Promoting Maintenance of Change Following Brief Intervention for Alcohol Use

All students who enroll in the study will receive an efficacious counselor-delivered brief motivational intervention. The intervention is based in principles of motivational interviewing. Students complete a baseline assessment on their alcohol use and alcohol-related consequences. During the hour-long session, the counselor uses information from the baseline assessment to compare the student's level of alcohol consumption to that of peers at the same university, discuss choices that may lead to experiencing negative consequences, and provide opportunities for the student to set goals for risk reduction.

This study will develop and pilot a maintenance enhancement intervention. The intervention is expected to consist of four components, for example: (1) Student participants may learn to use techniques based in mindfulness to cope with negative emotions. (2) Student participants may identify barriers to reducing their alcohol use and identify protective strategies for navigating those barriers. (3) Student participants may be presented with narratives from other students who successfully resumed moderate drinking after a heavy drinking episode. Students may also be prompted to identify alcohol free activities that they enjoy and can engage in after experiencing a heavy drinking episode. (4) Parents may also receive a handbook encouraging communication with their student about alcohol use.

Study Overview

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Conditions: Alcohol Drinking in College
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Parent handbook; Behavioral: Coping with negative emotions; Behavioral: Problem-solving risky situations; Behavioral: Recovering from slips

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 160
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Allecia Reid, PhD; Phone Number: 413-545-0264; Email: aereid@umass.edu

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Student participants must meet the following eligibility criteria:

• Currently enrolled student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
• First time violator of the university alcohol policy
• Mandated to complete the Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention of College Students (BASICS) intervention
• Minimum age 18

Parent participants must meet the following eligibility criteria:

• The parent or guardian of students who meet all of the student participant criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

• None.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Factorial Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

