Know Your Safe Drinking Skills: Adaptation Strategies for the College Effect

Carolyn A Lin,Anne Borsai Basaran,John L Christensen

doi:10.3390/socsci11010018

Carolyn A Lin, Anne Borsai Basaran + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci11010018

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Journal: Social Sciences	Publication Date: Jan 8, 2022
Citations: 1	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Connecticut

Abstract

Objective: The current study investigates the effects of an alcohol-prevention program delivered to college students in a formal classroom setting. Participants: The sample comprised 231 first-year college students who enrolled in a multisection “First Year Experience” course at a large northeastern university in the United States. Method: A naturalistic experiment was conducted, with a baseline evaluation at the beginning of the semester and a post-experiment evaluation near the end of the semester. Results: Social drinking attitudes, proximal drinking norm and the college effect are significant predictors of pre- and post-intervention episodic drinking frequency. The intervention reduced episodic drinking frequency as well as perceived distal and proximal drinking norms. It also increased drinking attitudes and did not change perceived efficacy or drinking-outcome expectancies. Conclusions: Practitioners could consider implementing a similar intervention to allow students to learn and practice safe drinking skills in the first year of their college life.

Highlights

Episodic drinking behavior is a significant health problem on American college campuses
Health agency, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, defines binge drinking as a drinking pattern that raises the blood alcohol concentration of an adult to 0.08 percent or higher, through consuming five or more drinks and four or more drinks in 2 h or less (NIAAA National Advisory Council 2004)
Unintended consequences of binge drinking among American college students include motor-vehicle crashes, campus violence, sexual assaults and date rape, psychological problems, as well as academic difficulties such as missing and failing classes and overall lower grades (Blanco et al 2008; Hingson et al 2009; Wechsler et al 2000; Ehlers et al 2018; Miller et al 2017; Gilmore et al 2015; Ehlke et al 2021; An et al 2017)

Summary

Introduction

Episodic drinking behavior is a significant health problem on American college campuses. Unintended consequences of binge drinking among American college students include motor-vehicle crashes, campus violence, sexual assaults and date rape, psychological problems, as well as academic difficulties such as missing and failing classes and overall lower grades (Blanco et al 2008; Hingson et al 2009; Wechsler et al 2000; Ehlers et al 2018; Miller et al 2017; Gilmore et al 2015; Ehlke et al 2021; An et al 2017). The present study explored the influence of the college drinking culture, alongside other behavioral and social influence factors on students’ alcohol consumption behavior. To examine the role that alcohol-use cognition, attitude, expectancy and culture play on impacting student ability to control their drinking behavior, the study’s conceptual framework is guided by the constructs of theory of planned behavior, outcome expectancies, social norms and college effect (or the drinking culture in a developmental phase)

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