Social-norms interventions for light and nondrinking students

Neighbors, Clayton; Jensen, Megan M.; Tidwell, Judy; Walter, Theresa; Fossos, Nicole; Lewis, Melissa A.

doi:10.1177/1368430210398014

Cited by 61 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…For instance, Stock, Vallentin-Holbech, and Rasmussen (2016) created a program in which pupils first indicate their own substance use and perceived norms through online questionnaires, and subsequently receive corrective information about substance use rates and social norms of their peers. Similarly, Neighbors et al (2011) found that college students in the control condition consumed more alcohol weekly than participants receiving corrective information about peers' alcohol consumption. Social norms interventions adapted specifically for party-drugs may be promising to prevent or decrease party-drug use among college students.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Prevalence and Psychosocial Correlates of Party-Drug Use and Associated Problems among University Students in the Netherlands

Kunst

Gebhardt

2018

Substance Use & Misuse

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Background: Recent developments in drug use patterns call for an investigation of current party-drug use and associated problems among college students, who appear to be an important target population for harm reduction interventions. Objectives: In addition to reporting on party-drug use prevalence, we investigated whether initial use and continuation of party-drug use among students was associated with demographic, personality and psychosocial factors. Methods: An online questionnaire was administered to 446 students from a Dutch university, inquiring about party-drug use, demographic characteristics, social norms and personality (big five, impulsiveness, aggression). Univariate and multivariate bootstrapped linear regression analyses were used. Results: Of all students, 22.9% indicated having used party-drugs at least once, with a notable sex difference (39.2% of men vs. 16.2% of women). In contrast to the reported trends in Dutch nightlife, GHB was used rarely (lifetime 1.6%) and new psychoactive substances (NPS; 6.7%) appeared almost equally popular as amphetamines (7.6%) and cocaine (7%). Mild health/psychosocial problems (e.g., doing embarrassing things, feeling unwell) were common (65%), whereas serious problems (e.g., being hospitalized) were rare. Neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness and impulsiveness were associated with lifetime but not regular party-drug use. Of all predictors, lifetime and regular party-drug use were most strongly related to lenient injunctive and descriptive norms in friends, and a low motivation to comply with parents. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that harm reduction/preventive interventions might profit from focusing on social norms, and targeting students who are highly involved in a pro-party-drug environment while experiencing less parental influence.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Prevalence and Psychosocial Correlates of Party-Drug Use and Associated Problems among University Students in the Netherlands

Kunst

Gebhardt

2018

Substance Use & Misuse

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“…Several potential intervention moderators of alcohol-related outcomes have been examined among college students. These include historical variables, such as age of drinking onset (Mallett, Ray, Turrisi, Belden, Bachrach, & Larimer, 2010) and family history of alcohol abuse (LaBrie, Feres, Kenney, & Lac, 2009), stable individual difference variables, such as gender (Carey, Henson, Carey, & Maisto, 2009; Carey, Carey, Henson, Maisto, & DeMartini, 2011), self-regulation (Carey, Henson, Carey, & Maisto, 2007) and self-determination (Neighbors, Lewis, Bergstrom, & Larimer, 2006), and more malleable variables, such as identification with the typical college student (Neighbors, Jensen, Tidwell, Walter, & Fossos, 2011) and readiness to change (Carey et al, 2007; Tomaka, Palacios, Morales-Monks, & Davis, 2012). Briefly, some interventions have been found to be more effective for more at-risk students including students with an earlier age of drinking onset (Mallett et al, 2010) or with a positive family history of alcohol abuse (LaBrie et al, 2009).…”

Section: Moderators Of Intervention Efficacymentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining and characterizing differences in college alcohol intervention efficacy: A growth mixture modeling application.

