Social factors, alcohol expectancy, and drinking behavior: A comparison of two college campuses

Social influences on alcohol outcome expectancy development from childhood to young adulthood: A narrative review

Purpose of Review

Alcohol outcome expectancies emerge in early childhood, develop throughout adolescence, and predict alcohol outcomes well into adulthood. Social factors shape how expectancies are learned in myriad ways, yet such social learning influences seldom are examined in the context of developmental factors. This review summarized literature on the social origins of alcohol expectancies through vicarious (observational) and experiential (direct) alcohol-related learning from childhood to young adulthood within a social learning framework.

Recent Findings

Young children primarily endorse negative expectancies, which decline rapidly with age amidst escalations in positive expectancies across adolescence. Parents and peers can contribute to vicarious learning about alcohol and facilitate experiential learning in different ways and to varying degrees across development. Media and social media, which children are increasingly exposed to as they mature, often depict alcohol-outcome relations that may further contribute to expectancy development in later adolescence and young adulthood.

Summary

Social influences on alcohol expectancy learning are complex and change over time, although this dynamic complexity typically is not depicted in extant literature. Developmentally-informed research capturing co-occurring shifts in social influences and alcohol expectancies is needed.

"When a Girl Says No, You Should Be Persistent Until She Says Yes": College Students and Their Beliefs About Consent

One in five college women report being sexually assaulted with 23% to 45% of men reporting attempting or completing a sexual assault while attending a university. One important concept in preventing sexual assault is consent. It is important to ensure that when students are being asked to wait for consent, they understand what consent is and the potential ways it could manifest in a sexual situation. In total, 25 female and 20 male college students participated in semistructured focus groups or interviews to gain a better understanding of their perspectives of consent and how they ensure that it has been given. Results demonstrate that college students do not have a consistent, coherent, or precise definition of consent. Participants often described consent using vague language and were only able to clearly identify verbal indicators of consent. Much of the discussion of consent centered around an individual's ability or inability to clearly and directly communicate his or her needs. Data also show that how students communicate about consent is influenced by gender expectations. There are multiple complicating factors when determining consent, including alcohol consumption. Participants discussed not understanding how to navigate sexual encounters when one or both parties had been consuming alcohol. Results also showed that there are multiple factors that may lead women to say yes to sex they don't want, and men to not ask for consent. For college students, consent is a complex concept-a concept they may not have a practical and useful definition of. Sexual assault prevention must take steps to provide college students with a definition of consent informed by their experiences and the reality of their sexual encounters.

Peer-Led Training to Reduce Alcohol Misuse and Related Harm among Greek-Affiliated Students

High-risk alcohol use on college campuses is a significant public health concern, especially among students in fraternities and sororities. Alcohol harm-reduction programs that include protective behavioral strategies (PBSs) provide a promising approach to curb drinking among students, yet results have been inconsistent among high-risk drinkers. Purpose: To evaluate the impact of a harm-reduction, peer-led training program called "Voice of Reason" (VOR) on alcohol knowledge and behaviors among students in Greek chapters. Methods: We conducted two studies with students directly trained in VOR (Study 1: N = 118; Study 2: N = 53) and with students in affiliated Greek chapters (Study 1: N = 1363; Study 2: N = 1446). Study 1 included 13 chapters and Study 2 included 15 chapters. Results: Results of analyses across both studies showed that among those directly trained in VOR, there were pre-post increases in alcohol knowledge, medical amnesty law awareness, talking with friends about PBS, use of PBS, and intentions to use PBS, as well as pre-post decreases in drinking and driving and riding with drinking drivers. In addition, VOR had an impact on students in affiliated chapters, indicating an increase in medical amnesty law awareness and a decrease in the number of drinks consumed on a typical day. Conclusions: Overall, results provide some early evidence of VOR impact, while also demonstrating the challenge of changing normative drinking behaviors among high-risk college students. Ongoing research is needed to assess the effectiveness of VOR, especially after successive implementations with the same chapters.

Growing Up, Hooking Up, and Drinking: A Review of Uncommitted Sexual Behavior and Its Association With Alcohol Use and Related Consequences Among Adolescents and Young Adults in the United States

Hookups are uncommitted sexual encounters that range from kissing to intercourse and occur between individuals in whom there is no current dating relationship and no expressed or acknowledged expectations of a relationship following the hookup. Research over the last decade has begun to focus on hooking up among adolescents and young adults with significant research demonstrating how alcohol is often involved in hooking up. Given alcohol’s involvement with hooking up behavior, the array of health consequences associated with this relationship, as well as its increasing prevalence from adolescence to young adulthood, it is important to determine the predictors and consequences associated with alcohol-related hooking up. The current review extends prior reviews by adding more recent research, including both qualitative and experimental studies (i.e., expanding to review more diverse methods), research that focuses on the use of technology in alcohol-related hookups (i.e., emerging issues), further develops prevention and intervention potentials and directions, and also offers a broader discussion of hooking up outside of college student populations (i.e., expanding generalization). This article will review the operationalization and ambiguity of the phrase hooking up, the relationship between hooking up and alcohol use at both the global and event levels, predictors of alcohol-related hooking up, and both positive and negative consequences, including sexual victimization, associated with alcohol-related hookups. Throughout, commentary is provided on the methodological issues present in the field, as well as limitations of the existing research. Future directions for research that could significantly advance our understanding of hookups and alcohol use are provided.

Creation and validation of the barriers to alcohol reduction (BAR) scale using classical test theory and item response theory

Those who binge drink are at increased risk for alcohol-related consequences when compared to non-binge drinkers. Research shows individuals may face barriers to reducing their drinking behavior, but few measures exist to assess these barriers. This study created and validated the Barriers to Alcohol Reduction (BAR) scale. Participants were college students (n = 230) who endorsed at least one instance of past-month binge drinking (4+ drinks for women or 5+ drinks for men). Using classical test theory, exploratory structural equation modeling found a two-factor structure of personal/psychosocial barriers and perceived program barriers. The sub-factors, and full scale had reasonable internal consistency (i.e., coefficient omega = 0.78 (personal/psychosocial), 0.82 (program barriers), and 0.83 (full measure)). The BAR also showed evidence for convergent validity with the Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire (r = 0.39, p < .001) and discriminant validity with Barriers to Physical Activity (r = −0.02, p = .81). Item Response Theory (IRT) analysis showed the two factors separately met the unidimensionality assumption, and provided further evidence for severity of the items on the two factors. Results suggest that the BAR measure appears reliable and valid for use in an undergraduate student population of binge drinkers. Future studies may want to re-examine this measure in a more diverse sample.

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Previous research suggests there are barriers to reducing alcohol use, but no comprehensive measure of barriers exists.

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The Barriers to Alcohol Reduction measure was developed with two subscales: personal/psychosocial and program barriers.

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Classical test theory found evidence for reliability and validitiy with two dimensions.