Efficacy of counselor vs. computer-delivered intervention with mandated college students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of two brief interventions and the inclusion of a 1-month booster session with college students who were referred to attend alcohol education following an alcohol-related incident. Participants (N=225; 48.9% male) were randomly assigned to receive one session of a Brief Motivational Interview (BMI) or computer-delivered intervention (CDI) with the Alcohol 101 CD-ROM. Participants were also randomly assigned to booster/no booster. At 3-month follow up, participants in BMI reported greater help seeking and use of behavioral strategies to moderate drinking. At 12-month follow up, BMI participants were drinking more frequently and CDI participants were consuming a greater number of drinks per occasion than at baseline. Mediation analyses showed that the use of specific behavioral strategies mediated the effect of the BMI condition on drinking volume. There was no intervention effect on alcohol problems, and the booster condition did not significantly affect outcomes. Promoting specific behaviors in the context of in-person brief interventions may be a promising approach to reducing drinking volume among identified at-risk students.

Protective Behavioral Strategies as a Mediator Between Depressive Symptom Fluctuations and Alcohol Consumption: A Longitudinal Examination Among College Students

“…Extant harm-reduction interventions, such as BASICS (Dimeff et al, 1999), are evidenced to address heavy drinking among college students in general. Further, intervention work has shown that PBS appears to be a relevant component in drinking reduction in this population (Barnett et al, 2007;Larimer et al, 2007;Murphy et al, 2012). Given that individuals experiencing increased mental health symptomatology are at elevated risk for problematic alcohol use, they may benefi t from tailored interventions that emphasize PBS in drinking contexts, particularly during drinking occasions where they experience greater symptoms of depression.…”

“…Examples of PBS include using a designated driver, predetermining the number of drinks to be consumed, and alternating alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks. Many college alcohol intervention programs incorporate these drinking control strategies as a skills-training component in their design to help college students reduce their risky drinking behaviors (e.g., Barnett et al, 2007;Larimer et al, 2007). For example, the Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS; Dimeff et al, 1999), an empirically supported brief motivational drinking intervention, includes PBS to help control one's drinking.…”

“…For example, the Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS; Dimeff et al, 1999), an empirically supported brief motivational drinking intervention, includes PBS to help control one's drinking. College alcohol intervention programs have found that changes in PBS use mediate intervention effects (e.g., Barnett et al, 2007;Murphy et al, 2012). Therefore, the use of PBS appears to be an important component in reducing alcohol-related harms.…”

Evaluation of two Web-based alcohol interventions for mandated college students

“…Additionally, the majority of studies examining the efficacy of programs for mandated students have used a single-group design (see Barnett & Read, 2005), limiting the ability to determine whether changes in drinking and alcohol-related problems are related to the intervention or to the alcohol sanction itself. To date, only three studies examining brief motivational interventions for mandated students using a randomized controlled design with a comparison group have been published (Barnett et al 2004;Borsari & Carey, 2005;White et al, 2006); two of these also published data from long-term follow-up assessments (Barnett, Murphy, Colby, & Monti, 2007;White, Mun, Pugh, & Morgan, 2007). Overall, these studies suggest brief interventions providing personalized normative feedback are effective in reducing drinking and alcohol-related problems in mandated students.…”

Have I Had One Drink Too Many? Assessing Gender Differences in Misperceptions of Intoxication Among College Students

“…thus, what might be a safe quantity of alcohol for one individual under some circumstances could lead to intoxication for another drinker under different circumstances. although some college interventions provide skills training about how to safely estimate personal intoxication (barnett et al, 2007;borsari and carey, 2005;Fromme and corbin, 2004;larimer et al, 2001;Marlatt et al, 1998), few address the intrapersonal processes that are related to accurate and inaccurate estimations. this may be partly because of the absence of information available from studies examining perceptions of personal intoxication in college samples.…”