This study compared Web-based assessment techniques with traditional paper-based methods of commonly used measures of alcohol use. Test-retest reliabilities were obtained, and tests of validity were conducted. A total of 255 participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: paper-based (P&P), Web-based (Web), or Web-based with interruption (Web-I). Follow-up assessments 1 week later indicated reliabilities ranging from .59 to .93 within all measures and across all assessment methods. Significantly high test-retest reliability coefficients support the use of these measures for research and clinical applications. Furthermore, no significant differences were found between assessment techniques, suggesting that Web-based methods are a suitable alternative to more traditional methods. This cost-efficient alternative has the advantage of minimizing data collection and entry errors while increasing survey accessibility.

The Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index (RAPI; H. R. White & E. W. Labouvie, 1989) is a frequently used measure of alcohol-related consequences in adolescents and college students, but psychometric evaluations of the RAPI are limited and it has not been validated with college students. This study used item response theory (IRT) to examine the RAPI on students (N = 895; 65% female, 35% male) assessed in both high school and college. A series of 2-parameter IRT models were computed, examining differential item functioning across gender and time points. A reduced 18-item measure demonstrating strong clinical utility is proposed, with scores of 8 or greater implying greater need for treatment.

Heavy drinking students experience a myriad of alcohol-related negative consequences. Use of eventlevel data permits predictions to be made regarding (a) the likelihood of alcohol-related consequences occurring after specific drinking events, and (b) moderators of the association between intoxication and consequences. College students (N = 183, 64% female) completed four consecutive 7-day drinking diaries and turned them in weekly. The diaries yielded prospective event-level data on daily drinks, time spent drinking, and negative consequences related to each drinking event. Alcohol intoxication on a given day was significantly associated with increased levels of risk, although this association was moderated by average level of intoxication. Furthermore, self-control was associated with increased likelihood of negative consequences at all levels of intoxication, and self-regulation and impulsivity moderated the event-level association between daily intoxication and likelihood of negative consequences. Results suggest that self-regulation subsumes impulsivity and self-control. KeywordsAlcohol-related consequences; Event-level analyses; daily drinking diaries; moderation effects College students report experiencing a wide range of academic, interpersonal, health, and legal consequences due to alcohol use (e.g., Presley, Meilman, & Lyerla, 1994); estimates place the number of alcohol-related deaths among college students at 1,400 per year and alcohol-related injuries at over 500,000 per year (Hingson, Heeren, Zakocs, Kopstein, & Wechsler, 2002). As such, alcohol-related problems continue to concern college administrators, alcohol researchers, and the parents of students (National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2002). Relevant foci for research on alcohol-related consequences include: (a) identification of patterns of alcohol consumption that lead to problems; and (b) risk factors that can increase the likelihood of experiencing alcohol-related consequences.The association between alcohol consumption and alcohol-related consequences can be characterized using global-or event-level data. Global measures summarize some aspect of a person's drinking as a sum or average (e.g., average drinks per drinking day), whereas eventlevel data capture details of a particular drinking event (e.g., daily quantities). Although global measures of alcohol use have considerable utility in many contexts, their use can obscure information such as frequency or variability. A similar problem exists with measures of alcohol-related consequences. Although questionnaires such as the Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index (RAPI; White & Labouvie, 1989) and the Young Adult Alcohol Problem Screening Test (YAAPST;Hurlbut & Sher, 1992) and intensity of alcohol-related consequences, they fall short in capturing the acute relation between a drinking event and consequences experienced as a result of that event.The primary strength of event-level data collection is that it provides greater flexibility in modeling the relation between consum...

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The effect of gender composition on group performance was investigated over three years using the MARKSTRAT 2 simulation. Senior undergraduates formed groups and competed within five-firm (group) industries over 10 weeks, as well as submitting group reports on their performances. Performance and report marks were independent of group size and individual performance in other course assessment. Women per group (numbers, percentage, gender ratio) was positively related to simulation performance, with few women-dominated groups ranking lower than first or second within each industry. Very few all-men groups achieved first or second rankings. There were no significant correlations between group gender compositions and marks for the group written report.Women's more interactive, people-oriented and co-operative work styles apparently facilitate the MARKSTRAT 2 group process and, when combined with men's more analytical decision-making tendencies and competitive orientation, appear to explain the superior performances of mixed groups. The emergence and utilization of these tendencies within groups are discussed in terms of Social Contact Theory and Competition Theory. Although generalizations from student-based studies to the workplace is problematic, the results indicate that groups may be more effective when women outnumber or equal men, especially in complex management activities requiring extensive information management and processing, planning and decision-making over protracted periods.

Heavy alcohol consumption has been associated with collegiate sporting events, but little is known about specific levels of consumption over the course of an entire sports season. Ongoing web-based daily-monitoring at the University of Texas at Austin allowed assessment of drinking levels of students (n = 541) over two full football seasons. High-profile football game days were among the heaviest days for alcohol consumption, comparable to consumption on other well-known drinking days such as New Years Eve and Halloween weekend. Men increased their drinking for all games, and women with greater social involvement were more likely to drink heavily during away games. Among lighter drinkers, away games were associated with a greater likelihood of behavioral risks as intoxication increased.Emerging adult college students are among the heaviest drinking demographic groups in the United States. Those who attend college consume considerably more alcohol than their noncollege peers (Johnston, O'Malley, Bachman, & Schulenberg, 2005), and they experience high rates of negative consequences associated with excessive alcohol use (Wechsler, et al., 2002). Although examination of typical and peak consumption patterns can shed light on general patterns of college drinking, traditional assessments of alcohol consumption such as Quantity/Frequency indices (e.g., the Daily Drinking Questionnaire; Collins, Parks, & Marlatt, 1985) have significant limitations (e.g., . Such assessments require students to rely on heuristically-based estimates of "typical" consumption patterns, and are therefore unlikely to capture drinking episodes that are outside of individuals' normative consumption patterns.Recent evidence suggests that collegiate drinking, and heavy drinking in particular, is often associated with specific social or recreational events within the college environment. Although these events may represent college students' heaviest drinking occasions, they are likely to be excluded by traditional quantity/frequency assessments of alcohol use. Thus, the identification of events that promote heavy drinking, the degree to which alcohol use increases in conjunction with these events, and factors that influence drinking during these events, has become a recent focus of empirical research. For example, although it has widely been considered a period of sustained heavy drinking for many students, only recently has drinking on Spring Break been empirically documented as a specific heavy drinking context (Lee, Maggs, & Rankin, 2006;Smeaton, Josiam, & Dietrich, 1998). Likewise, Halloween (Miller, Jasper, & Hill, 1993) hasPublisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errorsmaybe discovered which could affe...

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Objective We examined drinking and driving after drinking before and after turning 21. Participants Participants were drawn from first time college students who were taking part in a 4-year longitudinal study of alcohol use and behavioral risks. Methods Web-based longitudinal surveys collected data on drinking and driving after drinking from August 2004 through November 2007 (n = 1817). A subset of participants (n = 224) also monitored their daily behavior during the month they turned 21 (January through May, 2007). Results Typical frequency and quantity of alcohol use increased from ages 18 to 21 years, whereas quantity decreased between 21 and 23 years of age. Driving after drinking showed a 72% relative increase (6% absolute increase) in the two weeks after turning 21. Conclusions Reaching the legal drinking age is associated with decreases in the amount of alcohol consumed per drinking occasion, but an increase in driving after drinking.