Who cares if college and drinking are synonymous? Identification with typical students moderates the relationship between college life alcohol salience and drinking outcomes

Microaggressions, perceptions of campus climate, mental health, and alcohol use among first-year college students of color

Depressive and anxiety symptoms are increasingly common, and problematic alcohol use remains prevalent in college. To expand on prior research on mostly white samples, we surveyed first-year students of color from our predominately white university (Southeastern US) to identify risk factors for mental health symptoms and potentially co-occurring problematic alcohol use. Results showed significant associations between microaggressions and poor campus climate (hypothetical predictors) with depressive, anxiety, somatic symptoms (hypothetical outcomes) that were indirectly linked through perceived stress, poor sleep, and academic burnout (hypothetical mediators). Poor campus climate, academic burnout, and using alcohol to cope were the most relevant to alcohol use disorder symptoms. Results support efforts to address and reduce racial microaggressions and promote a positive campus climate for all.

Associations between Gender Expression, Protective Coping Strategies, Alcohol Saliency, and High-Risk Alcohol Use in Post-Secondary Students at Two Canadian Universities

BACKGROUND

This study, conducted in October 2017 at two Canadian universities, aimed to explore the relationships between gender expression, protective coping strategies, alcohol saliency, and high-risk alcohol use.

METHODS

Validated scales were employed to assess these variables using survey data. Multivariate analyses were conducted to investigate the associations between these factors and high-risk drinking.

RESULTS

This study revealed significant associations between high-risk drinking and androgynous gender roles (OR = 1.58, 95% CI: 1.19-2.10) as well as among self-reported males (OR = 2.21; 95% CI: 1.77-2.75). Additionally, protective behavioural strategies were inversely related to high-risk drinking (OR = 0.95; 95% CI: 0.94-0.96), while higher alcohol saliency exhibited a positive correlation with high-risk drinking (OR = 1.12; 95% CI: 1.11-1.14).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings underscore the importance of considering gender, alcohol saliency beliefs, and protective behavioural strategies in the development and refinement of interventions aimed at reducing high-risk alcohol use on Canadian campuses.

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.

Fluctuation in the sense of belongingness during college moderates within-person associations between perceived injunctive norms and subsequent drinking

OBJECTIVE

Explanations for associations between social norms and drinking often focus on wanting to fit in, gain social approval, and/or avoid social exclusion. From this perspective, students who believe that drinking is strongly linked to social approval should be more motivated to drink, especially if their sense of social approval or belongingness in college is low. To evaluate this hypothesis, we examined changes in drinking as a function of fluctuations in perceived injunctive norms (i.e., perceptions of others' approval of drinking) and belongingness (i.e., one's sense of social belonging in college).

METHOD

Participants included 383 (60% women) nonabstaining students who, beginning in their first or second year of college, completed assessments every 3 months over a 2-year period. Data were analyzed using multilevel mixed-effects negative binomial models followed by marginal tests to evaluate nonlinear interactions.

RESULTS

Within-person results indicated that when individuals believed other students were more approving of alcohol, they subsequently increased their drinking, which is especially true when individuals' sense of belongingness was at or below average. Between-person effects revealed overall positive associations of injunctive norms and belongingness with drinking. In addition, greater alcohol consumption among individuals with higher injunctive norms was less evident among students with lower average levels of belongingness.

CONCLUSIONS

Perceiving others as more approving of drinking corresponds to increased drinking only when personal levels of belongingness are at or below average. Elevated feelings of belongingness may buffer social influences on drinking. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Ubiquitous bias and false discovery due to model misspecification in analysis of statistical interactions: The role of the outcome's distribution and metric properties

Studies of interaction effects are of great interest because they identify crucial interplay between predictors in explaining outcomes. Previous work has considered several potential sources of statistical bias and substantive misinterpretation in the study of interactions, but less attention has been devoted to the role of the outcome variable in such research. Here, we consider bias and false discovery associated with estimates of interaction parameters as a function of the distributional and metric properties of the outcome variable. We begin by illustrating that, for a variety of noncontinuously distributed outcomes (i.e., binary and count outcomes), attempts to use the linear model for recovery leads to catastrophic levels of bias and false discovery. Next, focusing on transformations of normally distributed variables (i.e., censoring and noninterval scaling), we show that linear models again produce spurious interaction effects. We provide explanations offering geometric and algebraic intuition as to why interactions are a challenge for these incorrectly specified models. In light of these findings, we make two specific recommendations. First, a careful consideration of the outcome's distributional properties should be a standard component of interaction studies. Second, researchers should approach research focusing on interactions with heightened levels of scrutiny. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Perceived friendship and binge drinking in young adults: A study of the Human Connectome Project data

BACKGROUND

Peer influences figure prominently in young adult binge drinking. Women have trended to show a level of alcohol use on par with men during the last decades. It would be of interest to investigate the neural processes of social cognition that may underlie binge drinking and the potential sex differences.

