Moving Beyond Drinking to Have a Good Time: a Person-Centered Approach to Identifying Reason Typologies in Legal-Aged College Student Drinkers

Parental Alcohol Communication and Student Drinking: Examining Potential Differences between Underage and Legal Drinking Age Students

BACKGROUND

We explored associations between parental alcohol communication (PCA) and student drinking behavior and protective behavioral strategies (PBS) use.

METHODS

College students in the United States, who had talked about alcohol with parents, (N = 251) completed an anonymous online survey in Fall 2021. Participants reported frequency of discussing 14 alcohol-related topics with parents, past 30-day drinking behaviors, and PBS use.

RESULTS

We identified two forms of PCA: general alcohol information and alcohol risk information, with alcohol risk information being more common than general alcohol information. PCA was not significantly associated with drinking behavior but was associated with two types of PBS. Specifically, general alcohol information was associated with greater use of serious harm reduction and stopping or limiting drinking strategies. Additionally, legal drinking age status moderated the associations between both forms of PCA and the use of stopping or limiting drinking strategies. In general, underage students stopping or limiting drinking strategies benefited from general alcohol information but not alcohol risk information. Legal drinking age students stopping or limiting drinking strategies benefited from alcohol risk information.

CONCLUSIONS

Among these students, PCA appears to have a greater impact on PBS use rather than drinking behavior. This may reflect a shift in students' beliefs about parental authority over alcohol and parents' acceptance of alcohol use by their children.

Substance use trajectories among emerging adult Black men: Risk factors and consequences

INTRODUCTION

Young, Black American men experience greater social, legal and economic consequences of substance use compared with White men for comparable levels of consumption. The development of tailored interventions requires prospective information on their substance use patterns, risk factors and consequences. We identified longitudinal substance use profiles and examined their links to childhood adversity, racial discrimination and young adult problem substance use and mental health.

METHODS

Emerging adult Black men (n = 504, mean age = 20.26, SD = 1.08) provided fours waves of data between January 2012 and March 2021. We conducted a parallel process latent class growth analysis for three substances to explore conjoint longitudinal use patterns and investigated the risk factors and consequences of each pattern.

RESULTS

Three trajectory classes emerged: non-using (n = 201, 39.9%), cannabis using (n = 202, 40.1%) and poly-substance using (n = 101, 20%) groups. Threat-based childhood adversity and racial discrimination were associated with higher odds of being members of cannabis or poly-substance groups than non-using group. Deprivation-based adversity was associated with higher odds for membership in poly-substance than non-using group. At Wave 4, elevated depressive symptoms were more prevalent among poly-substance compared with cannabis using group.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Heterogeneous substance use patterns emerged among Black American men and each pattern has distinct risk factors and outcomes in young adulthood. For prevention, more attention is needed for cannabis use patterns and psychosocial adversities that are unique to Black population.

Correlates of college student use of protective behavioral strategies when drinking alcohol

Objective: The present study identified student characteristics associated with using protective behavioral strategies (PBS) to reduce harms when consuming alcohol. Participants: 224 college students who drink alcohol (66.5% female, 89.7% White non-Hispanic, Mage = 21.04) completed an anonymous study survey. Methods: Participants reported use of three PBSs: serious harm reduction; stopping or limiting drinking; and manner of drinking. They also reported sensation seeking, romantic involvement, parent-student alcohol communication, and attitudes toward alcohol in college life. Results: Attitudes toward alcohol in college life, Greek life participation, and sensation seeking were the variables most consistently associated with PBS use. Perceiving alcohol as an important part of college and sensation seeking were associated with less PBS use, but Greek life participation was associated with greater PBS use. Conclusions: Specific resources may be needed to encourage PBS use among high sensation seeking students and those who believe alcohol is a part of college life.

Consequences, Motives, and Expectancies of Consumption as Predictors of Binge Drinking in University Women

The increasing presence of women, especially university women, in risky alcohol consumption such as Binge Drinking (BD), which is associated with gender-specific biopsychosocial problems, makes it necessary to analyze the variables underlying BD in order to adjust possible interventions more in line with their reality. The motives and expectancies of this pattern of consumption, as well as the consequences derived from it, are some of the variables that are shown to have the greatest weight in the prediction of BD. In the present study we analyze, on the one hand, the performance of these variables among college women with alcohol use, and on the other hand, which of these variables allow us to classify BD. A total of 501 female university consumers of alcohol (mean age 19.02 years) were assessed. Specifically, they completed a self-report of alcohol consumption (77.1% engage in BD), the Expectancy Questionnaire (EQ), the Drinking Motives Questionnaire (DMQ-R) and the Alcohol Consumption Consequences Evaluation (ACCE). BD female students scored significantly higher on these instruments, except for compliance motives. The logistic regression analysis carried out to estimate the probability of performing BD using the social and conformity motives, the ACCE and positive expectancies correctly estimated (χ2 8 = 9.149, p < 0.33) 88.6% of the cases and explained 26.2% of the BD. Thus, young women with a level of consequences classified as high risk (>25 in ACCE) have a 3.55-fold increase in the probability of having BD, compared to women classified as low risk by the ACCE. On the other hand, women classified as moderate risk by the ACCE have a 4.77-fold increase in the probability of having BD. In the case of social motives and positive expectancies, their increase multiplies by 1.165 and 1.024, respectively, the probability of having BD. The results of this study highlight the importance of adapting preventive measures to the consequences experienced by BD university students, especially in relation to the social motives and positive expectancies that modulate decision-making when engaging in this pattern of consumption.

