CPNF Intervention Development and Testing (Project SHIFT)

A User-Customizable Personalized Normative Feedback Intervention for Alcohol Harm Reduction in Young Adults: Feasibility, Acceptability, and Preliminary Efficacy

The project will develop brief interventions that allow participants to customize which groups they receive feedback for in relation to things such as drinking norms for younger or older students, student athletes, etc. The goal is to provide content that is meaningful and engaging to all users.

Study Overview

• Status: Enrolling by invitation
• Conditions: Alcohol Use
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Customizable personalized normative feedback (CPNF); Behavioral: Personalized normative feedback (PNF); Behavioral: Attention-Matched Control (AMC)

Detailed Description

The project will develop and pilot test an innovative paradigm for leveraging social norms within brief interventions that entails user customization of which (and how many) normative referent groups they receive feedback for so that the content is meaningful and engaging to all users.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 250
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Washington
    • Seattle, Washington, United States, 98195
      • The University of Washington

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Enrolled at the University of Washington either part- or full-time
• Report 3 or more past-month drinking occasions
• Report 3 or more drinks per occasion in the past month, on average
• Report 4 or more drinks during the peak drinking occasion in the past month
• Pass attention-check items

Exclusion Criteria:

N/A

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
Active Comparator: CPNF; Customizable personalized normative feedback (CPNF) intervention whereby individuals can explore normative feedback for a wider variety of referent groups so that PNF is a truly personalized and engaging experience.	Behavioral: Customizable personalized normative feedback (CPNF); The CPNF intervention allows individuals to explore normative feedback for a wider variety of referent groups so that PNF is a truly personalized and engaging experience.
Active Comparator: standard PNF; Standard personalized normative feedback.	Behavioral: Personalized normative feedback (PNF); Correcting misperceptions about peers' alcohol use behaviors and contrasting one's own use to the actual norms of their peers.
Active Comparator: Attention-Matched Control (AMC); Attention-matched control.	Behavioral: Attention-Matched Control (AMC); Participants in the AMC condition will complete all measures at the same time as participants in the CPNF condition but will not receive any information on drinking norms. Instead, participants in the AMC will receive normative feedback on sleep health, video game use, and gambling behaviors, and will similarly be able to choose the normative referent groups they wish to view feedback on for these behaviors. The AMC will thus serve as a non-treatment comparison that controls for assessment reactivity and effects of history and maturation.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Alcohol use - drinks per month	Daily Drinking Questionnaire will assess drinks on average over the past month by recording the number of drinks consumed on each day of a typical week. Response options range from 0 drinks to 25+ drinks. Lower score is a better outcome, higher score is a worse outcome.	Screening, Baseline, Follow-ups, an average of 3 months
Alcohol use - Quantity per occasion	Quantity/Frequency/Peak Alcohol Use Index will assess amount of alcohol consumed over the past month with how many days alcohol was consumed, average consumption, and peak consumption. Response options range from 0 to 30 days for frequency, and 1 to 12+ drinks for quantity and peak. Lower score is a better outcome, higher score is a worse outcome.	Screening, Baseline, Follow-ups, an average of 3 months
Alcohol use - Heavy episodic drinking	Heavy Episodic Drinking measure will assess how many times over the past month heavy drinking episodes occurred, defined as 4 or more drinks (females) or 5 or more drinks (males) on a single occasion. Response options range from 0 to 7 days. Lower score is a better outcome, higher score is a worse outcome.	Screening, Baseline, Follow-ups, an average of 3 months
Alcohol use - Peak drinks & peak BAC	Electronic Blood Alcohol content will be assessed and calculated using peak drinks over x amount of time. A lower BAC is a better outcome, a higher BAC is a worse outcome.	Screening, Baseline, Follow-ups, an average of 3 months
Alcohol use - Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test	The AUDIT is a 10-item self-report screening tool assessing hazardous and harmful alcohol use over the past year. Items are rated on varying 5-point Likert-type scales assessing frequency, quantity, and consequences of alcohol use. Lower score is a better outcome, higher score is a worse outcome.	Baseline, Follow-ups, an average of 3 months
Alcohol use - Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire	The Brief YAACQ is a 24-item assessment of alcohol-related consequences in young adults. Response options for the items are yes or no. Higher score (i.e. more 'yes' responses) is a worse outcome, lower score (i.e. more 'no' responses) is a better outcome.	Baseline, Follow-ups, an average of 3 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Perceived descriptive norms for each normative referent group	Gathered via Shortened Drinking Norms Rating Form. 7 items assess belief for what's an acceptable number of drinks each day of the week with responses ranging from 0 to 25+ drinks.	Baseline, Follow-ups, an average of 3 months
Perceived injunctive drinking norms for typical students at UW	Gathered via the Injunctive Drinking Norms Rating Form. 7 items assess belief for what a typical UW college student drinks on each day of each day of the week with responses ranging from 0 to 25+ drinks.	Baseline, Follow-ups, an average of 3 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Washington
• Collaborators: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Mary Larimer, PhD, University of Washington

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): June 29, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): November 1, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): September 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 8, 2025
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 16, 2025
• First Posted (Actual): June 25, 2025

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 14, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 12, 2026
• Last Verified: July 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: RCT; young adults; alcohol-related harm; normative feedback
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Drinking Behavior; Behavior; Alcohol Drinking
• Other Study ID Numbers: STUDY00021161; R34AA031336 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: All scientific data (qualitative interview transcriptions, survey response data) will be both preserved and shared. Data will be made publicly available to the research community. This will include but may not be limited to (a) semi-structured interview questions, (b) survey items and corresponding response options (including missingness coding), (c) a codebook for scoring survey items and composite scales, (d) a detailed description of internally computed variables (e.g., time spent viewing intervention content), and (e) documentation of intervention components that participants were exposed to (both treatment and control conditions). Public use and restricted access study data and associated documentation will be made available to the research community free of charge through the NIAAA Data Archive.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Data will be shared with the general research community at the time of an associated publication, or the end of the award/support period, whichever comes first.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: The data will be made available for sharing with the general research community via the NDA website. Investigators at institutions with a Federal Wide Assurance (FWA) will be able to gain access to NDA data by submitting a data access request in accordance with applicable NDA policies.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; 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
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No