16

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Coping with emotions, Parent handbook, Problem-solving risky situations, and Recovering from slips; Participants will learn to use techniques based in mindfulness as a means for coping with negative emotions. The participants' parent(s) will also receive a handbook that encourages communication with their child about alcohol use. Participants will be prompted to identify both barriers to reducing their alcohol use and protective strategies for navigating those barriers. To improve their confidence to resume moderate drinking after having a heavy drinking episode, participants will be presented with narratives from other students who successfully resumed moderate drinking after a heavy drinking episode. Students will also be prompted to identify alcohol free activities that they enjoy and can engage in after experiencing a heavy drinking episode.	Behavioral: Parent handbook; Handbook motivating parents to discuss alcohol use with their college student.; Behavioral: Coping with negative emotions; Mindfulness-based techniques are taught to improve ability to cope with negative emotions.; Behavioral: Problem-solving risky situations; Identifying and planning for barriers to change are encouraged.; Behavioral: Recovering from slips; Peer and personalized techniques are discussed to facilitate resumption of moderate drinking after a heavy drinking episode.
Active Comparator: Coping with negative emotions, Parent handbook , and Problem-solving for risky situations; Participants will learn to use techniques based in mindfulness as a means for coping with negative emotions. The participants' parent(s) will also receive a handbook that encourages communication with their child about alcohol use. Participants will be prompted to identify both barriers to reducing their alcohol use and protective strategies for navigating those barriers.	Behavioral: Parent handbook; Handbook motivating parents to discuss alcohol use with their college student.; Behavioral: Coping with negative emotions; Mindfulness-based techniques are taught to improve ability to cope with negative emotions.; Behavioral: Problem-solving risky situations; Identifying and planning for barriers to change are encouraged.
Active Comparator: Coping with negative emotions, Parent handbook , and Recovering from slips; Participants will learn to use techniques based in mindfulness as a means for coping with negative emotions. The participants' parent(s) will also receive a handbook that encourages communication with their child about alcohol use. To improve their confidence to resume moderate drinking after having a heavy drinking episode, participants will be presented with narratives from other students who successfully resumed moderate drinking after a heavy drinking episode. Students will also be prompted to identify alcohol free activities that they enjoy and can engage in after experiencing a heavy drinking episode.	Behavioral: Parent handbook; Handbook motivating parents to discuss alcohol use with their college student.; Behavioral: Coping with negative emotions; Mindfulness-based techniques are taught to improve ability to cope with negative emotions.; Behavioral: Recovering from slips; Peer and personalized techniques are discussed to facilitate resumption of moderate drinking after a heavy drinking episode.
Active Comparator: Coping with negative emotions and Parent handbook; Participants will learn to use techniques based in mindfulness as a means for coping with negative emotions. The participants' parent(s) will also receive a handbook that encourages communication with their child about alcohol use.	Behavioral: Parent handbook; Handbook motivating parents to discuss alcohol use with their college student.; Behavioral: Coping with negative emotions; Mindfulness-based techniques are taught to improve ability to cope with negative emotions.
Active Comparator: Coping with negative emotions, Problem-solving for risky situations , and Recovering from slips; Participants will learn to use techniques based in mindfulness as a means for coping with negative emotions. Participants will be prompted to identify both barriers to reducing their alcohol use and protective strategies for navigating those barriers. To improve their confidence to resume moderate drinking after having a heavy drinking episode, participants will be presented with narratives from other students who successfully resumed moderate drinking after a heavy drinking episode. Students will also be prompted to identify alcohol free activities that they enjoy and can engage in after experiencing a heavy drinking episode.	Behavioral: Coping with negative emotions; Mindfulness-based techniques are taught to improve ability to cope with negative emotions.; Behavioral: Problem-solving risky situations; Identifying and planning for barriers to change are encouraged.; Behavioral: Recovering from slips; Peer and personalized techniques are discussed to facilitate resumption of moderate drinking after a heavy drinking episode.
Active Comparator: Coping with negative emotions and Problem-solving for risky situations; Participants will learn to use techniques based in mindfulness as a means for coping with negative emotions. Participants will be prompted to identify both barriers to reducing their alcohol use and protective strategies for navigating those barriers.	Behavioral: Coping with negative emotions; Mindfulness-based techniques are taught to improve ability to cope with negative emotions.; Behavioral: Problem-solving risky situations; Identifying and planning for barriers to change are encouraged.
Active Comparator: Coping with negative emotions and Recovering from slips; Participants will learn to use techniques based in mindfulness as a means for coping with negative emotions. To improve their confidence to resume moderate drinking after having a heavy drinking episode, participants will be presented with narratives from other students who successfully resumed moderate drinking after a heavy drinking episode. Students will also be prompted to identify alcohol free activities that they enjoy and can engage in after experiencing a heavy drinking episode.	Behavioral: Coping with negative emotions; Mindfulness-based techniques are taught to improve ability to cope with negative emotions.; Behavioral: Recovering from slips; Peer and personalized techniques are discussed to facilitate resumption of moderate drinking after a heavy drinking episode.
Active Comparator: Coping with negative emotions; Participants will learn to use techniques based in mindfulness as a means for coping with negative emotions.	Behavioral: Coping with negative emotions; Mindfulness-based techniques are taught to improve ability to cope with negative emotions.
Active Comparator: Parent handbook , Problem-solving for risky situations , and Recovering from slips; The participants' parent(s) will receive a handbook that encourages communication with their child about alcohol use. Participants will be prompted to identify both barriers to reducing their alcohol use and protective strategies for navigating those barriers. To improve their confidence to resume moderate drinking after having a heavy drinking episode, participants will be presented with narratives from other students who successfully resumed moderate drinking after a heavy drinking episode. Students will also be prompted to identify alcohol free activities that they enjoy and can engage in after experiencing a heavy drinking episode.	Behavioral: Parent handbook; Handbook motivating parents to discuss alcohol use with their college student.; Behavioral: Problem-solving risky situations; Identifying and planning for barriers to change are encouraged.; Behavioral: Recovering from slips; Peer and personalized techniques are discussed to facilitate resumption of moderate drinking after a heavy drinking episode.
