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Preventing College Sexual Victimization by Reducing Hookups: a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Personalized Normative Feedback Intervention.

ABSTRACT: Sexual activity, including hooking up, increases college women's vulnerability to sexual victimization. Reducing hookups may reduce rates of sexual victimization among this vulnerable population. Because college students overestimate how frequently their peers hook up, correcting their misperceptions may lead to more accurate perceived social norms, and consequently, less hookup behavior. The study was designed as a randomized controlled trial of the efficacy of a brief, computer-administered personalized normative feedback (PNF) intervention regarding hookups during the first semester of college. We tested an indirect effects model in which PNF was hypothesized to predict perceiving fewer peer hookups, which were expected to predict fewer actual hookups and consequently, less sexual victimization during the first semester of college. Entering first-year women (N = 760) were randomly assigned to receive web-delivered PNF or no information. At the end of the semester, perceived number of hookups of others, number of hookups during the semester, and sexual victimization experiences were assessed. Women who received the intervention perceived that their peers engaged in significantly fewer hookups than did control women. Consistent with the proposed indirect effects model, intervention had a significant indirect effect on the odds of first-semester victimization via lower perceived descriptive norms, which in turn predicted fewer hookups. The study provides proof of concept for the importance of hookups as a risk factor for sexual victimization and provides novel, preliminary support for intervention to change descriptive norms as a way of reducing hookups and consequently, sexual vulnerability.

