Effects of a brief motivational intervention with college student drinkers.

This study consisted of a randomized controlled trial of a 1-session motivational intervention for college student binge drinkers. Sixty students who reported binge drinking 2 or more times in the past 30 days were randomly assigned to either a no-treatment control or a brief intervention group. The intervention provided students with feedback regarding personal consumption, perceived drinking norms, alcohol-related problems, situations associated with heavy drinking, and alcohol expectancies. At 6-week follow-up, the brief intervention group exhibited significant reductions on number of drinks consumed per week, number of times drinking alcohol in the past month, and frequency of binge drinking in the past month. Estimates of typical student drinking mediated these reductions. This study replicates earlier research on the efficacy of brief interventions with college students and extends previous work regarding potential mechanisms of change.

[1]  N. Andreasen,et al.  Simultaneous Tests of Many Hypotheses in Exploratory Research , 1982, The Journal of nervous and mental disease.

[2]  Social determinants of alcohol consumption: the effects of social interaction and model status on the self-administration of alcohol. , 1985, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[3]  Sandra A. Brown,et al.  Drug Effect Expectancies and Addictive Behavior Change , 1993 .

[4]  H. Perkins,et al.  Using Student Alcohol Surveys: Notes on Clinical and Educational Program Applications. , 1986 .

[5]  A. Gibson,et al.  Motivational interviewing. , 2000, The practising midwife.

[6]  M. Goldman,et al.  Expectancy challenge and drinking reduction: process and structure in the alcohol expectancy network. , 1998, Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology.

[7]  M. Goldman,et al.  Alcohol-related expectancies versus demographic/background variables in the prediction of adolescent drinking. , 1983, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[8]  G A Marlatt,et al.  Screening and brief intervention for high-risk college student drinkers: results from a 2-year follow-up assessment. , 1998, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[9]  John P. Allen,et al.  Measuring Alcohol Consumption , 1992, Humana Press.

[10]  M. Larimer,et al.  Biases in the perception of drinking norms among college students. , 1991, Journal of studies on alcohol.

[11]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[12]  H. White,et al.  Towards the assessment of adolescent problem drinking. , 1989, Journal of studies on alcohol.

[13]  W. Miller,et al.  Motivational Interviewing: Preparing People to Change Addictive Behavior , 1991 .

[14]  M Haines,et al.  Changing the perception of the norm: a strategy to decrease binge drinking among college students. , 1996, Journal of American college health : J of ACH.

[15]  K. Fromme,et al.  Comprehensive effects of alcohol: Development and psychometric assessment of a new expectancy questionnaire. , 1993 .

[16]  G. Botvin,et al.  Long-term follow-up results of a randomized drug abuse prevention trial in a white middle-class population. , 1995, JAMA.

[17]  W. Miller,et al.  Drinking and thinking: how does personal drinking affect judgments of prevalence and risk? , 1994, Journal of studies on alcohol.

[18]  Daniel R. Kivlahan,et al.  Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (Basics): A Harm Reduction Approach , 1999 .

[19]  W. Miller,et al.  Effects of Normative Feedback on Consumption among Heavy Drinking College Students , 1995, Journal of drug education.

[20]  M. Larimer,et al.  An experimental test of three methods of alcohol risk reduction with young adults. , 1992, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[21]  T. Harford,et al.  Drinking norms versus drinking behavior. , 1984, Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research.

[22]  G A Marlatt,et al.  Harm reduction: come as you are. , 1996, Addictive behaviors.

[23]  H. Wechsler,et al.  Changes in binge drinking and related problems among American college students between 1993 and 1997. Results of the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study. , 1998, Journal of American college health : J of ACH.