Henson

Pearson

Carey

2015

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

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Objective While college alcohol misuse remains a pervasive issue, individual-level interventions are among the most efficacious methodologies to reduce alcohol-related harms. Growth mixture modeling (GMM) was used as an exploratory moderation analysis to determine how many types of college drinkers exist with regards to intervention efficacy over a 12-month period. Method Data from three randomized-controlled clinical trials were combined to yield a sample of 1,040 volunteer and mandated college students who were given one of three interventions: a brief motivational intervention, Alcohol Edu for Sanctions, or Alcohol 101 Plus. Participants were assessed at baseline, and 1, 6, and 12 months following intervention. Results Through the examination of heavy drinking behaviors, piecewise GMMs that identified 6 subpopulations of drinkers. Most of the sample (76%) was lighter drinkers that demonstrated a strong intervention response, but returned to baseline behaviors over the subsequent 12 months. In contrast, 11% of the sample reported no significant change over the 12-month period. Four minority subpopulations were also identified. In sum, 82% of the sample responded to intervention, but 84% of the sample reported intervention decay over the subsequent 12 months. Women, upperclassmen, beginning drinking later in life, not engaging in drinking games, and lower norms predicted a greater likelihood of responding to intervention. Conclusions Individual-level interventions are successful at effecting change in most college students, but these effects tend to decay to baseline behaviors by 12 months. These results suggest intervention efforts need to find ways to engage freshmen men and those who play drinking games. Public Health Significance This study suggests that there are distinct subgroups of college students defined by how they respond to alcohol intervention, and that interventions need to target freshmen men and those who play drinking games. Although most students initially response to intervention effects, most also show intervention decay over the next 12 months, which suggests that we need to determine ways of improving the long-term effects of alcohol interventions.

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“…The utility of electronic screening and brief intervention (eSBI) as a universal prevention strategy has not been well explored. With a few exceptions (e.g., Larimer et al, 2007; Neighbors et al, 2011), there is relatively little evidence that supports feedback-based approaches as a prevention strategy for those who are light or non-drinkers (Elliot, Carey, & Bolles, 2008). Moreover, there is concern that the use of screening and personalized normative feedback as a universal prevention strategy may be irrelevant for non-drinking students or, given some evidence of the potential for iatrogenic effects of these alcohol prevention programs (Werch & Owen, 2002), may even have negative consequences.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Personalized Feedback as a Universal Prevention Approach for College Drinking: A Randomized Trial of an e-Mail Linked Universal Web-Based Alcohol Intervention

Palfai

Winter

et al. 2014

J Primary Prevent

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Alcohol use among first-year university students continues to be a central health concern. Efforts to address drinking in this population have increasingly relied on web-based interventions, which have the capacity to reach large numbers of students through a convenient and highly utilized medium. Despite evidence for the utility of this approach for reducing hazardous drinking, recent studies that have examined the effectiveness of this approach as a universal prevention strategy in campus-wide studies have produced mixed results. We sought to test the effectiveness of a web-based alcohol intervention as a universal prevention strategy for first-year students. An e-mail invitation linked to a brief, web-based survey on health behaviors was sent to all first-year students during the fall semester. Those who completed the baseline assessment were randomized to receive either a feedback-based alcohol intervention (intervention condition) or feedback about other health-related behaviors such as sleep and nutrition (control condition). A second web-based survey was used to collect follow-up drinking data 5 months later. The number of heavy drinking episodes in the previous month and alcohol-related consequences in the previous 3 months served as the primary dependent variables. Negative binomial regression analyses did not indicate a significant effect of the intervention at follow-up on either heavy drinking episodes or alcohol-related consequences. Analyses of additional drinking outcomes among the subsample of students who reported that they did not drink at baseline showed that those who received the alcohol intervention were subsequently less likely to drink alcohol. These results suggest that web-based alcohol interventions may be a potentially useful method of maintaining abstinence among underage, non-drinking students. Overall, however, results indicate that an e-mail-linked, campus-wide, web-intervention approach to address alcohol use among first-year students may have limited effectiveness as an approach to minimize hazardous drinking over the course of the year.

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Social-norms interventions for light and nondrinking students

Cited by 61 publications

References 46 publications

Prevalence and Psychosocial Correlates of Party-Drug Use and Associated Problems among University Students in the Netherlands

Prevalence and Psychosocial Correlates of Party-Drug Use and Associated Problems among University Students in the Netherlands

Defining and characterizing differences in college alcohol intervention efficacy: A growth mixture modeling application.

Personalized Feedback as a Universal Prevention Approach for College Drinking: A Randomized Trial of an e-Mail Linked Universal Web-Based Alcohol Intervention

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