Reducing Alcohol‐Related Consequences Among High School Seniors: Efficacy of a Brief, Web‐Based Intervention

Abstract

The authors examined the efficacy of a brief, web‐based personalized feedback intervention on reducing alcohol‐related consequences among high school seniors (N = 105) using a group‐randomized controlled design. Results of repeated measures mixed‐models analyses indicated significant intervention effects over time for alcohol‐related consequences at 30‐day and 6‐month follow‐up assessments. Drinking risk status moderated intervention effects such that results were only significant for high‐risk drinkers (i.e., students reporting initiation of heavy episodic drinking at baseline).

The Effectiveness of Web-Based Interventions to Promote Health Behaviour Change in Adolescents: A Systematic Review

“…In total, 18 records met all the inclusion criteria, describing a total of 14 different interventions. We found five records with the same main author describing the same intervention (The eCHECKUP TO GO) [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ], so prevent duplicate studies that might lead to biased results, we assessed the time of recruitment, the sample size, and the time of follow-up [ 29 ]. The decision was to include in the narrative synthesis the work of Doumas, D. M. et al, (2021) since it had the best combination of the longest time of follow-up (6 months) with the greatest sample size ( n = 311) [ 28 ].…”

Sex differences in the acceptability and short‐term outcomes of a web‐based personalized feedback alcohol intervention for high school seniors

“…A tiered approach to alcohol prevention and intervention might include implementing the eCHECKUP TO GO to all students as part of a school assembly or through advising sessions (Tier 1), intervening with groups of students who are at high‐risk for alcohol use, including high school seniors, through classroom curricula (Tier 2), and providing the eCHECKUP TO GO for students who have been sanctioned for an alcohol use violation at school with the school psychologist (Tier 3). Research suggests the eCHECKUP TO GO is an effective universal Tier 1 approach for prevention with high school students (Doumas et al, 2020; Doumas, Esp, Turrisi, Hausheer, & Cuffee, 2014; Hausheer, Doumas, & Esp, 2018) and an effective Tier 2 approach with high school seniors reporting high‐risk drinking (Doumas & Esp, 2019; Doumas, Esp, Flay et al, 2017). Results from this study add to this literature demonstrating a reduction in alcohol use among high school seniors who report alcohol use.…”

“…Although originally developed for college students, researchers have identified the eCHECKUP TO GO as a promising school‐based intervention for high school seniors (Doumas & Esp, 2019; Doumas, Esp, Flay, & Bond, 2017; Doumas, Esp, Johnson, Trull, & Shearer, 2017; Doumas, Esp, Turrisi, Bond, & Flay, 2020). Initial randomized controlled trials examining the efficacy of the eCHECKUP TO GO with high school seniors indicated that students participating in the program reported a reduction in risk factors for alcohol use including normative beliefs about peer drinking, positive beliefs about alcohol, and positive alcohol expectancies (Doumas, Esp, Johnson et al, 2017), alcohol use (Doumas, Esp, Flay et al, 2017), and alcohol‐related consequences (Doumas & Esp, 2019) relative to students in a control group.…”

Insight into Selecting Adolescents for Drinking Intervention Programs: a Simulation Based on Stochastic Actor–Oriented Models

“…BASICS has been used along with resetting peer-oriented norms on drinking (Larimer et al 2001;Carey et al 2006). In more recent years, the BASICS is applied on mobile phones (e.g., BASICS curriculum adapted to be a mobile intervention: BASICS-Mobile, see Witkiewitz et al 2014;Text Message Alcohol Program: TMAP, see Bock et al 2016; BASICS-Mobile + TMAP, see Merrill et al 2018), a computer-based online platform (e.g., Doumas and Esp 2019), and smartphones (e.g., Bertholet et al 2020).…”

“…Most drinking prevention programs adopt a classic experimental design: at the first time point (t 1 ) the participants take a pre-test of their drinking levels and are randomly assigned to an experimental group and a control group; then at the second time point (t 2 ), participants in the experimental group receive the drinking intervention while those in the control group do not; and finally at the third time point (t 3 ), participants in both groups take a post-test of their drinking levels, which are compared across time and groups for effect assessment (Hansen et al 1988;Pentz et al, 1989;Baer et al 1992;Botvin 1996;Darkes and Goldman 1998;Walters et al 2000Walters et al , 2007Musher-Eizenman and Kulick 2003;Carey et al 2006;Neighbors et al 2011;Witkiewitz et al 2014;Bock et al 2016;Merrill et al 2018;Doumas and Esp 2019).…”