Evaluating Personalized Feedback Intervention Framing with a Randomized Controlled Trial to Reduce Young Adult Alcohol-Related Sexual Risk Taking

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate personalized feedback intervention (PFI) framing with two web-delivered PFIs aimed to reduce young adult alcohol-related risky sexual behavior (RSB). Combined PFIs typically use an additive approach whereby independent components on drinking and components on RSB are presented without the discussion of the influence of alcohol on RSB. In contrast, an integrated PFI highlights the RSB-alcohol connection by presenting integrated alcohol and RSB components that focus on the role of intoxication as a barrier to risk reduction in sexual situations. In a randomized controlled trial, 402 (53.98% female) sexually active young adults aged 18-25 were randomly assigned to a combined PFI, an integrated PFI, or attention control. All assessment and intervention procedures were web-based. At the 1-month follow-up, those randomly assigned to the integrated condition had a lower likelihood of having any casual sex partners compared to those in the control group. At the 6-month follow-up, the combined condition had a lower likelihood of having any casual sex partners compared to those in the control group. When examining alcohol-related RSB, at the 1-month follow-up, both interventions showed a lower likelihood of any drinking prior to sex compared to the control group. When examining alcohol-related sexual consequences, results showed a reduction in the non-zero count of consequences in the integrated condition compared to the control at the 1-month follow-up. For typical drinks per week, those in the combined condition showed a greater reduction in the non-zero count of drinks than those in the control condition at the 1-month follow-up. While there were no significant differences between the two interventions, the current findings highlight the utility of two efficacious web-based alcohol and RSB interventions among a national sample of at-risk young adults.

Dangerous Liaisons: The Role of Hookups and Heavy Episodic Drinking in College Sexual Victimization

“…In contrast, interventions that have addressed sexual risk behaviors in addition to alcohol have been more successful in reducing sexual victimization (Gilmore, Lewis, & George, 2015;Senn et al, 2015). Our findings support the view that sexual behaviors, particularly alcohol-related sexual behaviors, may be a particularly appropriate target for intervention (see Lewis et al, 2014;Lewis et al, 2018).…”

Growing Up, Hooking Up, and Drinking: A Review of Uncommitted Sexual Behavior and Its Association With Alcohol Use and Related Consequences Among Adolescents and Young Adults in the United States

“…Current interventions focusing on alcohol use or sexual risk taking do not include content specific to hooking up or have yet to evaluate intervention content on hooking up behavioral outcomes (Dermen and Thomas, 2011; Lewis et al, 2014). Although there is a great deal of evidence that brief normative feedback interventions can reduce alcohol use (Tanner-Smith and Lipsey, 2015) and some evidence such interventions may prevent alcohol-related risky sexual behavior (Lewis et al, 2014, 2018), research related to brief interventions for hooking up is limited. We are aware of only one study (Testa et al, submitted) that has tested and found evidence for the efficacy of brief normative feedback interventions for hookups.…”

Opportunities and Challenges for Prevention and Intervention in Emerging Adulthood: Introduction to the Special Issue

“…Notable differences in the effects of the specific intervention conditions were found, however. Whereas the combined condition showed a reduction in typical number of drinks per week, the integrated condition was associated with a reduction in alcohol-related consequences (Lewis et al 2018).…”

“…Three of these evaluations describe the results of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Lewis et al (2018) evaluated the efficacy of two web-based personalized feedback interventions that either integrated or simply combined alcohol and risky sexual behavior content among a national sample of 402 sexually active emerging adults (ages 18-25 years) who reported recent alcohol use. The results indicated that at the 1-month follow-up, the integrated and combined conditions were each associated with short-term reductions of alcohol-related risky sex behaviors, compared to the control condition.…”