Active Comparator: Parent handbook and Problem-solving for risky situations; The participants' parent(s) will receive a handbook that encourages communication with their child about alcohol use. Participants will be prompted to identify both barriers to reducing their alcohol use and protective strategies for navigating those barriers. To improve their confidence to resume moderate drinking after having a heavy drinking episode, participants will be presented with narratives from other students who successfully resumed moderate drinking after a heavy drinking episode. Students will also be prompted to identify alcohol free activities that they enjoy and can engage in after experiencing a heavy drinking episode.	Behavioral: Parent handbook; Handbook motivating parents to discuss alcohol use with their college student.; Behavioral: Problem-solving risky situations; Identifying and planning for barriers to change are encouraged.
Active Comparator: Parent handbook and Recovering from slips; The participants' parent(s) will receive a handbook that encourages communication with their child about alcohol use. To improve their confidence to resume moderate drinking after having a heavy drinking episode, participants will be presented with narratives from other students who successfully resumed moderate drinking after a heavy drinking episode. Students will also be prompted to identify alcohol free activities that they enjoy and can engage in after experiencing a heavy drinking episode.	Behavioral: Parent handbook; Handbook motivating parents to discuss alcohol use with their college student.; Behavioral: Recovering from slips; Peer and personalized techniques are discussed to facilitate resumption of moderate drinking after a heavy drinking episode.
Active Comparator: Parent handbook; The participants' parent(s) will receive a handbook that encourages communication with their child about alcohol use.	Behavioral: Parent handbook; Handbook motivating parents to discuss alcohol use with their college student.
Active Comparator: Problem-solving for risky situations and Recovering from slips; Participants will be prompted to identify both barriers to reducing their alcohol use and protective strategies for navigating those barriers. To improve their confidence to resume moderate drinking after having a heavy drinking episode, participants will be presented with narratives from other students who successfully resumed moderate drinking after a heavy drinking episode. Students will also be prompted to identify alcohol free activities that they enjoy and can engage in after experiencing a heavy drinking episode.	Behavioral: Problem-solving risky situations; Identifying and planning for barriers to change are encouraged.; Behavioral: Recovering from slips; Peer and personalized techniques are discussed to facilitate resumption of moderate drinking after a heavy drinking episode.
Active Comparator: Problem-solving for risky situations; Participants will be prompted to identify both barriers to reducing their alcohol use and protective strategies for navigating those barriers.	Behavioral: Problem-solving risky situations; Identifying and planning for barriers to change are encouraged.
Active Comparator: Recovering from slips; To improve their confidence to resume moderate drinking after having a heavy drinking episode, participants will be presented with narratives from other students who successfully resumed moderate drinking after a heavy drinking episode. Students will also be prompted to identify alcohol free activities that they enjoy and can engage in after experiencing a heavy drinking episode.	Behavioral: Recovering from slips; Peer and personalized techniques are discussed to facilitate resumption of moderate drinking after a heavy drinking episode.
No Intervention: Assessment only control condition; Participants in this condition will complete assessments but will not receive any additional intervention content.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Drinking Intentions	Drinking intentions will be assessed using a modified version of the daily drinking questionnaire (Young, Rodriguez, & Neighbors, 2013). Participants will complete a 7-day grid, indicating how many drinks they intend to consume on a typical Sunday, Monday, etc. in the next month. Responses will be summed to capture intentions for typical weekly drinking.	Immediate post-test
Coping motives	Thirteen items will be assessed capturing drinking to cope with both anxiety and depression (Cooper, 1994; Grant, Stewart, O'Connor, Blackwell, & Conrod, 2007). Items assess using alcohol "to reduce my anxiety" or "to forget my worries" and are rated on a 1 (almost never/never) to 5 (almost always/always) scale. Items will be averaged to form separate scale scores for coping with anxiety and coping with depression. The measure has been shown to be reliable among college students.	Immediate post-test
Parent-student communication	Five items will assess parents' intentions for engaging in general communication with their child about school, social activities, personal issues, romantic relationships, and personal problems (Barnes, Hoffman, Welte, Farrell, & Dintcheff, 2006). Items are rated on a 1 (not at all) to 7 (frequently) scale and averaged to form a scale score. This measure has been shown to be responsive to a parent-based intervention and reliable among college students (Testa, Hoffman, Livingston, & Turrisi, 2010).	Immediate post-test
Maintenance self-efficacy	Maintenance self-efficacy will be assessed with the 8-item Brief Situational Confidence Questionnaire (BSCQ; Breslin, Sobell, Sobell, & Agrawal, 2000). Student participants will indicate confidence in their ability to resist drinking heavily in eight situations, such as during pleasant times with others, (e.g., celebrating with a friend). Items are rated from 0% (not at all confident) to 100% (completely confident) and averaged to form a scale score. The measure is reliable and detects intervention-induced change among non-dependent young adults (Magill et al., 2017).	Immediate post-test
Recovery self-efficacy	Recovery self-efficacy will be assessed with nine items adapted from previous research (Luszczynska, Mazurkiewicz, Ziegelmann, & Schwarzer, 2007). One item will assess overall recovery self-efficacy and eight will mirror the situations used in the BSCQ . Items include, "I am confident that I could resume moderate drinking, even if I drank heavily because I was enjoying pleasant times with others." Like the BSCQ, items will be rated from 0% (not at all confident) to 100% (completely confident).	Immediate post-test

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Estimated): September 1, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): May 1, 2027
• Study Completion (Estimated): May 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 25, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 25, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): February 3, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 15, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 10, 2025
• Last Verified: April 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Drinking Behavior; Alcohol Drinking in College; Alcohol Drinking
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2088

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No