ALCOHOL ABUSE PREVENTION AMONG FRATERNITY MEN

University Of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Champaign IL

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION Students heavy drinking has been described as "by far the single most serious public health problem confronting American colleges". This research aims to facilitate development of improved alcohol abuse prevention programs for fraternity men. Specifically, this research seeks to evaluate the impact of two national fraternities' alcohol abuse prevention programs, and to examine associations between changes in theoretical alcohol consumption determinants and reductions in alcohol consumption levels among fraternity men. The first year of this research will utilized a matched pair, randomized pre-post design to measure the impact of prevention activities in 10 fraternity chapters, compared to 10 delayed intervention control chapters. Sixty chapters will participate in years two and three of the investigation. Impact will be assessed in terms of reduction in alcohol use as well as changes in hypothesized alcohol behavior determinants such as: perceived collective efficacy of the chapter in moderating excessive alcohol use, alcohol consumption expectancies, and the perceived norms regarding alcohol use. The primary statistical procedures used to analyze program impact on these measures will be analyzes of covariance with modifications to account for the nested design of fraternity members within chapters. During the second and third years of the investigation, past analytic models illustrating the causal pathways of these variables in moderating drinking levels will be theoretically created and then tested using structural equation modeling techniques.