SUBMITTER: Testa M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7058500 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Norms clarification has been identified as an effective component of college student drinking interventions, prompting research on norms clarification as a single-component intervention known as Personalized Normative Feedback (PNF). Previous reviews have examined PNF in combination with other components but not as a stand-alone intervention.To investigate the degree to which computer-delivered stand-alone personalized normative feedback interventions reduce alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harms among college students and to compare gender-neutral and gender-specific PNF.Electronic databases were searched systematically through November 2014. Reference lists were reviewed manually and forward and backward searches were conducted.Outcome studies that compared computer-delivered, stand-alone PNF intervention with an assessment only, attention-matched, or active treatment control and reported alcohol use and harms among college students.Between-group effect sizes were calculated as the standardized mean difference in change scores between treatment and control groups divided by pooled standard deviation. Within-group effect sizes were calculated as the raw mean difference between baseline and follow-up divided by pooled within-groups standard deviation.Eight studies (13 interventions) with a total of 2,050 participants were included. Compared to control participants, students who received gender-neutral (dbetween = 0.291, 95% CI [0.159, 0.423]) and gender-specific PNF (dbetween = 0.284, 95% CI [0.117, 0.451]) reported greater reductions in drinking from baseline to follow-up. Students who received gender-neutral PNF reported 3.027 (95% CI [2.171, 3.882]) fewer drinks per week at first follow-up and gender-specific PNF reported 3.089 (95% CI [0.992, 5.186]) fewer drinks. Intervention effects were small for harms (dbetween = 0.157, 95% CI [0.037, 0.278]).Computer-delivered PNF is an effective stand-alone approach for reducing college student drinking and has a small impact on alcohol-related harms. Effects are small but clinically relevant when considered from a public health perspective. Additional research is needed to examine computer-delivered, stand-alone PNF as a population-level prevention program.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Young adult veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan represent a population at-risk for heavy and problematic alcohol use. Unfortunately, few seek treatment for alcohol concerns and those that do seek care may drop out from lengthy multicomponent treatments. Additionally, veterans who live in rural areas and those who are not engaged in the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System are often overlooked, difficult to engage in treatment, and may not be actively seeking treatment for heavy patterns of use that may develop into an alcohol use disorder. The objective of this proposed randomized controlled trial is to develop and pilot test a brief, stand-alone Internet-based alcohol intervention with young adult veterans to help them reduce their drinking and prevent the development of problematic alcohol use. METHODS/DESIGN:Recruitment and intervention is delivered entirely over the Internet to address barriers to seeking care among this at-risk group. The online intervention consists of an assessment followed by a single module of personalized normative feedback (PNF), which provides individuals with accurate information to reduce misperceptions regarding the frequency and acceptability of risky peer behavior. PNF has established efficacy as included within multicomponent interventions targeting military populations or as a stand-alone intervention with young adult college students, but has not yet been empirically supported for the at-risk veteran population. This paper describes the development of the PNF intervention content and details the protocol for the intervention study, which will utilize a sample of 600 young adult veterans to examine the efficacy of the brief PNF intervention targeted toward reducing perceived norms, intentions to drink, actual drinking behavior, and consequences. Specific subpopulations of this veteran population, including those with mental health concerns and those differentiated by level of drinking problems, reasons for drinking, and connection to peers, will be examined to support generalizability of the intervention. DISCUSSION:This intervention has the potential to improve veteran health care by utilizing a novel approach to increase access to care, assist with drinking reductions, and prevent alcohol-related problems. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT02187887.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Sexual violence-any sexual act committed against a person without freely given consent-disproportionately affects women. Women's first experiences of sexual violence often occur in adolescence. In Asia and the Pacific, 14% of sexually experienced adolescent girls report forced sexual debut. Early prevention with men that integrates a bystander framework is one way to address attitudes and behavior while reducing potential resistance to participation. METHODS:This paper describes a study protocol to adapt RealConsent for use in Vietnam and to test the impact of the adapted program-GlobalConsent-on cognitive/attitudinal/affective mediators, and in turn, on sexual violence perpetration and prosocial bystander behavior. RealConsent is a six-session, web-based educational entertainment program designed to prevent sexual violence perpetration and to enhance prosocial bystander behavior in young men. The program has reduced the incidence of sexual violence among men attending an urban, public university in the Southeastern United States. We used formative qualitative research and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Map of the Adaptation Process to adapt RealConsent. We conducted semi-structured interviews with college men (n =?12) and women (n =?9) to understand the social context of sexual violence. We conducted focus group discussions with university men and stakeholders (n =?14) to elicit feedback on the original program. From these data, we created scripts in storyboard format of the adapted program. We worked closely with a small group of university men to elicit feedback on the storyboards and to refine them for acceptability and production. We are testing the final program-GlobalConsent-in a randomized controlled trial in heterosexual or bisexual freshmen men 18-24?years attending two universities in Hanoi. We are testing the impact of GlobalConsent (n =?400 planned), relative to a health-education attention control condition we developed (n?=?400 planned), on cognitive/attitudinal/affective mediators, prosocial bystander behavior, and sexual violence perpetration. DISCUSSION:This project is the first to test the impact of an adapted, theoretically grounded, web-based educational entertainment program to prevent sexual violence perpetration and to promote prosocial bystander behavior among young men in a middle-income country. If effective, GlobalConsent will have exceptional potential to prevent men's sexual violence against women globally. TRIAL REGISTRATION:U.S. National Library of Medicine Clinicaltrials.gov NCT04147455 on November 1, 2019 (Version 1). Retrospectively registered. Protocol amendments will be submitted to clinicaltrials.gov .

