Psychology Commons^™

Psychiatric Symptomatology Among Individuals In Alcohol Detoxification Treatment, Mark E. Johnson, Christiane Brems, Michael E. Mills, Dennis G. Fisher

Psychological Science Faculty Works

The coexistence of psychiatric symptomatology among individuals receiving longer-term treatment for alcohol use disorders has been well-established; however, less is known about comorbidity among individuals receiving alcohol detoxification. Using the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI; Derogatis, 1992), we compared psychiatric symptomatology among 815 individuals receiving short-term detoxification services with normative data from nonpatients, psychiatric patients, and out-of-treatment individuals using street drugs. Findings revealed that individuals in the current sample reported a wide range of psychiatric symptoms with over 80% meeting BSI criteria for diagnosable mental illness. These BSI scores were significantly more severe than those reported by out-of-treatment individuals using street …

Reasons For Drinking In The College Student Context: The Differential Role And Risk Of The Social Motivator, Joseph W. Labrie, Justin F. Hummer, Eric R. Pedersen

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Objective

The present study examines the relationships among reasons for drinking, alcohol consumption, and alcohol-related consequences in two college-aged samples. Personal motivators such as mood enhancement and coping (tension reduction) have consistently been shown to predict problematic alcohol use, but because of the salient nature of social drinking in college, we hypothesized that social reasons for drinking would be most frequently endorsed and, in turn, predict negative consequences.

Method

Two distinct samples—119 coed adjudicated students sanctioned by the university for violating campus alcohol policy and 106 co-ed volunteer students—completed measures assessing alcohol consumption, reasons for drinking, and consequences. Differential effects …

A Group Motivational Interviewing Intervention Reduces Drinking And Alcohol-Related Negative Consequences In Adjudicated College Women, Joseph W. Labrie, Alysha D. Thompson, Karen Huchting, Andrew Lac, Kevin Buckley

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College students who violate campus alcohol policies (adjudicated students) are at high risk for experiencing negative alcohol-related consequences and for undermining campus life. Further, college women may be especially at risk due to differential intoxication effects and sexual consequences experienced mainly by female students. Research on interventions for adjudicated students, especially adjudicated females, has been limited. One hundred and fifteen college women who received a sanction for violating campus alcohol policies participated in the study. The two hour group intervention focused on female-specific reasons for drinking and included decisional balance, goal setting and other exercises. Participants completed follow-up surveys for …

Female College Drinking And The Social Learning Theory: An Examination Of The Developmental Transition Period From High School To College, Joseph W. Labrie, Karie Huchting, Eric R. Pedersen, Justin F. Hummer, Kristin Shelesky, Summer Tawalbeh

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Problematic drinking among college students remains a national issue with large percentages of college students reporting heavy episodic or binge drinking (Wechsler, Dowdall, Davenport, & Castillo, 1995) and experiencing severe alcohol-related consequences ranging from poor academic performance, to sexual assault, vandalism, and even death (Hingson, Heeren, Winter, & Wechsler, 2005; Wechsler et al., 2002). According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA, 2002), the first 6 weeks on a college campus are critical to first-year student success. However, during these first weeks many students initiate heavy drinking that may interfere …

Partying Before The Party: Examining Prepartying Behavior Among College Students, Eric R. Pedersen, Joseph W. Labrie

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Objective:

The authors examined the phenomenon known to college students as prepartying, which is the consumption of alcohol prior to attending an event or activity (eg, party, bar, concert) at which more alcohol may be consumed.

Participants:

To explore the extent of this behavior, the authors surveyed 227 college students about each drinking event over a 1-month period.

Results:

Principal results revealed that 64% of participants engaged in prepartying (75% of drinkers) and that prepartying is involved in approximately 45% of all drinking events. Prepartying was predictive of more drinking throughout the day of the drinking event and alcohol-related …

Correcting Misperceptions And Reducing Risky Drinking Through A Student-Designed Poster Campaign, Joseph W. Labrie, Eric R. Pedersen, Karie Huchting, Alysha D. Thompson, Justin F. Hummer

Heads Up!

A letter to the editor is presented focusing on correcting misperceptions and reducing risky drinking through a student-designed poster campaign.

Quantifying Students' Scientific Problem Solving Efficiency And Effectiveness, Ronald H. Stevens, Vandana Thadani

Psychological Science Faculty Works

Using online problem-solving tasks and machine learning tools, a measure has been developed to quantify the effectiveness and efficiency of students’ problem solving strategies. This measure can be normalized across problem solving tasks allowing the efficiency of problem solving to be measured across individuals, classes, schools and science domains. This extensible approach has relevance for helping teachers to teach, students to learn, and administrators to make intelligent, data-driven decisions via documentation of students’ problem solving progress.

Classifying Risky-Drinking College Students: Another Look At The Two-Week Drinker-Type Categorization, Joseph W. Labrie, Eric R. Pedersen, Summer Tawalbeh

Psychological Science Faculty Works

Objective

The present study examined the effectiveness of the 2-week period currently used in the categorization of heavy episodic drinking among college students. Two-week drinker-type labels included the following: nonbinge drinker, binge drinker, and frequent binge drinker.

Method

Three samples of college student drinkers (104 volunteers, 283 adjudicated students, and 238 freshmen male students) completed the 3-month Timeline Followback assessment of drinking. Drinking behavior during the last 2 weeks of the month before the study was compared with drinking behavior during the first 2 weeks of the same month to compare behavior and resulting labels during both 2-week periods.

Results …