Reducing Alcohol Use in Mandated College Students: A Comparison of a Brief Motivational Intervention (BMI) and the Expectancy Challenge Alcohol Literacy Curriculum (ECALC (original) (raw)
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Two brief alcohol interventions for mandated college students
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 2005
Encouraging but limited research indicates that brief motivational interventions may be an effective way to reduce heavy episodic drinking in college students. At 2 campuses, students (83% male) mandated to a substance use prevention program were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 individually administered conditions: (a) a brief motivational interview (BMI; n = 34) or (b) an alcohol education session (AE; n = 30). Students in the BMI condition reported fewer alcohol-related problems than the AE students at 3-and 6-month assessments. Trends toward reductions in number of binge drinking episodes and typical blood alcohol levels were seen in both groups. Process measures confirmed the integrity of both interventions. The findings demonstrate that mandated BMIs can reduce alcohol problems in students referred for alcohol violations.
Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs, 2010
The aim of this study was to evaluate a brief motivational intervention (BMI) for reducing risky alcohol use and alcohol-related problems among mandated (M) and voluntary (V) student drinkers to determine (a) whether BMI-mandated students report greater decreases in alcohol use and related problems, relative to no treatment; (b) whether a BMI is comparably effective for mandated and voluntary students; and (c) whether a mandated control group shows greater changes in alcohol use and related problems relative to a voluntary control group. Participants were undergraduate student research volunteers (62% male) who met heavy drinking criteria and completed measures of alcohol use and alcohol problems at baseline and 4 weeks after intervention. Participants (N = 84) were randomly assigned to treatment (T) or assessment-only control (C) conditions (mandated students were assigned to a brief wait list). Participants assigned to treatment reported consuming fewer drinks after the interventi...
Relative efficacy of a brief motivational intervention for college student drinkers
Psychology of …, 2001
1999), a single session of drinking-related feedback intended to reduce heavy drinking and related harm. College student drinkers (N = 99) were assigned to BASICS, an educational intervention, or an assessment-only control group. At 3 months postintervention, there were no overall significant group differences, but heavier drinking BASICS participants showed greater reductions in weekly alcohol consumption and binge drinking than did heavier drinking control and education participants. At 9 months, heavier drinking BASICS participants again showed the largest effect sizes. BASICS participants evaluated the intervention more favorably than did education participants. This study suggests that BASICS may be more efficacious than educational interventions for heavier drinking college students.
2012
Interventions challenging alcohol expectancies may lead to reductions in alcohol consumption. We conducted a meta-analysis to examine the efficacy of alcohol expectancy challenge (EC) interventions for college alcohol abuse prevention. Included were 14 studies (19 EC interventions) that measured alcohol expectancies and consumption, provided sufficient information to calculate effect sizes, and were available as of June 2010 (N = 1,415; M age = 20; 40% women; 88% White). Independent raters coded participant characteristics, design and methodological features, and intervention content, and calculated weighted mean effect sizes at first follow-up, using both fixed-and random-effects models. Compared to controls, EC participants reported lower positive alcohol expectancies, reduced their alcohol use, and reduced their frequency of heavy drinking (d + s ranged from 0.23 to 0.28). Within-group improvements in alcohol expectancies and consumption emerged for the EC group only; relative to their own baseline, EC participants reported lower positive alcohol expectancies, reduced their alcohol use, and reduced their frequency of heavy drinking (d + s range from 0.13 to 0.36). Supplemental analyses found improvements in specific alcohol expectancies (social, sexual, tension, and arousal) both betweenand within-group. The short-term effects of EC interventions on college student drinking are not maintained at follow-ups greater than 4 weeks. Keywords meta-analysis; college students; alcohol expectancies; alcohol consumption; intervention Alcohol consumption is pervasive on most U.S. college campuses. Nearly 64% of full-time college students consumed alcohol in the last month compared to 53% of their non-college peers (SAMHSA, 2010). Two-thirds of full-time college students report current alcohol consumption with 43% reporting heavy episodic alcohol use, defined as consuming 5 or more alcoholic beverages per occasion at least once in the past month (SAMHSA, 2010). Heavy episodic alcohol use is associated with both short-and long-term consequences including academic problems, sexual assault, injuries and/or violence, college attrition, and alcohol abuse and dependence (
The Expectancy Challenge Alcohol Literacy Curriculum (ECALC) is a single session group-delivered program designed to modify alcohol expectancy processes and reduce alcohol use among children and young adults. The objective of this study was to demonstrate the effectiveness of the ECALC in reducing risky alcohol use among heavy drinking college men. Four fraternities at a large state university were randomly assigned to receive either the single session ECALC or a control presentation (2 fraternity houses per condition, n ϭ 250). Alcohol expectancies were assessed before and immediately after program presentation. Results demonstrated significant changes on 5 of the 7 subscales of the Comprehensive Effects of Alcohol Scale (CEOA) among students who received the ECALC when compared with control participants. Alcohol use data were collected for 4 weeks before and 4 weeks after program presentation. Compared with those in the control condition, students who received the ECALC demonstrated significant reductions in all facets of alcohol use measured, including decreased mean and peak blood alcohol content (BAC), decreased mean number of days drinking per week, decreased mean drinks per sitting, and decreased number of binge-drinking episodes per month. This study represents 2 important advances. First is the significant reduction in risky alcohol use produced by a single session group-delivered program. The second important advance is the success in changing expectancy processes without using impractical elements common in previous expectancy challenge methods (e.g., a "barlab" environment and actual alcohol administration).
Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 2011
This study evaluated the efficacy of two brief personalized normative feedback interventions aimed at reducing heavy drinking among mandated college students (N = 135). Students were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: Web-based assessment with self-guided personalized normative feedback (SWF) or Web-based assessment with counselor-guided personalized normative feedback (CWF). Results indicated that students in the CWF condition reported significantly greater reductions in weekly drinking quantity and binge drinking frequency than those in the SWF group at follow-up (M = 8 months). Students in the CWF group also reported significantly greater reductions in estimates of peer drinking from baseline to the follow-up assessment than students in the SWF group. In addition, changes in estimates of peer drinking partially mediated the effect of the intervention on changes in drinking. Results suggest that counselor-guided feedback may be more effective in reducing drinking among mandated students relative to self-guided feedback in the long term.
Talking with College Students About Alcohol: Motivational Strategies for Reducing Abuse
Journal of College Student Development, 2007
Assessment is the first step in programs tailored to the individual. 1 We noted in Chapter 1 that there is considerable drinking variability among college students. In this chapter, we suggest ways to evaluate an individual's drinking and related issues and make decisions based on this information. There are several reasons it is important to understand an individual student's drinking:
Changes in Drinking Before a Mandated Brief Intervention With College Students
Little is known about the effects of alcoholrelated infractions and resulting reprimands for invoking behavioral change among mandated college students. The primary aim of this study was to assess the extent to which students significantly reduce their drinking between the time of an alcohol-related violation and the sanctioned intervention. Method: Data came from 175 (70% male) students mandated to the Rutgers University Alcohol and Other Drug Assistance Program for Students because of infractions of university rules about alcohol and drug use. At intake, students reported on their alcohol consumption for the 30 days before the violation and the 30 days before the intake assessment. Results: Mandated students significantly reduced peak blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels, total weekly drinks, and frequency of alcohol use after the violation before any intervention. Those students who had received a legal or medical referral (i.e., a se-