Among U.S. college students, alcohol abuse, including binge-drinking, is an increasingly serious and pervasive problem. Student alcohol abuse can lead to societal and individual impacts, including "increasing rates of driving under the influence, unintentional injuries, and deaths, and a host of other social, psychological, and physiological problems". Discovering particular characteristics and patterns of communication during the college/university life stage may assist the design of more effective health promotion campaigns aimed at alcohol abuse prevention/cessation.Unfortunately, to date, interventions aimed at changing student behaviors and environmental facilitators have had limited success. In particular, little research has focused on understanding the nature of appeals targeting Hispanic/Latino students (e.g.). Such interventions may benefit from additional focus on increasing college students' social support reliance and/or on boosting their perceptions of self-efficacy and from further identification of specific appeals resonating with Hispanic/Latino students. The present study investigates students' ABOUT THE AUTHORThe research group behind this study focuses on science and health communication to the public and the applications of such communication to educational initiatives and health promotion campaigns. To date, their research has focused primarily on underserved populations, including senior adults and Hispanic/Latino groups in the Southwest United States. At various points in time, all the authors have been affiliated with the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, designated by the federal government as a Hispanic-serving institution. The current study falls squarely within this focus.

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