Attitudes & College Experiences (ACE)

Using Counter Attitudinal Advocacy to Change Drinking Behavior & Related Problems

High volume drinking by young adults has proven resistant to long term change, so new approaches are needed. Given strong associations between alcohol-related attitudes and drinking behavior, the investigators adapt a theory-based attitude change strategy for use in alcohol prevention. This research tests the impact of a brief counter attitudinal advocacy activity on subsequent drinking and negative consequences.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Alcohol Abuse
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: CAA; Behavioral: Control

Detailed Description

The persistence of risky drinking among young adults in college calls for continued efforts to prevent harms related to alcohol. Current prevention interventions have achieved some success, but rely on a single mechanism of change: correcting exaggerated drinking norms. The investigators propose to test a novel prevention strategy targeting another mechanism of change: creating attitude-behavior dissonance. To date, changing alcohol-related attitudes and the resulting attitude-behavior discrepancy has been underutilized as a behavior change strategy for alcohol abuse prevention. Informed by an extensive literature showing strong and consistent associations between alcohol attitudes and drinking behavior, the investigators adapted a brief counter-attitudinal advocacy (CAA) manipulation to the alcohol prevention context.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 134
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • New York
    • Brooklyn, New York, United States, 11210
      • Brooklyn College

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 16 years to 24 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 18-24 years of age
• Enrolled in the university's undergraduate four-year degree program
• Past month heavy episodic drinking (for men, >5 drinks in one day, for women >4 drinks in one day)
• At least two self-reported negative consequence from drinking in the past month

Exclusion Criteria:

• Status as a graduating senior

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Experimental: Enhanced Intervention; Participants assigned to this arm will complete a personal writing task about alcohol use.	Behavioral: CAA; Participants will write about the use of PBS and alcohol use.
Placebo Comparator: Placebo Comparator; Participants assigned to this arm will complete a personal writing task about eating behaviors.	Behavioral: Control; Participants will write about eating and exercise.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in Alcohol Consumption from Baseline to 1-Month	Average of reports from past 30 days on the number of standard drinks consumed by participant over the past 30 days.	1 month after baseline
Change in Alcohol-related consequences from Baseline to 1- and 3-Months	The Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire (BYAACQ) (Kahler et al., 2005) is a 24-item self-administered checklist of problems related to drinking; responses are dichotomous (yes/no) and refer to the past month which was collected at baseline and 5-months. The BYAACQ demonstrates strong psychometric properties and is free of gender bias (Kahler et al., 2005).	1 month and 3 months after baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Brooklyn College of the City University of New York

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): April 10, 2019
• Primary Completion (Actual): April 30, 2022
• Study Completion (Actual): April 30, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 11, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 17, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): July 19, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): August 5, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 3, 2022
• Last Verified: August 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: College Students; Alcohol Intervention
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Chemically-Induced Disorders; Alcohol-Related Disorders; Substance-Related Disorders; Alcoholism
• Other Study ID Numbers: R21AA025676 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: Yes
• IPD Plan Description: After all data have been collected and the results of the study have been published, de-identified data will be made available to other qualified investigators upon request. The request will be evaluated by the investigators to ensure that it meets reasonable demands of scientific integrity.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Within one year of study completion
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: To be determined
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: Study Protocol; Informed Consent Form (ICF); Analytic Code

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No