Self-Consciousness Moderates the Relationship between Perceived Norms and Drinking in College Students

The current research examines whether self-consciousness subscales have prognostic value in the relationship between perceived norms and drinking and if that differs among college men and women. Results indicate that self-consciousness moderates gender differences in the relationship between perceived social norms and drinking. A strong positive relationship was found between perceived norms (descriptive and injunctive) and drinking for men relative to women and this was more pronounced among individuals who were lower in public self-consciousness. Similarly, the relationship between perceived injunctive norms and drinking was significantly stronger among men than women and this was more pronounced among individuals who were higher in private self-consciousness or social anxiety. These results highlight the important influence of social factors in salient peer reference groups. This is promising information for future research attempting to identify useful indicators of candidates who would most benefit from social norms interventions. This also underscores the relevance of future norms based interventions using self-consciousness as a potential moderator of intervention efficacy

College Students’ Perceptions of Class Year-Specific Drinking Norms

The current study documents and examines college students’ perceptions of the drinking behavior of peers from varying class years (i.e., freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior). A sample of 522 college students estimated the drinking behavior of peers within their own specific class year, as well as across the three other class years. Participants in each class year overestimated the drinking of students in their own class year as well as the drinking of students in the three other class years. These within class year-specific perceived norms associated with drinking for freshmen, sophomores, and juniors. Poisson regression analyses revealed freshmen and juniors were more impacted by their class year-specific perceived norms than students in other class years, while students in other class years were more impacted by sophomore-specific perceived norms than sophomores. These findings suggest that perceptions of class year-specific drinking norms can be impactful on individual drinking rates within one’s own class year; however, perceived drinking norms of other class years may also associate with actual drinking for students. Future research is needed to establish the longitudinal development of class year-specific perceived norms and to explore the impact of providing students with actual drinking norms of students in their own class years and of students in other class years during interventions and prevention programs

Ultra-Brief Intervention for Problem Drinkers: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND There are a number of evidence-based, in-person clinical inteventions for problem drinkers, but most problem drinkers will never seek such treatments. Reaching the population of non-treatment seeking problem drinkers will require a different approach. Accordingly, this randomized clinical trial evaluated an intervention that has been validated in clinical settings and then modified into an ultra-brief format suitable for use as an indicated public health intervention (i.e., targeting the population of non-treatment seeking problem drinkers). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Problem drinkers (N = 1767) completed a baseline population telephone survey and then were randomized to one of three conditions - a personalized feedback pamphlet condition, a control pamphlet condition, or a no intervention control condition. In the week after the baseline survey, households in the two pamphlet conditions were sent their respective interventions by postal mail addressed to 'Check Your Drinking.' Changes in drinking were assessed post intervention at three-month and six-month follow-ups. The follow-up rate was 86% at three-months and 76% at six-months. There was a small effect (p = .04) in one of three outcome variables (reduction in AUDIT-C, a composite measure of quantity and frequency of drinking) observed for the personalized feedback pamphlet compared to the no intervention control. No significant differences (p>.05) between groups were observed for the other two outcome variables - number of drinks consumed in the past seven days and highest number of drinks on one occasion. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE Based on the results of this study, we tentatively conclude that a brief intervention, modified to an ultra-brief, public health format can have a meaningful impact. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00688584.This study is funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), grant #R01 AA015680-01A2. In addition, support to CAMH for salary of scientists and infrastructure has been provided by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care

Use of mobile devices to answer online surveys: implications for research

BACKGROUND There is a growing use of mobile devices to access the Internet. We examined whether participants who used a mobile device to access a brief online survey were quicker to respond to the survey but also, less likely to complete it than participants using a traditional web browser. FINDINGS Using data from a recently completed online intervention trial, we found that participants using mobile devices were quicker to access the survey but less likely to complete it compared to participants using a traditional web browser. More concerning, mobile device users were also less likely to respond to a request to complete a six week follow-up survey compared to those using traditional web browsers. CONCLUSIONS With roughly a third of participants using mobile devices to answer an online survey in this study, the impact of mobile device usage on survey completion rates is a concern. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01521078

Pragmatic randomized controlled trial of providing access to a brief personalized alcohol feedback intervention in university students

BACKGROUND There is a growing body of evidence indicating that web-based personalized feedback interventions can reduce the amount of alcohol consumed in problem drinking college students. This study sought to evaluate whether providing voluntary access to such an intervention would have an impact on drinking. METHODS College students responded to an email inviting them to participate in a short drinking survey. Those meeting criteria for risky drinking (and agreeing to participate in a follow-up) were randomized to an intervention condition where they were offered to participate in a web-based personalized feedback intervention or to a control condition (intervention not offered). Participants were followed-up at six weeks. RESULTS A total of 425 participants were randomized to condition and 68% (n = 290) completed the six-week follow-up. No significant difference in drinking between conditions was observed. CONCLUSIONS Web-based personalized feedback interventions that are offered to students on a voluntary basis may not have a measurable impact on problem drinking. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01521078.Support to CAMH for salary of scientists and infrastructure has been provided by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care

The Role of Self-Consciousness in the Experience of Alcohol-Related Consequences among College Students