Emotion dysregulation moderates the relationship between alcohol use and eating pathology among heavy-drinking college men

OBJECTIVES

There is limited research examining the relationship between alcohol use and eating pathology in men or factors that may moderate this association. The current study investigated the relationship between alcohol use and eating pathology, and examined emotion dysregulation as a moderator of this association, among heavy-drinking college men.

METHOD

Men mandated to receive an alcohol intervention (N = 88; average age = 19 years) completed questionnaires related to alcohol use, emotion dysregulation, and eating pathology.

RESULTS

Results demonstrated positive relationships between alcohol use and some eating pathology, and a significant interaction between alcohol use and emotion dysregulation. However, results were contrary to hypotheses, such that there was a positive relationship between alcohol use and eating pathology at low levels of emotion dysregulation.

CONCLUSION

Future studies should continue to examine the overall presentation of eating pathology in men and investigate factors that may impact the relationship between alcohol use and eating pathology.

Is Alcohol and Other Substance Use Reduced When College Students Attend Alcohol-Free Programs? Evidence from a Measurement Burst Design Before and After Legal Drinking Age

College drinking and its negative consequences remain a major public health concern. Yet, many prevention efforts targeting college drinkers are expensive, are difficult to implement, use indicated approaches targeting only high-risk drinkers, and/or are only marginally effective. An alternative strategy taken explicitly or implicitly by many colleges is campus-led alcohol-free programming which provides students with attractive leisure alternatives to drinking on weekend nights. This study aimed to extend work by Patrick et al. (Prevention Science, 11, 155-162, 2010), who found that students drank less on weekend nights they attended LateNight Penn State (LNPS) activities during their first semester of college. Here, daily diary and longitudinal data on college students' daily lives and risk behaviors were collected from 730 students on 19,506 person-days across seven semesters at a large university in the Northeastern United States. Generalized linear mixed models were used to estimate alcohol and illegal substance use on weekend days as a function of LNPS attendance, gender, legal drinking status (≥ 21 years), and day of the weekend. Across college, students who attended LNPS used alcohol and illegal substances less in general and less on days they participated compared to themselves on days they did not participate. Legal drinking status moderated the association between LNPS attendance and alcohol and illegal substance use such that levels of use were lowest for students under 21 years old on weekend days they attended LNPS. Our findings provide support for campus-led alcohol-free programming as a potential harm reduction strategy on college campuses.

Non-intercourse and intercourse hookup intentions, drinking expectancies, and college students' heavy drinking

BACKGROUND

The current study tested the associations between college students' intentions to hookup (i.e., specifically intending to go out and engage in sexual behavior with a non-romantic partner) and self-reported heavy drinking. Further, social and sexual enhancement drinking expectancies were tested as moderators of those associations.

METHODS

College students (N = 235) reported (a) if they had specifically intended to hookup (reported separately for non-intercourse and intercourse hookup intentions) in the past 6 months; (b) social and sexual enhancement drinking expectancies; and (c) heavy drinking (a composite of past-30-day drinking frequency, typical amount consumed per drinking occasion, and how many times they got drunk). Data were analyzed using a hierarchical multiple regression (HMR), controlling for demographic variables.

RESULTS

Non-intercourse hookup intentions were positively associated with heavy drinking, but intercourse hookup intentions were not. Sexual but not social enhancement drinking expectancies moderated the associations between both types of hookup intentions and heavy drinking. Among those who had intended a non-intercourse hookup, heavy drinking was greater when they also reported high (+1 SD) sexual enhancement drinking expectancies. For intercourse hookup intentions, higher (+1 SD) sexual enhancement drinking expectancies were associated with less heavy drinking.

CONCLUSIONS

Pursuing non-intercourse hookups appears to be associated with heavy drinking, but intercourse hookup intention is not. Sexual enhancement drinking expectancies moderated those associations. Thus, an interest in some types of casual sexual experiences may promote heavy drinking among college students.