Alcohol Drinking in College

This study looks at the moments when college students feel a strong emotional swing, and how those moments relate to reacting online when upset, drinking alcohol, and eating in response to emotions. Participants wear a wrist device and answer brief check-ins on their phone several times a day for about five weeks. During part of that time, a study app sometimes sends a short coping message at moments when the wrist device and check-ins suggest emotions are shifting quickly. Whether a message is sent at any given moment is decided at random, and the study compares what participants do in the short window afterward. The study is a pilot designed to test whether the approach is feasible and to estimate how large its effects are.

This study looks at the moments when college students feel a strong emotional swing, and how those moments relate to reacting online when upset, drinking alcohol, and eating in response to emotions. Participants wear a wrist device and answer brief check-ins on their phone several times a day for about five weeks. During part of that time, a study app sometimes sends a short coping message at moments when the wrist device and check-ins suggest emotions are shifting quickly. Whether a message is sent at any given moment is decided at random, and the study compares what participants do in the short window afterward. An optional part of the study collects one small hair sample, which is tested for two hormones related to stress and to status-linked behavior, so the researchers can see whether longer-term hormone levels relate to how people respond in the moment. The study is a pilot designed to test whether the approach works and to estimate how large its effects are.

Alcohol misuse and related risky sexual behaviors are significant health concerns for college students. Two-thirds of students are current drinkers, at least 1 in 3 report past month heavy episodic drinking (5+ drinks in a row), and 1 in 10 report high intensity drinking (10+ drinks in a row). Increased student alcohol use and heavy drinking are linked to increased sexual activity and related risky behaviors (e.g., unprotected sex, sex with casual partners). This puts students at risk for negative health outcomes (e.g., STIs - sexually transmitted infections) and is also a pathway to sexual victimization and escalated drinking. The first few weeks of college, known as the 'red zone,' provide an opportunity to intervene at time when these behaviors increase. However, most prevention programs for college students tend to focus on student alcohol use and have little to no integration of content on the relationship between alcohol use and risky sexual behaviors. This is an important gap in the literature and a priority area for NIAAA. The research team established the short-term efficacy of a personalized feedback intervention (PFI), a gold standard intervention approach, with integrated content on alcohol and risky sexual behaviors. In this study, we propose to extend our integrated PFI to include a cross-tailored dynamic feedback (CDF) component. The CDF component will use technology to incorporate daily assessments of student behavior and provide students with dynamic weekly feedback over 12 weeks. The goal is to increase the effectiveness of the integrated PFI and to create a program that is easily implemented on college campuses.

The goal of this clinical trial is to conduct a preliminary evaluation of the ASSIST (Alcohol-focused Support of Survivors in Sororities Training) intervention in sorority chapters. ASSIST is a newly developed web-based intervention to increase peer support of sexual assault survivors and reduce encouragement of drinking to cope within social networks of sororities. To test whether the intervention is feasible and shows preliminary signs of working, a pilot cluster randomized trial will be conducted. Sorority chapters will be recruited and randomly assigned to an intervention condition or an assessment-only condition. Individuals within each sorority will be recruited and complete a norm documentation survey. One month later, participants will complete a baseline survey, and if assigned to the intervention condition, will then receive the web-based ASSIST intervention, which will include normative feedback on values and drinking, psychoeducation about sexual assault recovery and the role of alcohol, and skills training in behaviors that can be used to support survivors without or while moderating heavy drinking. All participants will complete online follow-up surveys at 1-, 3-, and 6-months post-intervention.