| College
Student Drinking and the Campus Environment: A Community Prevention
Intervention
Principal
Investigator: Robert F. Saltz, Ph.D.
View
Video Presentation
System
Requirements: This presentation contains digital video, which
utilizes Windows Media Player 7/8 and is best viewed on a
computer with at least a Pentium III/450 MHz or better processor
and a DSL/ISDN (256 kbps) Internet connection. To avoid playback
interuptions, it is recommended all e-mail applications are
closed while viewing.
The
extreme levels of college student drinking and its attendant
risks are "rediscovered" every few years and yet
we seem to have made little progress toward preventing drinking
problems among this group. This is likely the result of a
number of weaknesses in approach, including poorly defined
targets of intervention, messages perceived as inappropriate
or irrelevant by the students, an over reliance on awareness
campaigns exclusively, and insufficient attention to environmental
factors that shape the extent of student drinking.
In this five-year study, PRC plans to evaluate the impact
of a comprehensive, community-based university intervention
to reduce the frequency of intoxication and "binge"
drinking via a risk-reduction intervention that comprises
a commercial and social-host responsible beverage service
(RBS) program, supported by activities that will increase
the perception of risk of intoxication, correct students'
overestimates of their fellow students' consumption of alcohol,
and garner support for the new RBS policies.
The
study has four phases:
- Baseline
and policy research phase including a longitudinal panel
sample of 1,500 students plus a sample from a comparison
campus
- A
program implementation phase
- A
process evaluation phase
- An
outcome evaluation phase in which the program's impact
on the frequency of intoxication, binge drinking, and
prevalence of negative consequences is compared to the
baseline and a sample from a comparison campus.
Baseline
data will be used as formative research and as information
to change student perceptions. The evaluation will integrate
process and outcome models to better inform us as to how the
program may have influenced student drinking across cohorts.
In
addition to these primary objectives, the proposed study will
investigate how students' drinking evolves over the course
of their college careers and explore the possible sources
of gender and ethnic differences in drinking and drinking
problems. Finally, this component will provide the basic logistical
support for another center component-a study of alcohol availability
for college students.
Proceed
to PRC CD Presentation featuring Dr. Robert F. Saltz
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