A Social Media Personalized Normative Feedback Intervention for Heavy Drinking College Students (SMASH)

February 27, 2024 updated by: Duquesne University

Project Smash (Social Media Alcohol Session for Health)

This study seeks to evaluate the unique and synergistic efficacy of social media-specific personalized normative feedback targeting the reduction of alcohol use among heavy-drinking college students who post alcohol-related content on social media.

Hypothesis: Alcohol personalized normative feedback, social media-specific personalized normative feedback, and the Alcohol personalized normative feedback+ social media-specific personalized normative feedback conditions will be more effective in reducing drinking than the attention control condition.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

400

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

  • Name: Mai Ly Steers, PhD
  • Phone Number: 412-396-4761
  • Email: steersm@duq.edu

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Ohio
      • Oxford, Ohio, United States, 45056
        • Recruiting
        • Miami University
        • Contact:
          • Rose Marie Ward
    • Pennsylvania
      • Houston, Pennsylvania, United States, 77204
        • Recruiting
        • University of Houston
        • Contact:
      • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, 15282
        • Recruiting
        • Duquesne University
        • Contact:
          • Mai-Ly N Steers
          • Phone Number: 310-213-0667

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 26 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • College students recruited across three universities: Duquesne University, Miami University, and University of Houston (DU, MU, UH)
  • Undergraduate college students 18 to 26 years old
  • Meet heavy drinking (4+ drinks in one sitting for individuals assigned female at birth, 5+ drinks in one sitting for individuals assigned male at birth in the past month) and ARC (alcohol-related content) posting criteria (2+ ARC posts in the last 30 days for individuals assigned female at birth, 1+ for individuals assigned male at birth, on either Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, or TikTok)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Pregnant or of another protected population

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Alcohol personalized normative feedback (APNF)

Participants will receive feedback about their consumption, what they think the average student at their university drinks, and actual drinking statistics at their university.

Participants in this condition will participate in a baseline survey and afterwards will receive the feedback intervention. They will then complete follow-up surveys at 3-months and 6-months.
Behavioral: Alcohol personalized normative feedback (APNF)
Participants will receive individualized feedback based upon their survey responses. Feedback regarding participant's drinking compared to other same-university students will include: (a) drinking days per week, (b) average drinks per occasion, (c) drinks per week, and (d) drinking percentile rank.
Experimental: Social media personalized normative feedback (SMPNF)

Participants will receive feedback about their consumption and alcohol related consumption posts, what they think the average student at their university drinks, and actual drinking statistics at their university.

Participants in this condition will participate in a baseline survey and afterwards will receive the feedback intervention. They will then complete follow-up surveys at 3-months and 6-months.
Behavioral: Social media personalized normative feedback (SMPNF)
Participants will receive individualized feedback based upon their survey responses. Feedback regarding participant's alcohol related content posts on social media and drinking compared to other same-university students will include: (a) alcohol related posting days per week, (b) average alcohol related posting per week, (c) posting percentile rank, (d) drinking days per week, (e) average drinks per week, and (f) drinking percentile rank.
Experimental: Alcohol and social media personalized normative feedback (APNF + SMPNF)

Participants will go through the alcohol personalized normative feedback process and the social media personalized normative feedback.

Participants in this condition will participate in a baseline survey and afterwards will receive the feedback intervention. They will then complete follow-up surveys at 3-months and 6-months.
Behavioral: Alcohol personalized normative feedback (APNF)
Participants will receive individualized feedback based upon their survey responses. Feedback regarding participant's drinking compared to other same-university students will include: (a) drinking days per week, (b) average drinks per occasion, (c) drinks per week, and (d) drinking percentile rank.
Behavioral: Social media personalized normative feedback (SMPNF)
Participants will receive individualized feedback based upon their survey responses. Feedback regarding participant's alcohol related content posts on social media and drinking compared to other same-university students will include: (a) alcohol related posting days per week, (b) average alcohol related posting per week, (c) posting percentile rank, (d) drinking days per week, (e) average drinks per week, and (f) drinking percentile rank.
No Intervention: Attention control

Participants will receive feedback about their consumption of desserts, what they think their peers consume, and actual dessert consumption statistics are for individuals in their age group in the United States.

Participants in this condition will participate in a baseline survey/feedback intervention. They will then complete follow-up surveys and feedback interventions at 3-months and 6-months.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire (B-YAACQ) - change is being assessed
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 month follow-up, 6 month follow-up
The B-YAACQ is a 24 item assessment which measures consequences in 8 domains over a given time frame. Subscales include: Social/Interpersonal, Academic/Occupational, Risky Behavior, Impaired Control, Poor Self-Care, Diminished Self-Perception, Blackout Drinking, and Physiological Dependence. Minimum value: 0; Maximum Value: 24; Higher scores indicate more alcohol-related problems.
Baseline, 3 month follow-up, 6 month follow-up
Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) - change is being assessed
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 month follow-up, 6 month follow-up
The AUDIT is a 10 item tool which assesses a participant's drinking habits and alcohol-related consequences. Minimum value: 0; Maximum Value: 40; Higher scores indicate worse outcomes. A score of 15 or more indicates the likelihood of alcohol dependence.
Baseline, 3 month follow-up, 6 month follow-up
Rutgers Alcohol Problems Index (RAPI) -change is being assessed
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 month follow-up, 6 month follow-up
The RAPI is a 25-item questionnaire that measures problem drinking. Items are rated on a 4-point Likert scale, ranging from none (0) to more than five times (4). Minimum value: 0; Maximum Value: 100; Higher scores indicate more alcohol-related problems.
Baseline, 3 month follow-up, 6 month follow-up
Quantity/Frequency/Peak Index (QFI) -change is being assessed
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 month follow-up, 6 month follow-up
The QFI consists of five items which assess participants' typical alcohol consumption patterns. Minimum value: 0; Maximum Value: 24; Higher scores indicate more alcohol use.
Baseline, 3 month follow-up, 6 month follow-up
Daily Drinking Questionnaire (DDQ) -change is being assessed
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 month follow-up, 6 month follow-up
The DDQ is a 9 item tool which assesses participants' drinking over the past 3 months. Participants report how much they drank on an average over the past 3 months by indicating the number of drinks they consumed on each day of the week. Minimum value: 0; Maximum Value: 175 (windsorized to 25 drinks per day); Higher scores indicate more alcohol use.
Baseline, 3 month follow-up, 6 month follow-up
Drinking Norms Rating Form (DNRF) -change is being assessed
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 month follow-up, 6 month follow-up
The DNRF is a 5 item questionnaire that assesses an individual's view on the drinking habits of other individuals attending the same university. It was adapted from the Daily Drinking Questionnaire to assess perceptions of drinking norms on campus. Minimum value: 0; Maximum Value: 175 (windsorized to 25 drinks per day); Higher scores indicate students perceive their peers to engage in more alcohol use.
Baseline, 3 month follow-up, 6 month follow-up

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Duquesne University

Collaborators

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Mai-Ly N Steers, PhD, Duquesne University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

January 9, 2022

Primary Completion (Estimated)

May 1, 2024

Study Completion (Estimated)

September 1, 2024

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 24, 2022

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 31, 2022

First Posted (Actual)

November 8, 2022

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 29, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 27, 2024

Last Verified

February 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2022/05/12
  • R00AA025394 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Alcohol Consumption

Clinical Trials on Alcohol personalized normative feedback (APNF)

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

CROs by country

CROs in Slovenia

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

3
Subscribe