COLLEGE STUDENT DRINKING AND THE CAMPUS ENVIRONMENT--COMMUNITY PREVENTION

Pacific Institute For Res And Evaluation, Beltsville MD

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION: The extreme levels of college student drinking and its attendant risks are "rediscovered" every few years and yet we seem to have made little progress toward preventing drinking problems among this group. We suggest that this is likely due to a number of weaknesses in approach, including poorly defined targets of intervention, messages perceived as inappropriate or irrelevant by students, an over-reliance on awareness campaigns exclusively, and insufficient attention to environmental factors that shape the extent of student drinking. In the proposed five year study, we plan to evaluate the impact of a comprehensive, community-based university intervention to reduce the frequency of intoxication and "binge" drinking via a risk-reduction intervention that comprises a commercial and social-host responsible beverage service (RBS) program, supported by activities that will increase perception of risk intoxication, correct students' overestimates of their fellow students? consumption of alcohol, and garner support for the new RBS policies. The study has four phases: (1) baseline and policy research phase including a longitudinal sample of 1,500 students plus a sample from a comparison campus; (2) a program implementation phase; (3) a process evaluation phase; and (4) an outcome evaluation phase in which the program's impact on the frequency of intoxication, binge drinking, and prevalence of negative consequences is compared to the baseline and a sample from the comparison campus. Baseline data will be used as formative research and as information to change student perceptions. The evaluation will integrate process and outcome models to better inform us as to how the program may have influenced student drinking across cohorts. In addition to these primary objectives, the proposed study will be able to investigate how student drinking evolves over the course of their college career, and explore the possible sources of gender and ethnic differences in drinking and drinking problems. Finally, this component will be providing the basic logistical support for two other center components - a study of alcohol availability for college students, and a close investigation of alcohol?s role in sexual assault among college students.