Single Outliers and Exclusions 1. If they are not single 2. If they don't Id as sober 3. If anyone puts a four or lower in the honesty check (which directly asks participants if they were honest during the survey), their data will not be used in the analysis. 4. Attention check: If they fail, "Please pick option 4." 5. Attention check: If they fail, the attention check of "This is an attention check; please pick strongly agree." 6. If they write obscure feedback. Sample Size Based on a power analysis (G-Power version 3.1, Faul et al., 2009), 483 participants were needed to have adequate (80%) power to detect a small-to-moderate regression of f2 = .025 (r =.25). Thus, we will aim to collect up to 550 participants to ensure good data quality.