Psychology Commons^™

Use Of Protective Behavioral Strategies And Reduced Alcohol Risk: Examining The Moderating Effects Of Mental Health, Gender And Race, Shannon R. Kenney, Joseph W. Labrie

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Recent research indicates that protective behavioral strategies (PBS)—previously established as effective self-regulating tools for reducing alcohol risk among college students—may be especially useful for students with poor mental health, who are shown to be at heightened risk for alcohol-related harm. The current study examined the moderating influence of mental health (depression and anxiety severity), gender, and race (White, Asian) in the relationship between PBS use and alcohol-related negative consequences. Participants were 1,782 undergraduate students from two West Coast universities who reported past month incidence of heavy episodic drinking. Students reported on their drinking, experience of alcohol-related consequences, use of PBS, …

Rct Of Web-Based Personalized Normative Feedback For College Drinking Prevention: Are Typical Student Norms Good Enough?, Joseph W. Labrie, Melissa A. Lewis, David C. Atkins, Clayton Neighbors, Cheng Zheng, Shannon R. Kenney, Lucy E. Napper, Theresa Walter, Jason R. Kilmer, Justin F. Hummer, Joel Grossbard, Tehniat M. Ghaidarov, Sruti Desai, Christine M. Lee, Mary E. Larimer

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Objectives

Personalized normative feedback (PNF) interventions are generally effective at correcting normative misperceptions and reducing risky alcohol consumption among college students. However, research has yet to establish what level of reference group specificity is most efficacious in delivering PNF. This study compared the efficacy of a web-based PNF intervention employing eight increasingly-specific reference groups against a Web-BASICS intervention and a repeated-assessment control in reducing risky drinking and associated consequences.

Method

Participants were 1663 heavy drinking Caucasian and Asian undergraduates at two universities. The referent for web-based PNF was either the typical same-campus student, or a same-campus student at one (either …

Are They All The Same? An Exploratory, Categorical Analysis Of Drinking Game Types, Joseph W. Labrie, Phillip J. Ehret, Justin F. Hummer

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Drinking games have become a ubiquitous part of the college student drinking culture and are associated with drinking to intoxication and increased alcohol consequences. Contemporary research commonly considers drinking games holistically, with little to no consideration to the different drinking game types. The current study describes the creation of a novel DG categorization scheme and reports differences between DG categories. Participants were 3421 college students (58% female) who completed online surveys. Based on participant responses, 100 distinct drinking games were identified and defined. Two student focus groups were conducted in which drinking game definitions and rules were verified by students. …

Can You Say No? Examining The Relationship Between Drinking Refusal Self-Efficacy And Protective Behavioral Strategy Use On Alcohol Outcomes, Phillip J. Ehret, Tehniat M. Ghaidarov, Joseph W. Labrie

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Preliminary research has demonstrated reductions in alcohol-related harm associated with increased use of protective behavioral strategies (PBS) and higher levels of drinking refusal self-efficacy (DRSE). To extend research that has evaluated these protective factors independently of one another, the present study examined the interactive effects of PBS use and DRSE in predicting alcohol outcomes. Participants were 1084 college students (63% female) who completed online surveys. Two hierarchical linear regression models revealed that both DRSE and PBS use predicted alcohol use and consequences. Additionally, DRSE moderated the relationship between PBS use and both typical weekly drinking and negative alcohol-related consequences, such …

Event-Specific Risk And Ecological Factors Associated With Prepartying Among Heavier Drinking College Students, Justin F. Hummer, Lucy Napper, Phillip E. Ehret, Joseph W. Labrie

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Using event-specific data, the present study sought to identify relevant risk factors and risky drinking patterns associated with prepartying. Analyses focused on drinking outcomes as a function of drinking game playing and the social context on occasions where prepartying did and did not occur. This research utilized a representative two-site sample of prepartiers who also reported a heavy episodic drinking event in the past month (n = 988). Results revealed that during a preparty event, participants drank significantly more, reached higher blood alcohol levels (BALs), and experienced significantly more negative consequences compared to the last occasion that they drank but …

Injunctive Peer Misperceptions And The Mediation Of Self-Approval On Risk For Driving After Drinking Among College Students, Shannon R. Kenney, Joseph W. Labrie, Andrew Lac

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Of the alcohol-related risks faced by college students, it is arguable that none presents a greater public health hazard than driving after drinking (DAD). The present study examined the extent to which students’ injunctive misperceptions toward DAD predicted the likelihood to engage in DAD and how this relation was mediated by self-approval of DAD. Participants were 2,848 college students (59.1% female, 64.6% Caucasian) from two U.S. West Coast universities who completed confidential web-based surveys assessing DAD beliefs and behaviors. Results revealed that respondents tended to overestimate their peers’ approval toward DAD. Moreover, the subgroups likely to engage in DAD—men, 21+ …

First-Year College Women's Motivations For Hooking Up: A Mixed-Methods Examination Of Normative Peer Perceptions And Personal Hookup Participation, Shannon R. Kenney, Vandana Thadani, Tehniat Ghaidarov, Joseph W. Labrie

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This study used content analysis techniques to explore 221 first-year college women's perceptions of female peers’ reasons (i.e., normative perceptions) for hooking up. Data on personal participation in hooking up were also collected. The well-established Drinking Motives Questionnaire (Cooper, 1994) was used as a framework for coding positive (enhancement or social) and negative (coping or conformity) normative hookup motivations. Participants most commonly indicated that enhancement reasons motivated peers’ hookup behaviors (69.7%). Coping (23.5%), external (21.7%), social (19.5%), and conformity (16.3%) motives were cited less frequently. Furthermore, women who had hooked up since matriculating into college (61.5%, n = 136) were …