EMA/EMI for Psychiatrically Hospitalized Emerging Adults Who Drink to Cope

The goal of this proposed study is to evaluate an ecological momentary assessment plus an ecological momentary intervention (EMA+EMI) for emerging adults in a psychiatric partial hospitalization program who drink to cope with negative affect (NA) as compared to personalized feedback only. This intervention combines a personalized feedback intervention (PFI) with EMA technology and tailored EMI text messaging (PFICope+EMI). PFICope+EMI not only aims to reduce drinking to cope, but also alcohol use and NA. This study consists of a 6-week randomized controlled treatment trial to test the PFIcope+EMI intervention as compared to personalized normative feedback only (PNF).

Inclusion Criteria: 1. between 18 and 25 years of age 2. reported alcohol use at least 3x weekly over past month and at least one day per week, on average, of binge drinking (as defined as 4+ drinks/2 hours for men and 3+ drinks/2 hours for women) 3. self-reported use of coping motive (mean of 2+ on coping subscale of MDMQ-R, indicating they drink to cope at least "some of the time") 4. current anxiety and/or depression symptomatology (as assessed CES-D scores above cut-off for high risk for clinical depression and GAD-7 scores above cut-off for moderate to severe anxiety) 5. owns a smartphone capable of downloading EMA app. Exclusion Criteria: 1. current DSM-5 diagnosis of moderate/severe substance use disorder (other than alcohol, cannabis, or nicotine) as assessed by research staff via SCID 2. a history of psychotic disorder or current psychotic symptoms as assessed by research staff via SCID 3. current suicidal/homicidal ideation.