Protective Behaviors and High-Risk Drinking Among Entering College Freshmen

Abstract

Objectives-To explore the use of protective behaviors to reduce risks associated with alcohol consumption among adolescents during the summer preceding college enrollment.Methods-Survey data were collected in fall 2006 and 2007 that assessed demographic characteristics, drinking behaviors, and use of protective behaviors in the 3 months preceding the survey.Results-Female participants reported using 4 out of 10 protective behaviors more often than did males, and using protective behaviors was significantly related to fewer negative drinking-related consequences.Conclusions-Findings highlight potential benefits of using protective behaviors and the need to promote effective behaviors. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptAm J Health Behav. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2013 June 26. High-risk drinking among college students has been recognized as a significant public health problem. Four of 5 college students drink alcohol, and half of these engage in heavy episodic drinking. 1 -5 The consequences of high-risk drinking are numerous and undesirable.High-risk drinking among college students has been associated with greater likelihood of negative consequences such as physical and sexual assault, health problems, unsafe and unplanned sexual activity, sexual harassment, impaired sleep and study time, and interpersonal problems. 3,[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Alcohol use is culturally and socially accepted during the transition from high school to college. 2 Numerous studies show that late adolescence and early adulthood are the peak time for heavy drinking and alcohol-related problems, along with other substance use and other risky and illegal behaviors. [18][19][20] High school students intending to go to college have lower rates of alcohol and other substance use compared to their noncollege-bound peers. However, in the years immediately following high school, college students have higher rates of alcohol use and frequent heavy drinking, even though they have lower rates of other substance use. [19][20][21] This period of initiation and accelerated use is an important time to intervene, as it can affect long-term use and lifelong difficulties. 22 Much of the increase in alcohol use has been attributed to major individual (eg, alcohol expectancies, perceptions of drinking norms) and contextual changes (eg, decreased parental monitoring) that adolescents experience during this transition period. 23,24 White and colleagues found that leaving home and going to college were significantly associated with increased frequency of alcohol use and heavy episodic drinking during the time between high school and emerging adulthood. 24 The increase in high-risk drinking among incoming college students has been attributed to decreases in parental monitoring and perceptions of drinking norms among college students.Harford et al examined the associations between type of residence, heavy episodic drinking in high school, and alcohol-related problems among college students. 25 Students living off campus wi...

The association between protective behavioral strategies and alcohol-related problems: An examination of race and gender differences among college drinkers

“…We found that after controlling for alcohol use, the magnitude of the association between PBS and alcohol-related problems was stronger for women than men, although the effect size was quite small (difference in R 2 = 0.002 or 0.2% variance), which is not unusual for moderation effects. Previous studies found similar results among freshmen (Sutfin et al, 2009) and undergraduates (Delva et al, 2004; Sutfin et al, 2009) sampled from a single university. Our study extends the current literature by increasing the generalizability of these findings because undergraduate students from different academic years were sampled from several colleges across the United States.…”

“…Numerous studies have found that women, relative to men, were more likely to utilize PBS, although gender differences in specific types of PBS are unclear, in part because different PBS measures have been utilized in the literature (e.g., Delva et al, 2004; Sutfin et al, 2009; Walters, Roudsari, Vader, & Harris, 2007). To our knowledge, previous studies have not examined whether racial differences in the utilization of specific types of PBS at the item level differ for men and women.…”

Free Alcohol Use and Consequences: Gender Differences Among Undergraduates

“…One possible explanation for fewer consequences is that females use protective behavioral strategies, such as using a designated driver, eating during or before drinking, and switching between alcohol and non-alcoholic beverages, more often than males do. 44 This could also be due to the increased drinking of women, in general. In secondary analysis of over 43,000 participants in the US National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), Keyes and colleagues 45 found that gender differences in alcohol disorders were decreasing simply because women were drinking more.…”

Use of alcohol protective behavioral strategies among college students: A critical review

“…This use of the more narrow definition appears to be most consistent with current use of the term PBS. In fact, only 13 of the 62 studies (~21%) used the broader definition, and this includes studies that had only one or two alcohol avoidance strategies (e.g., NCHA, Sutfin et al, 2009). Although this fact certainly does not reflect a pure consensus, it does suggest that most PBS researchers find the more narrow definition more useful for their research aims.…”

“…Specifically, women have been found to use more PBS when examined as a single factor (Benton et al, 2004; Benton, Benton, & Downey, 2006; Benton, Downey, Glider, & Benton, 2008; Borden et al, 2011; D’Lima, Pearson, & Kelley, 2012; Ehret, Ghaidarov, & LaBrie, 2013; Frank, Thake, & Davis, 2012; Palmer, McMahon, Rounsaville, & Ball, 2010; ), multiple factors (Nguyen, Walters, Syatt, & DeJong, 2011) including all PSQ subscales (DeMartini et al, 2013), all PBSS subscales (LaBrie, Lac, Kenney, & Mirza, 2011; Lewis, Rees, & Lee, 2009; Lewis, Rees, Logan, Kaysen, & Kilmer, 2010), and all SQ subscales (Pearson & Henson, 2013). Of all the studies reviewed, only four studies report any non-significant gender differences in PBS use, and each of these studies found some significant gender differences (Pearson, Kite, and Henson, 2012a; Sutfin et al, 2009; Walters et al, 2007; Werch, 1990). Overall, there is overwhelming evidence that women use more PBS than men.…”