METHODS

Here, we examined the data of the Human Connectome Project where we identified a total of 175 binge drinkers (125 men) and 285 non-binge drinkers (97 men) performing a social cognition task during brain imaging. We analyzed the imaging data with published routines and evaluated the results at a corrected threshold.

RESULTS

Both male and female binge relative to non-binge drinkers showed higher perceived friendship. Binge relative to non-binge drinkers demonstrated diminished activations in the anterior medial orbitofrontal cortex (amOFC) during perception of social vs. random interaction, with a more prominent effect size in women. Further, whole-brain regression identified activity of the right posterior insula (rPI) in negative correlation with perceived friendship score in non-binge drinking women. Post-hoc analyses showed significant correlation of rPI activity with perceived friendship, amOFC activity, and a summary measure of alcohol use severity identified by principal component analysis, across all subjects. Mediation and path analysis demonstrated a significant model: amOFC activity → rPI activity → perceived friendship → severity of alcohol use.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings support peer influences on binge drinking and suggest neural correlates that may relate altered social cognitive processing to alcohol misuse in young adults.

Tackling student drinking within the drinking subculture of a university sports competition: a culture change approach

Purpose

This paper explores the impact of a suite of alcohol culture change interventions implemented by Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia. The interventions were designed to change the alcohol culture at a bi-annual nation-wide university multi-sport competition known as Uni Nationals. This study aims to understand the critical success factors of the alcohol culture change initiatives that were developed by the university and implemented as part of a broader set of institutional practices.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative research design utilised in-depth, semi-structured interviews with nine Uni Nationals student team leaders. In total, two group interviews and four individual interviews were conducted with student team leaders who participated in the Uni Nationals. The interview transcripts were coded and themed. The themes were further refined and interpreted into a narrative. A total of two transcripts were independently coded by the first two authors. Discordant coding was flagged and discussed until a consensus was achieved. The remaining interviews were coded by the first author and discussed with the second author to ensure consistency. A socio-ecological framework was used to understand perceived changes to alcohol culture.

Findings

Student leaders were aware of and felt supported by the university-wide approach to changing the culture of Uni Nationals. Overall, the qualitative study indicated that students were positive about the alcohol culture change interventions. The leadership training that engaged team leaders in interactive activities had the greatest impact. Student leaders found the targeted messages, mocktail events and Chef de Mission (CdM) less effective cultural change strategies. However, they helped to establish expectations of students in this setting where a heightened focus on sport was associated with higher alcohol consumption.

Originality/value

While there has been growing academic interest in exploring “drinking cultures”, there has been relatively little focus on alcohol culture of university students at sporting events. The paper contributes to addressing this gap by shedding light on the impact of a group of interventions on the drinking culture of the Uni Nationals subculture.

Double Vision on Social Media: How Self-Generated Alcohol-Related Content Posts Moderate the Link between Viewing Others' Posts and Drinking

A robust finding is the positive association between self-generated alcohol-related content (SG-ARC) on social media (SM) and drinking among emerging adults; however, the reasons for this relationship are still unclear. A factor that has yet to be explored in combination with SG-ARC is how viewing others' alcohol-related content (ARC) may be impacting young adults' drinking. This cross-sectional study conducted across two universities asked students (N = 780; M = 20.80 years old; SD = 2.29; 67.82% female) to self-report how many SG-ARC posts they posted, to estimate how much they saw others' ARC, and how much they drank weekly. SG-ARC was then evaluated as a moderator of the association between viewing others' ARC and drinking. A negative binomial regression model with robust sandwich estimators was employed. Results revealed that both SG-ARC and viewing others' ARC were positively associated with drinking. A significant two-way interaction between SG-ARC and others' ARC emerged such that viewing others' posts appeared to exert an influence on drinking, particularly for students who did not post as many SG-ARC posts. These findings provide evidence that seeing others' ARC may be socially influencing students to drink, especially if they do not post as much SG-ARC themselves, by altering their internalized drinking norms.

