College students' decisions to intervene in alcohol-related situations

Media Influence on Bystander Intervention for Health Protective Norms: The Integrative Model of Behavioral Prediction Perspective

Drawing upon the Integrative Model of Behavioral Prediction (IM) and the Bystander Intervention Model, this study investigates the impact of media health information on individuals' intentions to address violations of health norms, specifically noncompliance with mask-wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our survey results (n=1,426) indicate a positive correlation between seeking health information from the media and the intention to confront norm violators regarding mask-wearing. This correlation is mediated through three intermediary pathways: attitudes, normative beliefs, and perceived behavioral control. These discoveries address a previously unexplored area concerning pro-social health behaviors, bystander intervention, and contribute to the field of health communication by linking them to research on media influences. Combining media and peer interventions could lead to more effective health outcomes. The discussion covers both theoretical and practical implications.

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.

When Do Friends Prevent Friends from Hooking Up Intoxicated? An Examination of Sex Differences and Hypothetical Intoxication in Peer Interventions

Despite the risks involved when mixing alcohol with casual sexual activity, the majority of college students engage in hookups, and the majority of those hookups involve alcohol. This study focused on the protective role college students' peers can play and the situational factors that might influence their willingness to intervene when a close friend is about to hook up intoxicated. Drawing on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study investigated differences in students' (N = 1270) attitudes, norms, perceived behavioral control, and intentions to persuade a close friend not to engage in a hypothetical drunken hookup using a 2 (friend sex) × 2 (participant sex) × 2 (sober/intoxicated) factorial design. Results indicated significant differences in the TPB variables. Participants intended to intervene with female friends, but not male friends, and women were more likely to intervene than men. Participants in the sober condition had stronger intentions to intervene than those in the intoxicated condition, but this effect was driven by increases in men's intentions when sober. Implications for theory and prevention programming are discussed.

Communicative challenges of bystander intervention: impact of goals and message design logic on strategies college students use to intervene in drinking situations

A key concern on college campuses is how to help students avoid negative outcomes related to alcohol use. One way to address this is to encourage students to intervene when they see others engaged in high-risk behavior. This approach, referred to as bystander intervention, requires that individuals seek to influence others; however, research on bystander intervention has not explored how students communicate when they intervene. Drawing from a multiple goals perspective, we examined individuals' goals during intervention, the types of messages individuals use to intervene, and the relationship of design logic to sense of efficacy and messages used. Participants (n = 212) identified their goals and indicated what they would say to intervene in two college-drinking scenarios. We found that differences in goals were related to the types of messages used, with more specific goals leading to messages better aligned with achieving those goals. Additionally, more sophisticated design logic was related to a higher sense of efficacy and was reflected in the types of messages individuals used to intervene. The study views bystander intervention as an influence process and highlights the communicative challenges that can impact how people intervene.

Collegiate-based emergency medical service: impact on alcohol-related emergency department transports at a small liberal arts college

OBJECTIVE

The authors examined the impact of a collegiate-based emergency medical service (CBEMS) on the frequency of emergency department (ED) transports.

PARTICIPANTS

Students transported to the ED for acute alcohol intoxication during the Fall 2008 and the Fall 2009 semesters (N = 50).

METHODS

The frequency of students receiving transportation to a hospital ED and the reported blood alcohol content (BAC) levels during the initial operational semester of the CBEMS were compared to those values over the same time period the previous year.

RESULTS

More than twice the number of students was transported to the ED following the introduction of CBEMS. There was no change in mean BAC levels.

CONCLUSIONS

CBEMS could promote a culture conducive to increased reporting behavior, which makes the campus safer. Similar BAC levels suggest that the degree of intoxication was similar for the 2 reporting periods, but students sought emergency assistance more frequently following the inception of CBEMS.

Predictors of college students' alcohol consumption: implications for student education

Understanding why young adults consume alcohol the way they do can lead to more effective educational programming for promotion of students' personal health and safety. The authors examined the predictive role of expectations about alcohol, perceived peer norms of consumption, awareness of rules, and individual self-efficacy in conjunction with demographic variables for male and female college students' weekly alcohol consumption. The sample of 4,960 students analyzed here is 10 to 20 times larger and more nationally representative than the samples used in similar studies. The authors used a general linear model; 41% of the men's variance and 33% of the women's variance in self-reported weekly alcohol consumption were explained by the set of predictors. In descending order of variance accounted for in male and female students' self-reported weekly alcohol consumption, perceived gender-specific norms of consumption, expectations about the effects of alcohol, and the importance of drinking in high school were significant predictors for both men and women. The salience of psychological variables for young adults' consumption of alcohol underscores the importance of recognizing individual predictors of behavior in the broader ecological context in which those behaviors are performed.

Interactive multimedia preventive alcohol education: a technology application in higher education

This article summarizes the process of implementation and short-term impact on knowledge and attitudes of an interactive multimedia software program on preventive alcohol education for young adults. The three factors related to behavioral change addressed in the software are self-efficacy in maintaining personal control and safety while using alcohol, attitudes and related expectations regarding the physiological and behavioral consequences of alcohol consumption, and peer norms regarding alcohol consumption. As compared to alternative alcohol education and a no-alcohol education groups, students using the interactive computer lesson reported learning more about dose-response and ways to intervene with friends in peril. The article concludes with consideration of the import of this technology for informing students about the consequences of alcohol use, and the utility to higher education institutions of using this technology in an era when pressures increase for due diligence around student safety but with few additional institutional resources.

Interventions by students in friends' alcohol, tobacco, and drug use

This article investigates self-reported interventions by students in the alcohol, tobacco, illicit drug use, and drinking-driving of their friends. The data came from a study of 1184 students in Ontario schools in grades 7, 9, 11, and 13. We found that about a third of students intervened in friends' illegal drug use and drinking-driving but about half intervened about smoking. Students who intervened were more likely to be older and spend fewer nights at home. They were less likely to use cannabis, but had more friends using cannabis and illegal drugs. Also, they had more exposure to drug education and were more disapproving of drug use. Drug education may give students the knowledge and confidence to intervene in friends' drug use.