Heavy drinking among college students is a well-established national concern. An in-depth look at the characteristics and traits of heavy drinking students is an essential precursor to the development of successful targeted interventions with at-risk students. The current study examines the role self-consciousness (private, public, social anxiety) plays in the experience of alcohol-related consequences among a sample of 1,168 student members of campus organizations. Male gender predicted drinking in the sample, while both private self-consciousness and social anxiety predicted less drinking. Public self-consciousness predicted alcohol-related consequences over and above the variance explained by drinking for both males and females. Additionally, both gender and social anxiety moderated the effect of drinking on problems. Heavier drinking female students and heavier drinking students high in social anxiety appear more susceptible to the experience of negative consequences. These results highlight the direct and indirect impact that self-consciousness and gender have on college students’ experience of alcohol-related negative consequences

Live Interactive Group-Specific Normative Feedback Reduces Misperceptions and Drinking in College Students: A Randomized Cluster Trial

This research evaluated the efficacy of a live and interactive group-specific normative feedback intervention designed to correct misperceptions of alcohol-related group norms and subsequently reduce drinking behavior. Campus organizations (N = 20) containing 1,162 college students were randomly assigned to intervention or assessment-only control conditions. Participants in the intervention condition attended an intervention during their organization’s regular standing meeting. Data were gathered in vivo using computerized handheld keypads into which participants entered personal responses to a series of alcohol-related questions assessing perceptions of normative group behavior as well as actual individual behavior. These data were then immediately presented in graphical form to illustrate discrepancies between perceived and actual behavioral group norms. Results indicated that compared with the control group, the intervention group reduced drinking behavior and misperceptions of group norms at 1-month and 2-month follow-ups. Changes in perceived norms mediated the reductions in drinking. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of a novel, technologically advanced, group-based, brief alcohol intervention that can be implemented with entire groups at relatively low cost

A brief live interactive normative group intervention using wireless keypads to reduce drinking and alcohol consequences in college student athletes

Introduction and Aims Misperceptions of how members of one’s social group think and act influence behaviour. The current study was designed to extend the research of group-specific normative feedback interventions among salient campus groups with heightened risk. Although not a randomised controlled trial, this research used normative feedback that was obtained using wireless keypad technology during a live session, within sex-specific student athlete groups to extend the proof of concept of using this brief interactive intervention. Design and Methods Participants included 660 intercollegiate athletes from all varsity athletic teams at two private, mid-size universities. Intervention data were gathered in vivo using computerised handheld keypads into which group members entered in personal responses to a series of alcohol-related questions. These questions assessed perceptions of normative group behaviour and attitudes as well as actual individual behaviour and attitudes. These data were then immediately presented back in graphical form to illustrate discrepancies between perceived and actual group norms. Results Results revealed that at 1 month post-intervention, perceived group norms, behaviour, attitudes and consequences reduced compared with baseline. These reductions were maintained at 2 month follow up. Latent growth modelling suggested that the reductions in perceived norms and attitudes were associated with reductions in individual drinking behaviour and negative consequences. Discussion and Conclusions These results are among the first to suggest the effectiveness of a novel, group-based normative alcohol intervention among student athletes. Limitations of the design preclude strong inferences about efficacy; however, the findings support further trialling of such information technology in alcohol treatment research

Whose Opinion Matters? The Relationship Between Injunctive Norms and Alcohol Consequences in College Students

Harm reduction approaches may benefit from research extending the exploration of predictors of alcohol use per se to those components most directly related to alcohol-related harm. This investigation evaluated the relationship between perceived injunctive norms of alcohol use (level of approval of drinking behaviors in specific situations) and the experience of alcohol-related consequences as a function of typical student reference groups at increasing levels of similarity to the respondent: based on race, gender, Greek status, and combinations of these dimensions, as well as parents, close friends, and the students\u27 own attitudes. Participants were 3753 students (61% female) from two campuses who completed an online survey. Preliminary analyses determined that there were no differences in the relationship between perceived injunctive norms and consequences across the eight student groups of varying specificity, thus all eight levels were combined into one variable of perceived student injunctive norms. However, the relationship between this variable and consequences was weaker than the perceived attitudes of more proximal referents (parents, close friends, as well as their own personal attitudes). Subsequent analyses predicting consequences while controlling for demographic variables and drinking level, revealed that perceived injunctive norms for students, parents, and close friends as well as personal attitudes each significantly predicted consequences. Results suggest an important role for perceived injunctive norms in the experiencing of consequences over and above the amount of consumption and point to types of injunctive norms feedback that might form effective interventions (i.e., incorporating close friend and parent feedback as well as general student feedback)

What Men Want: The Role of Reflective Opposite-Sex Normative Preferences in Alcohol Use Among College Women

Misperceptions of peer drinking norms have been found to be strongly associated with individual drinking behavior, especially for proximal reference groups such as same-sex friends. Less studied are the effects of perceived preferences from the opposite sex on alcohol use; that is, the behaviors an individual believe the opposite sex prefers from them. Research suggests that these perceived “reflective” normative preferences may be particularly salient among college women, who may drink in pursuit of intimate relationships and positive attention from male peers. Heterosexual undergraduate students from two universities participated in this project. Females answered questions regarding the amount of alcohol they believe a typical male would like his female friends, dates, or romantic partners to drink. Males answered the same questions, stating their actual preferences. Results showed that females overestimate the amount of alcohol males want their female friends, dating partners, and sexual partners to drink, and that this misperception was associated with their drinking behavior, even after controlling for perceived same-sex norms. These results suggest that reflective normative feedback may offer a powerful new tool for female-targeted interventions