Going against the Norm: A Mixed Methods Analysis of College Students' Arguments against the College Drinking Culture

College alcohol beliefs (e.g. "College is a time for experimentation with alcohol") are highly predictive of heavy drinking and its consequences. Yet, current college alcohol interventions do not address this belief system even though researchers have recommended that these beliefs be targeted. Using a mixed methods approach, we conducted two studies to generate arguments against the college drinking culture and to evaluate the effectiveness of such arguments. In Study 1, freshman students (N = 104, 65% women) wrote an essay to a fictitious roommate presenting arguments against the college drinking culture. Responses were reliably coded into a 19-category scheme. The most common arguments included that (1) one's focus should be on academics, (2) drinking will lead to academic consequences, and (3) drinking is not a rite of passage in college. In Study 2, college students (N = 488) rated the effectiveness of prototype arguments drawn from each Study 1 category. According to their ratings, the most effective arguments were that (1) one's focus should be on academics, (2) drinking could have a negative impact on one's career, and (3) one could do potential harm to others. The student-generated arguments against the college drinking culture identified in his research have inherent ecological validity and will help inform the development of new interventions to counter such beliefs. We offer suggestions for translating our findings into clinical interventions.The problem of college student drinking has been long-standing (Kilmer et al., 2014) and remains a significant public health issue today (Hingson et al., 2017). Decades of research on college student drinking and its consequences have identified key cognitive factors that underlie drinking and its consequences, such as the misperception of norms for drinking (Borsari & Carey, 2003) and the positive expectancies students hold about the effects of drinking (Jones et al., 2001; Monk & Heim, 2013). The robust relationships between these cognitive variables and alcohol consumption among college students have led to the development of interventions that target these variables. Social norms marketing campaigns (DeJong et al., 2006), personalized normative feedback (Lewis & Neighbors, 2006), and expectancy challenge techniques (Scott-Sheldon et al., 2012) have been a part of interventions designed to correct students' misperceptions about the percentage of and amount students drink and the effects that alcohol has on their functioning in social situations. Reviews of the literature have demonstrated that interventions containing these components are effective for first year students (Scott-Sheldon et al., 2014) and mandated students (Carey et al., 2016), except for interventions targeting student members of Greek letter organizations (Scott-Sheldon et al., 2016). Effect sizes in most interventions across freshman and mandated students tend to be modest and not very durable in the long-term (Carey et al., 2016; Scott-Sheldon et al., 2014). However, recent research reveals that a variety of new intervention strategies may be useful in addressing the problem of college student drinking (Dunn et al., 2020; Kazemi et al., 2020; King et al., 2020; Magill et al., 2017; Pedrelli et al., 2020; Young & Neighbors, 2019). Aside from social norms and positive alcohol expectancies, another cognitive variable has been found to be a very robust predictor, mediator, and moderator of college student drinking and its consequences - college alcohol beliefs (Crawford & Novak, 2006; Osberg et al., 2010).

Self in the Service: Self-Identification Moderates the Association between Perceived Drinking Norms and Own Drinking among Veterans

PURPOSE

Drinking is common among young adult veterans. Previous research has established that veterans' drinking is more strongly associated with veteran versus civilian drinking norms. The present research extends these findings by examining the influence of self-identification both with other veterans and with civilians as moderators of the association between perceived norms and drinking.

METHODS

Veterans aged 18-34 (N = 1015; 88.7% male; M = 28.23, SD = 3.44) were recruited via Facebook to participate. Measures included same-gender veterans/same-gender civilians self-identification, same-gender veterans/same gender-civilians perceived drinking norms, and own drinking.

RESULTS

Pairwise comparisons revealed both male and female veterans identified more with other veterans than civilians and perceived drinking to be more prevalent among other veterans than civilians. However, males overestimated male veteran drinking norms to a greater degree than male civilian norms whereas the opposite was true for females. Negative binomial analysis examining a three-way interaction between veteran identification, civilian identification, and civilian norms revealed civilian drinking norms were positively associated with drinking, particularly for veterans who strongly identified with both veterans and civilians. Conversely, civilian drinking norms were also found to be negatively associated with drinking, particularly for those who did not identify strongly with civilians but identified strongly with veterans.

IMPLICATIONS

This study represented a preliminary step for understanding how identity plays a role in terms of veterans' drinking. Given that veterans drank at differing levels of identification, it may be important to consider identities that are most salient when designing interventions targeting individual veterans.

