Short College Programs Only Briefly Successful in Helping Students Reduce Drinking  - click to read entire article

Brief alcohol education programs are only temporarily effective in convincing college students to reduce their drinking, a new study suggests.

Some thoughts regarding “short term"/awareness programs:

As stand-alone efforts to change drinking behaviors, “awareness” programs are of little use affecting long-term behavior change.  NIAAA lists such programs a Tier 4, Evidence of NIAAA Tiers of Effectiveness.  This is not to say, however, that such programs are useless or have no value.

Ineffectiveness

For those familiar with Prochaska’s Tran-theoretical Model of Change, you will recall that there are processes of change that work best for each stage of readiness to change (for a quick tutorial on the TMC, visit.  The purpose of these processes of change or “stage-specific interventions” is to motivate movement to the next stage on the continuum of readiness.  To move from the 1st stage of readiness to change, which essentially is no sense of readiness to change, what Prochaska calls pre-contemplation, one needs to become aware that, as Joe Martin used to say, what causes a problem is a problem when it causes a problem.

“Short college programs” as the headline suggests may not be very effective as regards long-term behavior change, but they can play an important role in a comprehensive campus program of prevention and intervention.  In short, no one changes a behavior until reaching a point where it is discovered that to continue the status quo is more hassle than the change.  These “short college programs” can be helpful in making individuals aware of “what constitutes a problem…and the possible connection between “X behavior” and “Y experience.”  Although few will “hear a lecture” and immediately change their drinking behavior, that lecture/poster/program/phone app/mouse pad/water bottle logo/screen saver/etc., especially if similar messages are shared consistently via various media and coordinated in their use around campus over an extended period of time, can motive individuals to “start to think” about their behavior.  Now, “thinking about my behavior” is not going to result in making a change—we all have personal stories to document that fact—but thinking if change might be appropriate is essentially the 2nd stage in Prochaska’s continuum; contemplation.

Not to make this a dissertation, suffice it to say, short college programs do not work if behavior change is the objective and the short program is the be all and end all of the campus program.  They can be useful, however, f employed as a part of a comprehensive plan designed to affect the campus culture. 

As an aside, how many of you have “contemplated a change” in your auto insurance after a 5+ year exposure to annoying TV ads :)

What do you think?

Dr. Robert

Can colleges and universities reduce incidences of high-risk, dangerous drinking by adding civility and social consciousness criteria to their admissions process?

Can colleges and universities reduce incidences of high-risk, dangerous drinking by adding civility and social consciousness criteria to their admissions process?  

Currently, most colleges and universities assume a defensive position regarding high-risk, dangerous drinking, and other drug use, often reacting to their untoward consequences after-the-fact.  Policies outline what is and is not permissible behavior, residence life and campus security concentrate on

enforcement of said policies, faculty tend to view substance use issues as other than their responsibility, and campus recruiters often proffer a “wink-wink, nudge-nudge” response to questions about partying, while some administrators theorize the solution to the "collegiate drinking problem" is to lower the drinking age.

Might a more proactive approach to the problem of how "some collegians drink," rather than seeing all collegiate drinking as THE problem, be to screen applicants at least as judiciously regarding their views on and activities related to civility and social consciousness as they screen for SAT scores, quintile standings, and other indicators of academic performance?

The past 20-years have enabled us to learn much about high-risk drinking and its associated behaviors, including which students are most likely to engage in behaviors resulting in untoward consequences.  Many of these untoward consequences translate into the quality-of-life issues that become the reason many students transfers from one institution of higher education (IHE) to another, not to mention being a mitigating factor in academic probation, academic dismissal, or behavioral dismissal from the IHE.  

With personal essays specifically crafted to solicit student views on social behaviors, expectations of collegiate life "outside the classroom," and specific instruction regarding letters of recommendation and their need to address issues of civility and social consciousness, can IHEs affect the frequency of high-risk and dangerous drinking and other drug use following matriculation by changing their recruiting and admissions practices?

What do you think?

Dr. Robert