University students use fewer protective behavioural strategies on high‐intensity drinking days

Abstract

Introduction and Aims: High-intensity drinking (HID), or consuming 8+ (10+) drinks in one sitting for women (men), is associated with significant harm. We compared the likelihood of individuals using protective behavioural strategies (PBS) on days with varying levels of drinking (HID, heavy episodic-only drinking [HED; 4–7/5–9 drinks for women/men], moderate drinking [1–3/1–4 drinks]). Design and Methods: We used an intensive repeated measures longitudinal design with four 14-day measurement bursts across two years (N= 258 university students [50.0% female, average age of 19.95 (SD = 0.41) years] who provided 3,176 daily drinking reports). Each drinking day, participants reported the amount of alcohol consumed and whether they used PBS. Results: Multilevel models indicated that, relative to HED-only days, students were more likely to use strategies of avoiding drinking too quickly on moderate drinking days (OR = 1.90, CI = 1.50–2.40) but less likely on HID days (OR = 0.38, CI = 0.29–0.48). Relative to HED-only days, students were less likely to use strategies to protect themselves from serious harm on moderate days (OR = 0.53, CI = 0.41–0.67), and equally likely on HID days (OR = 0.84, CI = 0.93–1.41). Discussion and Conclusions: Despite elevated risk for alcohol-related harms when drinking most heavily, PBS may be under-utilised on higher-risk drinking occasions. In light of prior work supporting the effectiveness of PBS at reducing harms on HID days, increasing PBS should be emphasized in future prevention and intervention efforts.

Respecting alcohol, respecting the water: Young adult perspectives on how to reduce alcohol‐influenced drownings in Australia

“…These collective findings may provide some insight into the higher incidence of alcohol-related drownings recorded among Australian men than women. 19 Despite male participants in the current study stating they would limit their alcohol consumption in aquatic settings to stay safe, their actual adherence to this intention could vary, 52 particularly as men adopt more individualistic styles of safety and others may not intervene if the man was at risk. 50,51 The Don't let your mates drink and drown campaign has attempted to address this concept, by encouraging men to look out for their friends.…”

“…10 To maximise effectiveness of alcohol-focused campaigns addressing young adults, research has recommended campaigns incorporate personal feedback and include activities involving risk consideration and decision making, alongside the promotion of strategies which encourage risk avoidance and a change in drinking behaviours. 47,52 To align with these recommendations, and the current participants' suggestions, drowning prevention practitioners should consider promoting harm reduction strategies that encourage risk consideration and changes to drinking behaviours in aquatic settings. For example, for improved safety if consuming alcohol in aquatic contexts, drowning prevention campaigns could encourage consumption of drinks with reduced alcohol content, and endorse a buddy system that promotes getting your buddy home safely.…”

“…However, young adults' intentions of limiting alcohol consumption do not ensure adherence to their planned strategies. Linden-Carmichael et al 52 reported that young people recorded less frequent use of protective behavioural strategies during occasions of high-intensity and high-risk drinking. It is unclear whether their alcohol-related intentions of the event (eg to get drunk) led to disregarding these strategies, or the extent of their alcohol consumption impaired their implementation.…”

High-risk alcohol use behavior and daily academic effort among college students

“…Variables were un-centered at the daily-level, person mean centered at the semester-level, and grand mean centered at the person-level to isolate the hypothesized daylevel effects. 24 Multilevel analyses, conducted using maximum pseudo-likelihood estimation for logistic models and restricted maximum likelihood estimation for linear models, included all days with complete data.…”

Attitudinal factors associated with drink counting

“…Protective behavioural strategies (PBS) are cognitive behavioural strategies proposed to be useful in reducing alcohol consumption and the risk of experiencing alcohol‐related harms [1–3]. They include strategies: (i) limiting alcohol intake (e.g.…”