Protective Behavioral Strategies and Brief Alcohol Interventions

Excessive college student drinking represents an important public health problem for both the students themselves and those with whom they interact. The objective of this research is to better understand how to reduce such high-risk drinking by improving prevention and treatment programs, which will provide an overall public health benefit. Subjects in the study will be randomized to one of two brief intervention conditions or an education-only control condition. It is hypothesized that those in the intervention conditions will report greater reductions in alcohol use and alcohol-related problems than those in the control condition.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Alcohol Consumption
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Protective Behavioral Strategies; Behavioral: Personalized Normative Feedback; Behavioral: Alcohol Education

Detailed Description

The primary objective of this project is to examine factors that are associated with the effectiveness of intervention programs designed to reduce high-risk drinking among heavy drinking college students. Previous research has found similar effect sizes for different types of multi-component, brief interventions among college students, but little research has assessed the degree to which specific components of such interventions are associated with intervention outcomes. One common component of motivational enhancing interventions among college students involves providing cognitive-behavioral self-control strategies designed to reduce one's use of alcohol, which we term "protective behavioral strategies" (PBS). However, there are two important factors that limit our understanding of the effects of PBS on client outcomes. First, the use of these strategies in motivational enhancing programs has generally not been assessed in a systematic manner, due in part to the fact that until recently a standardized measure of such strategies did not exist. Second, researchers have yet to conduct studies that dismantle the specific effects associated with the PBS component on client outcomes. That is, studies have not tested interventions with and without assessment and feedback regarding a client's use of PBS. Participants in this project will be "at-risk" college student drinkers who will be assigned to one of three conditions: a brief intervention that includes a focus on PBS, a brief intervention that does not include this focus, and an education-only control condition. Participant will complete self-report measures of alcohol-related variables at baseline, 30-day, and 6-month follow-ups. Mixed-model analyses will be used to determine the effectiveness of the intervention programs, and structural equation modeling will be used to determine if increases in PBS result in reductions in alcohol use/alcohol-related problems.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 365
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Missouri
    • Columbia, Missouri, United States, 65211
      • University of Missouri

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 24 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• At least one binge drinking episode in the preceding month

Exclusion Criteria:

• At-risk for alcohol dependence or major depressive disorder

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Protective Behavioral Strategies; Personalized feedback on use of protective behavioral strategies.	Behavioral: Protective Behavioral Strategies; Personalized feedback on use of protective behavioral strategies.
Experimental: Personalized Normative Feedback; Personalized feedback on how one's own drinking compares to relevant norms.	Behavioral: Personalized Normative Feedback; Personalized feedback on how one's own drinking compares to relevant norms.
Active Comparator: Alcohol Education; Educational information about harms associated with heavy drinking.	Behavioral: Alcohol Education; Educational information about harms associated with heavy drinking.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Drinks Per Week		6 Months
Rutgers Alcohol Problems Index (RAPI)	Total scores on an alcohol problems scale. Possible score range = 0-92. Higher scores are indicative of more alcohol-related problems.	6 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Drinking Norms Rating Form	Perceived drinking among other students, represented by standardized scores on the Drinking Norms Rating Form. Higher values indicate that the individual perceives higher levels of drinking among other students. Because the scores are standardized their is no hypothetical minimum or maximum, and the scale is standardized with a mean of 0 and standard deviation of 1. So, a mean value of 1.52 means that participants in that condition had an average score that was 1.52 standard deviation above the overall mean of the sample.	6 months
Protective Behavioral Strategies Scale.	Use of protective behavioral strategies related to alcohol use. Higher scores indicate more use of the strategies. A total score was calculated by summing the three subscale scores on the measure (range = 3-18).	6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Missouri-Columbia
• Collaborators: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Matthew P Martens, PhD, University of Missouri-Columbia

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: January 1, 2010
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 1, 2010
• Study Completion (Actual): September 1, 2010

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 20, 2010
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 21, 2010
• First Posted (Estimate): July 23, 2010

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 13, 2017
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 15, 2017
• Last Verified: June 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Drinking Behavior; Alcohol Drinking
• Other Study ID Numbers: Protective Behaviors; 1R21AA016779-01A2 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: No