Project description:BACKGROUND:Problematic drinking among emerging adult college students is extensive. Computer-delivered interventions (CDIs) have strong appeal because they can be quickly delivered to large numbers of students. Although they are efficacious in the short term, CDIs are not as efficacious as in-person interventions longer term. This study examined the utility of emailed boosters containing personalized feedback after a CDI to enhance and extend reductions among emerging adult college drinkers. Sex and age were explored as potential moderators. METHODS:Participants were 537 college students (67.4% female) aged 18 to 24 years (M age = 19.65, SD = 1.67) who consumed at least 1 alcoholic drink in the past 2 weeks. They were randomly assigned to CDI-only, CDI + booster email, or an assessment-only control condition, and were assessed up to 9 months postintervention. A booster email with personalized feedback was sent to the CDI + booster email group 2 weeks after completion of the CDI. RESULTS:Moderation findings for age revealed that the booster may be an effective means to strengthen and extend intervention effects for emerging adults who are of legal drinking age. However, effects were negligible for underage drinkers. Although the booster effect for the overall sample demonstrated a trend in the expected direction, it failed to reach significance. Booster effects were not significantly moderated by sex. Intervention effects were not moderated by either age or sex. CONCLUSIONS:The present investigation contributes to a limited body of research on boosters to augment main intervention effects in college drinkers. Our study demonstrated that a brief CDI plus a simple email booster with personalized feedback resulted in significant reductions in drinking outcomes for emerging adults of legal drinking age. Efforts to further develop and refine intervention booster strategies represent a promising future direction to minimize harmful drinking among college students.

Project description:Personalized feedback is a promising self-help for problem gamblers. Such interventions have shown consistently positive results with other addictive behaviours, and our own pilot test of personalized normative feedback materials for gamblers yielded positive findings. The current randomized controlled trial evaluated the effectiveness, and the sustained efficacy, of the personalized feedback intervention materials for problem gamblers.Respondents recruited by a general population telephone screener of Ontario adults included gamblers with moderate and severe gambling problems. Those who agreed to participate were randomly assigned to receive: 1) the full personalized normative feedback intervention; 2) a partial feedback that contained all the feedback information provided to those in condition 1 but without the normative feedback content (i.e., no comparisons provided to general population gambling norms); or 3) a waiting list control condition. The primary hypothesis was that problem gamblers who received the personalized normative feedback intervention would reduce their gambling more than problem gamblers who did not receive any intervention (waiting list control condition) by the six-month follow-up.The study found no evidence for the impact of normative personalized feedback. However, participants who received, the partial feedback (without norms) reduced the number of days they gambled compared to participants who did not receive the intervention. We concluded that personalized feedback interventions were well received and the materials may be helpful at reducing gambling. Realistically, it can be expected that the personalized feedback intervention may have a limited, short term impact on the severity of participants' problem gambling because the intervention is just a brief screener. An Internet-based version of the personalized feedback intervention tool, however, may offer an easy to access and non-threatening portal that can be used to motivate participants to seek further help online or in person.ClinicalTrials.govNCT00578357.

Project description:Background and aims Given the widespread use of cannabis, and the concomitant risks associated with the drug, there is a need to increase the availability of interventions designed to reduce risky cannabis use. One promising intervention in the addictions employs personalized normative feedback to motivate change. Methods A two-arm randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted in which participants who used cannabis in a risky fashion were randomly assigned to one of two groups – those who received an online personalized feedback report in addition to educational materials about risky cannabis use and those who just received the online educational materials. Follow-up assessment occurred at three- and six-months post-randomization. Outcome variables included: number of days cannabis was used in the past 30, risky cannabis use (ASSIST score of four or more), and participant estimates of the proportion of cannabis users among those of the same age and gender. Results A total of 744 participants with risky cannabis use were recruited for the trial using online advertisements. There were no significant differences between intervention and educational materials only groups at three- and six-month follow-ups for the outcome variables, number of days used cannabis in the last 30 (p = 0.927) and proportion of participants engaging in risky cannabis use (p = 0.557). At three and six month follow-ups, participants who received the feedback intervention were more likely than those in the educational materials group to estimate that a larger proportion of people their age and gender did not use cannabis in the last year (p = 0.028). Discussion and conclusion While there was some evidence that the personalized feedback intervention modified normative perceptions about cannabis use, there did not appear to be support for the prediction that the intervention reduced cannabis consumption. Highlights • Personalized feedback intervention for risky cannabis use impacted normative misperceptions compared to educational control• Cannabis use did not appear to change as a result of providing individuals with a personalized feedback intervention

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Preventing College Sexual Victimization by Reducing Hookups: a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Personalized Normative Feedback Intervention.

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