Clinical trial NCT05321238: The Role of Agency and Threat-Immediacy in Interactive Digital Narrative Fear Appeals
Official title: The Role of Agency and Threat-Immediacy in Interactive Digital Narrative Fear Appeals for the Prevention of Excessive Alcohol Use: Randomized Controlled Trial
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Excessive Drinking
Keywords: agency
fear appeal
alcohol
narrative
Lead sponsor: Tilburg University
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2022-04-11
Enrollment: 178
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: Aims:

The first aim of the study was to assess the effect of agency, i.e. the perception of making meaningful decisions, in an interactive digital narrative fear appeal on self-efficacy beliefs concerning the ability to reduce alcohol intake among college students. Second, we assessed whether the communicated timeframe (short-term / long-term) of the threat presented in the narrative moderates the effect of agency on self-efficacy. Lastly, to validate the effect of the intervention on behavioural outcomes we assesed whether self-efficacy has an effect on behavioural intention measures.

The study was a 2 (agency: low / high) x 2 (time-frame: immediate / distant) between-subjects online experiment.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* above 18 years of age
* 480 seconds survey completion time
* both attention checks relating to narrative content passed
* correctly identified their experimental condition in the manipulation check
* did not choose to 'drink an alcoholic drink' for all decisions in the interactive narrative
* did not show signs of alcohol abuse

Exclusion Criteria:

* under the age of 18
* completed the questionnaire in an unreasonably short amount of time
* they failed one of the two attention checks
* failed the manipulation check asking them to recall whether they were presented with short- or long-term (high / low immediacy) consequences of excessive drinking
* chose an alcoholic drink for all decision points
* showed signs of alcohol dependence as measured above 15 on the Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire (B-YAACQ)

Primary outcomes:
measure: Perceived self-efficacy
timeFrame: During the lab session
measure: Behavioural intention
timeFrame: During the lab session
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
measure: Perceived Agency
timeFrame: During the lab session
measure: Fear
timeFrame: During the lab session
measure: Perceived Severity, Susceptability and Response-Efficacy
timeFrame: During the lab session
measure: Symptoms of Alcohol Abuse
timeFrame: During the lab session
measure: Drinking Frequency
timeFrame: During the lab session
measure: Perceived Control
timeFrame: During the lab session
measure: Behavioural inhibition
timeFrame: During the lab session
Locations:
city: Tilburg
country: Netherlands
facility: Tilburg University
state: Noord Brabant
Study officials:
affiliation: Tilburg University
name: Hendrik Engelbrecht
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Engelbrecht H, van der Laan LN, van Enschot R, Krahmer E. The Role of Agency and Threat Immediacy in Interactive Digital Narrative Fear Appeals for the Prevention of Excessive Alcohol Use: Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR Serious Games. 2022 Jun 13;10(2):e32218. doi: 10.2196/32218.