Collegiates' Intention and Confidence to Intervene into Others' Drinking

Abstract

Objectives To examine variable frequencies and relationships between students’ intentions and confidence with their intervention. Methods Incoming freshmen (509 of 1155 students responded) completed a survey 2 months into college. Results Most (75.2%) students intervened into others’ drinking, usually as a caretaker. Students reported more intention to intervene with others with whom they had more affiliation, and confidence with less intrusive intervention. Intention to intervene (b=0.36, SE=0.10, P<0.001) and intervention confidence (b=0.27, SE=0.06, P<0.001) correlated with intervention. Conclusions With education to enhance their intention and confidence to intervene, first-year college students might be encouraged to intervene into others’ social drinking.

A Systematic Review of Intervening to Prevent Driving While Intoxicated: The Problem of Driving While Intoxicated (DWI)

“…Correspondingly, much of the reviewed research included an assessment of confidence to intervene or perceived ability to intervene. Boekeloo and Griffin (2009) found that as confidence was greater so was the likelihood of intervention in any alcohol context (including reducing DWI). In one study, Anderson (2009) found exposure to behavioral and verbal modeling (through exposure to mock a television commercial) related to greater efficacy to intervene and intended intervening.…”

“…Boekeloo and Griffin (2009), although focused on drinking more generally, noted decreased likelihood of intervening with relationships that were more distal. Intervention was rated by participants to be most likely when they were with a room-mate, followed by someone residing on the same dorm-wing, with little likelihood of intervening with a stranger.…”

“…The majority of studies used undergraduate students, from a single university, with the exception of three school-based studies (Buckley et al, 2014; Flanagan et al, 2004; Smith et al, 2004). There were also some studies that intertwined intervention efforts related to DWI with other drinking and related harms (Boekeloo et al, 2009; Buckley et al, 2014). Related were many single-item assessments of variables or forced choice following a vignette (while likely to represent the majority of options, it may not actually represent all participants circumstances).…”

Drinking group characteristics related to willingness to engage in protective behaviors with the group at nightclubs.

“…Consistent with the theory of reasoned action, intention and confidence to intervene are correlated with actual intervention (Boekeloo & Griffin, 2009) because behavior is predicted by intentions. Intentions, in turn, are based on the individual's perceptions of expectations for behavior (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975).…”

“…In addition to self-protective strategies, prior college-based studies show that young adults will also intervene with their peers, implementing protective strategies when drinking (Boekeloo & Griffin, 2009; Howard et al, 2007). For example, Boekeloo et al (2009) found that most college students (75%) had intervened into others’ drinking, mostly acting as caretaker (e.g., got them water, helped them get home, and stayed with them after drinking too much).…”