College alcohol beliefs and negative alcohol-related consequences: A moderated mediation model of enhancement drinking motives and restricted eating

College alcohol beliefs (CABs; i.e., beliefs that alcohol use is an integral feature of college life) have been shown to be positively associated with negative alcohol-related consequences among college students. Given this information, the present study examined restricted eating before consuming alcohol to increase intoxication as one drinking behavior mechanism through which CABs relate to negative alcohol-related consequences. Additionally, we examined whether the indirect association of CABs and negative alcohol-related consequences through restricted eating differed as a function of enhancement drinking motives, specifically the CABs-restricted eating association (i.e., first-stage moderated mediation). Participants included college students (n = 1347) across 10 states/universities who consumed alcohol in the last month. The majority of participants identified as being White, non-Hispanic (69.0%), female (70.1%), and reported a mean age of 20.92 (Median = 20.00; SD = 4.60) years. As hypothesized, restricted eating mediated the association between CABs and negative alcohol-related consequences. Further, the indirect effect of CABs on negative alcohol-related consequences through restricted eating was stronger in students who endorsed high levels of enhancement motives, compared to students with low or average levels. Our findings suggest that college students with high levels of enhancement motives are at a relatively higher risk of experiencing negative alcohol-related consequences related to CABs via restricted eating, compared to those with average or low levels. Future research is needed to examine additional drinking-related factors that may influence the pathways between CABs and negative alcohol-related consequences among college students.

Guilt and expressive writing for reducing alcohol use in college students: Study protocol for a randomized control trial

The current proposed study aims to evaluate expressive writing as a novel intervention for reducing problematic drinking among college students. College students are at increased risk for alcohol misuse compared to other adults, and the development of efficacious intervention approaches is an urgent priority. The vast majority of individually focused brief interventions targeting college drinking have focused on personalized feedback approaches and recent innovations have largely been limited to refinements of this paradigm, which require large-scale assessment and intricate programming for implementation. The present research proposes expressive writing as a novel alternative, which has been used extensively in other domains but not as an alcohol intervention strategy. We propose a theoretically-based approach that incorporates expression of the self-conscious emotion of guilt and the written analogue of change talk as proposed mechanisms of intervention efficacy. We will also examine individual differences in guilt-proneness as a moderator of intervention efficacy. Heavy drinking college students (N = 600) will be randomly assigned to one of six expressive writing conditions based on a 2 (alcohol vs. distress) × 2 (guilt vs. no guilt) + 1 (control writing) + 1 (personalized feedback) design. Participation in the study involves completion of a screening assessment, a baseline assessment, three in-lab intervention sessions, post-intervention assessments, and follow-up assessments one-month, three-months, six months, and twelve-months later. If effective, this novel intervention approach would not require any pre-assessment or programming of personalized feedback, and would serve as a more easily disseminable alternative to existing approaches.

Alcohol and Parasomnias: The Statistical Evaluation of the Parasomnia Defense in Sexual Assault, Where Alcohol is Involved

Sleep sex may be a defense for alleged sexual assault. The International Classification of Sleep Disorders (ICSD3) states: "Disorders of arousal should not be diagnosed in the presence of alcohol intoxication… The former [alcohol blackouts] are exponentially more prevalent." A panel member of ICSD3, quoting ICSD3 asserts: "alcohol intoxication should rule out a sleep-walking defense". This implies extremely strong support for a prosecution hypothesis (H_p ) over a defense hypothesis (H_d ). I use Bayesian methodology to evaluate the evidential probity of alcohol intoxication. The likelihood ratio, LR, measures the amplification of prior odds of guilt, LR = Posterior odds of guilt after considering alcohol intoxication /Prior odds of guilt before considering alcohol intoxication . By Bayes' theorem, LR = p ( alcohol intoxication, given H p ) / p ( alcohol intoxication, given H d ) . I use data from cross-sectional studies of sexual assault and prevalence of alcohol use, in college students, with data from longitudinal studies, and data from the epidemiology of parasomnias to evaluate LR (alcohol). LR ~1.5 or 5, depending whether alcohol does, or does not, increase the risk of parasomnias. The proposition of extremely strong support for H_p implies a LR ~1,000,000, so the proposition in ICSD3 is not supported by formal analysis. The statistical reasoning in ICSD3 is unclear. There appears to be inversion of the Bayesian conditional (confusing intoxication given assault, and assault given intoxication) and failure to evaluate alcohol intoxication in H_d . Similar statistical errors in R. v Sally Clark are discussed. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine should review the statistical methodology in ICSD3.