The present study evaluated the moderating role of alcohol protective behavioral strategy subtypes (alcohol PBS; serious harm reduction, manner of drinking, limiting/stopping drinking) and gender on the relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and alcohol-related negative consequences. Method: Participants were 2,138 traditional college students (i.e., age between 18 and 25 years old) recruited from 10 universities in the United States who reported drinking in the past month. All participants reported their gender and completed measures of PTSD symptoms, alcohol PBS use, alcohol consumption, and alcohol-related negative consequences through an online survey. Results: Experiencing greater PTSD symptoms was associated with increased alcohol-related negative consequences and all alcohol PBS subtypes were independently associated with fewer alcohol-related negative consequences. Gender had a moderating effect such that the relationship between manner of drinking and alcohol-related negative consequences was weaker among men. Further, we found significant three-way interactions such that the associations between PTSD symptoms and alcohol-related negative consequences were weaker at higher levels of serious harm reduction and limiting/stopping drinking, but only among women. Conclusions: Although alcohol PBS appear beneficial for all college student drinkers, these findings highlight the additional protective value of certain alcohol PBS for college women experiencing PTSD symptoms.
Clinical Impact StatementThose implementing alcohol prevention and intervention programs with college students would benefit from emphasizing alcohol protective behavioral strategies to reduce harm. For students reporting PTSD symptoms and alcohol-related negative consequences, teaching them strategies including serious harm reduction and limiting/stopping drinking may be a cost-effective and reliable way to increase safety on college campuses. Mental health professionals on college campuses (e.g., those providing services through university counseling centers) may better serve students experiencing clinical and subclinical PTSD symptoms through screening, assessment and brief harmreduction based interventions for accompanying alcohol use behaviors.
The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) is the gold standard screening measure. Recently, there has been increasing call to update the measure to reflect harmful drinking standards in the United States. The purpose of this study was to use receiver operating characteristic curve analysis to evaluate the AUDIT and the United States version (AUDIT-US). Participants were 382 traditional age ( M = 20.2, SD = 1.5) college students (68.7% female, 64.9% White) who had consumed alcohol at least once in the 30 days prior to participating. Although results provide evidence for the AUDIT and the AUDIT-US as valid screening tools, the Consumption subscale of the AUDIT-US performed the best in predicting at-risk college drinkers. The Consumption subscale of the AUDIT-US with a single cutoff score of four appears to be the optimal and most parsimonious method of identifying at-risk college drinkers.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the moderating role of alcoholprotective behavioral strategy (PBS) types (stopping/limiting drinking-SLD; manner of drinking-MOD; serious harm reduction-SHR) on the relationships adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism have with alcohol misuse and alcohol-related negative consequences. Participants included 526 traditional-aged college students (Mage = 19.77, 80.7% female, 60.2% Caucasian/White non-Hispanic) who reported alcohol consumption in the past thirty days and completed measures of perfectionism, typical weekly drinking, alcohol-related negative consequences, and PBS use. PBS-SHR moderated the relationships between adaptive perfectionism and typical weekly drinking such that the negative association between adaptive perfectionism and typical weekly drinking was strongest for those reporting more PBS-SHR use. Additionally, PBS-SHR moderated the relationship between adaptive perfectionism and alcohol-related negative consequences such that the negative association between adaptive perfectionism and ARNC was weakened for those using more PBS-SHR. These results suggest the protective value of adaptive perfectionism and PBS-SHR for college students who tend to engage in frequent alcohol consumption. Therefore, alcohol prevention and intervention efforts may consider targeting personality variables, such as perfectionism, in relation to alcohol use behaviors.
There is increasing evidence that mental health problems may attenuate the relationship between protective behavioral strategies (PBS) and alcohol outcomes. However, psychological distress may also affect these relationships. Further, it appears that different types of PBS have differential relationships with alcohol outcomes. The current study examined the degree to which psychological distress moderated the associations PBS subtypes had with hazardous drinking and alcohol-related negative consequences. Participants were 632 traditional-age undergraduate students ( M = 20.04, standard deviation = 1.48) who had consumed alcohol within the past 30 days and completed online self-report measures designed to assess PBS use, level of psychological distress, hazardous drinking patterns, and alcohol-related negative consequences. Serious harm reduction PBS were associated with less hazardous drinking and less alcohol-related negative consequences, and these associations were strengthened for those experiencing greater psychological distress. Controlled consumption PBS were associated with less hazardous drinking, but this association was not moderated by psychological distress. These findings highlight the potential benefit of teaching serious harm reduction PBS to college students experiencing elevated levels of psychological distress.
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