Objective: The start of university is a critical period for health risk behavior (i.e. eating, physical activity, alcohol use) which can be influenced by expectations and by environmental factors such as living arrangement, health behaviors of close social ties (i.e. parents, partners, peers), and time spent with peers. We investigated associations between environmental factors and current/expected health behaviors of German freshmen during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: A cross-sectional survey design was used. A total of N = 208 students (82.7% female; M age = 20.90, SD = 4.10) completed an online questionnaire assessing health behaviors and environmental factors at the beginning of their first semester. Results: Current and expected physical activity was associated to that of all social ties, current and expected alcohol use to partner's and peers' alcohol use, while current and expected eating was only associated to peers' eating. The relationship between partner's or peers' and participant's alcohol use was moderated by coresidence, with a greater probability of engaging in these behaviors observed in case of coresidence. Perceived peer encouragement for alcohol consumption moderated the relationship between peer alcohol use and the number of drinks consumed by participants per month. Participants who spend more time with peers were more likely to consume higher amounts of alcohol. No differences were found regarding present and expected behaviors of participants who moved out of their parents' home and those who did not. Conclusion: Partners and peers significantly influence students' health behaviors, particularly alcohol use. Interventions to prevent health risk behaviors among freshmen should therefore address these social ties' influence.

Objective: Alcohol expectancies are a critical factor in the development of problematic alcohol use. Expectancy challenge (EC) interventions aim to manipulate positive alcohol expectancies to reduce or prevent alcohol use among young people. The present meta-analysis investigated the effects of ECs at changing expectations and alcohol use among high school and college students, and moderating effects of study and individual characteristics on these changes. Method: A total of 23 EC studies (N = 4,122; mean age = 19.0; 57% males) was included as they reported enough information to calculate effect sizes, had a control condition that did not receive an active intervention, and were presented as of August 1, 2020. Two independent coders coded relevant variables and calculated effect sizes at posttest using a random-effects model. Results: ECs showed significant yet small effects at modifying alcohol consumption and alcohol expectancies in the desired direction (g's ranged from −.18 to −.42). Changes in social, tension, liquid courage, and risk aggression expectancies explained significant variance in change in alcohol use. The effects of ECs at changing social, sexual, tension, and liquid courage expectancies were stronger among college students compared to high school students. More favorable results were observed for interventions delivered at a higher dose. Conclusions: ECs targeting high school and college students produce small effects at reducing alcohol use and changing alcohol expectancies. Future efforts are needed to determine under which circumstances and among which subgroups ECs are expected to produce greater effects. Public Health Significance StatementThis meta-analysis suggests that EC interventions modestly reduce alcohol use among college and high school students, and that ECs that target college students and that are delivered at a higher dose can produce more favorable effects.

Objectives: Individuals often experience expectation violations related to the consumption of healthy food and physical activity and they may cope with expectation-disconfirming information by (1) ignoring the discrepancy (immunization), (2) increasing efforts to fulfill them (assimilation), or (3) changing their expectations (accommodation). We investigated whether valence, discrepancy magnitude, and controllability of the expectation disconfirming event predicted coping with expectation violations. Methods: A 2 (valence: positive vs negative) x 2 (discrepancy: larger vs smaller) x 2 (controllability: control vs no control) experimental design was implemented. Overall, we presented 297 university students with vignettes describing expectation violations and present different combinations of predictor levels. Results: Regarding physical activity, participants showed significantly higher accommodation when experiencing a better-than-expected event and showed significantly higher immunization when experiencing a worse-than-expected event. Regarding food consumption and physical activity, individuals experiencing lower discrepancy showed significantly higher immunization; individuals with control over the source of expectation disconfirmation showed significantly higher assimilation; and individuals without control over the source of expectation disconfirmation showed significantly higher accommodation.Conclusions: To promote the maintenance of healthy expectations, despite expectation violations, interventions could foster the perception of control as well as assimilative behavior.

Objective: in Colombia, many first-year university students consume unhealthy food, are physically inactive, and drink regularly, which can be associated with the behavior of social ties, living with social ties, and time with peers. The present cross-sectional study assessed the association between health behaviors of first-semester students and these factors. Method: N = 189 (Mage = 18.79; SD = 1.07; female = 68.8%) first-semester students in Colombia completed an online questionnaire investigating current and expected health behaviors as well as influencing factors. ANCOVAs, bivariate correlations, moderation analyses, and hierarchical regressions were used to analyze the data. Results: expected food consumption (stronger among participants who live with parents) as well as current and expected heavy drinking and binge drinking (stronger among participants who do not live with parents) were significantly correlated to the respective parental behavior. Current and expected drinking was significantly correlated to partners’ drinking. Expected physical activity was correlated with peers’ physical activity. Partners’ attempts to encourage drinking moderated the association between participants’ current and expected drinking with partners’ drinking. Time spent with peers was related to heavy drinking and engaging in more physical activity. Conclusion: in Colombia, parents appear to play a significant role in their offspring’s health behaviors during their first semester at university, particularly regarding food consumption and alcohol use. Partners’ drinking and time spent with peers are strongly related to heavy drinking.

Background: First-year students often adopt health risk behaviors during their first semester such as increased consumption of unhealthy food, decreased physical activity, and increased alcohol use. Expectations, social tie's efforts to motivate behavior, and coresidence with parents can influence said behaviors. Aims: We assessed how students’ health behaviors and expectations change over the first semester, and how the aforementioned factors influence the maintenance or change of behavior and expectations. Methods: A longitudinal survey design was implemented. A total of N = 163 German first-year students (81% female; 18% male; 1% non-binary; M age = 21.20, SD = 2.66) completed online questionnaires, including the NCHRBS and AUDIT, during the Covid-19 pandemic at the beginning (November 2020) and after the end (May 2021) of their first semester. Results: Current and expected food consumption and physical activity became healthier over time. The current and expected number of drinks consumed per month increased. Change in expectations for physical activity, number of drinks and binge drinking were predicted by the initial respective behavior. The number of drinks and expected physical activity became unhealthier in relation to reported initial parental influence to drink and to be physically inactive. Moving out of the parental home predicted an increase in current and expected number of drinks and in current and expected binge drinking. These effects of moving out were not mediated by perceived parental or peer influence. Conclusions: Interventions should target these behaviors and expectations during the first semester and address parental influence on physical activity and alcohol use.

Background: Underprivileged youth in the Dominican Republic (DR) are at high risk of acquiring the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Protective parenting practices may inhibit sexual risk-taking. Objective: We investigated whether parental involvement in a sports-based HIV prevention program increased self-efficacy to prevent HIV and safe sex behavior among Dominican youth. Method: The study had a quasi-experimental design with repeated measures. N = 90 participants between 13 and 24 years of age participated in the program through two different trainings, UNICA and A Ganar, both of which had an experimental (i.e., program with parental component) and a control (i.e., program without parental component) condition. Results: Self-efficacy to prevent HIV significantly increased among participants in the experimental condition of UNICA. Self-efficacy for safe sex increased among sexually active participants in the experimental condition of A Ganar. Implications for Impact: These findings are important to meet the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal of good health and wellbeing, as they suggest that parental involvement in sports-based HIV prevention programs can enhance their positive effects for increasing youth’s self-efficacy to practice HIV-preventive behaviors. Randomized control trials and longitudinal studies are needed.