Collateral Reports in the College Setting: A Meta‐Analytic Integration

Abstract

Background-The majority of research examining college drinking utilizes self-report data, and collateral reports have been used to verify participants' self-reported alcohol use

Recovery from cannabis use disorders: Abstinence versus moderation and treatment-assisted recovery versus natural recovery.

“…By the time of the Participant Interview, participants had been in recovery for an average of 7.6 years-that is, it had been 7.6 years since their stated resolution date. Collateral Validation Interviews confirmed the reliability of participants' self-reports of their resolution date and current cannabis problem severity-albeit also underestimated their lifetime cannabis problem severity, which is not uncommon in the addictive behaviours literature (Borsari & Muellerleile, 2009;Hodgins & Makarchuk, 2003). During the 12 months following their resolution date, participants reported that their cannabis use decreased to less than monthly use; whereby some participants became or eventually became abstinent and others remained non-abstinent, and some sought formal or professional treatment for their cannabis problem and others did not.…”

“…Additionally, collaterals under-reported the extent to which participant's used cannabis for enhancement and expansion purposes; under-reported the extent to which they thought participant's ever sought cannabis treatment; over-reported the extent to which they thought participant's benefited from lifetime cannabis treatment; and slightly over-reported the extent to which they thought participant's were currently seeking cannabis treatment (although the statistical significance of this variable might not be useful based on extremely unequal cell sizes and the fact that both participants and collaterals report very similar proportions of current cannabis treatment). Taken together, these findings are not surprising in light of the notion that collaterals are not privy to all of the cannabis use information that is at the disposal of participants (particularly with respect to treatment), and that underreporting of addictive behaviours in general by collaterals is common (Borsari & Muellerleile, 2009;Hodgins & Makarchuk, 2003). Moreover, these findings are not surprising in light of research suggesting that collateral reports for cannabis use may be unreliable in general and that collaterals may be better able to report when a participant does not use cannabis as opposed to how much cannabis is being used (Norberg, Mackenzie, & Copeland, 2012a).…”

Gender Differences in the Relationships Among Major Depressive Disorder, Heavy Alcohol Use, and Mental Health Treatment Engagement Among College Students

“…First, self-report assessments may be associated with biases; however, there is little indication that college students misrepresent alcohol use or other problems as long as confidentiality is clearly explained (Borsari & Muellerleile, 2009). Second, our computation of pBAC may have led to imprecise estimates because there may be individual variation in metabolism and because the response options for number of drinks consumed during a heavy drinking episode included both precise numbers and ranges of numbers.…”

Reducing high-risk drinking in mandated college students: Evaluation of two personalized normative feedback interventions

“…Although self-report potentially leads to biased or distorted reporting, college students may not be motivated to misrepresent their alcohol use as heavy drinking is perceived as normal in the college setting (Borsari & Muellerleile, 2009). Further, results of a recent meta-analysis support this usage, indicating that the reliability of self-reported drinking in college students is good, with little bias reported between participant and collateral reports (Borsari & Muellerleile, 2009). Third, because students completed an assessment prior to the intervention, the issue of repeated assessment and possible reactivity should be considered.…”