Dataset Information

Comparing Alcohol Use of Pre-COVID-Era and COVID-Era Cohorts of Mandated College Student Drinkers.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Studies report mixed findings on the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on college student alcohol consumption. However, the impact of pandemic restrictions on students referred to an intervention following a campus alcohol violation has not yet been studied. The current study examined alcohol use behaviors and perceived drinking norms among mandated student cohorts enrolled in the pre-COVID-19 era (fall 2019) and COVID-19 era (fall 2020).

Method

Participants (N = 228) completed measures focused on alcohol use and associated behaviors. Analytic models controlled for participant age and entailed negative binomial regressions for count outcomes and analyses of covariance for normally distributed continuous outcomes.

Results

COVID-era cohort students reported fewer drinks, pregaming occasions (i.e., drinking before a social occasion such as a sports event), and drinks while pregaming. Frequency of heavy episodic drinking (HED) remained consistent between groups; however, the peak number of drinks during HED was significantly lower in the COVID-era group, as were Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test scores and alcohol-related consequences. Perceived peer norms for frequency and quantity were significantly higher in the COVID-era group. Regression confirmed a significant impact of norms on both frequency and quantity of alcohol use in both cohorts.

Conclusions

Mandated college students during the COVID-19 pandemic consumed less alcohol, engaged in less pregaming, consumed fewer drinks while pregaming, and reported fewer negative alcohol consequences than a cohort from the previous year. In this campus case study of residential students who violate campus alcohol policy, COVID restrictions were associated with reduced overall quantity and risky practices.

SUBMITTER: Wilson SE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9318706 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Comparing Alcohol Use of Pre-COVID-Era and COVID-Era Cohorts of Mandated College Student Drinkers.

Wilson Sayre E SE Feltus Sage R SR Brenman Alison M AM Carey Kate B KB DiBello Angelo M AM Mastroleo Nadine R NR

Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs 20220701 4

<h4>Objective</h4>Studies report mixed findings on the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on college student alcohol consumption. However, the impact of pandemic restrictions on students referred to an intervention following a campus alcohol violation has not yet been studied. The current study examined alcohol use behaviors and perceived drinking norms among mandated student cohorts enrolled in the pre-COVID-19 era (fall 2019) and COVID-19 era (fall 2020).<h4>Method</h4>Participants (<i>N</i> = 22 ...[more]

PMID: 35838424

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Project description:BackgroundIn spring 2020, U.S. universities closed campuses to limit the transmission of COVID-19, resulting in an abrupt change in residence, reductions in social interaction, and in many cases, movement away from a heavy drinking culture. The present mixed-methods study explores COVID-19-related changes in college student drinking. We characterize concomitant changes in social and location drinking contexts and describe reasons attributed to changes in drinking.MethodsWe conducted two studies of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on drinking behavior, drinking context, and reasons for both increases and decreases in consumption among college students. Study 1 (qualitative) included 18 heavy-drinking college students (Mage = 20.2; 56% female) who completed semi-structured interviews. Study 2 (quantitative) included 312 current and former college students who reported use of alcohol and cannabis (Mage = 21.3; 62% female) and who completed an online survey.ResultsIn both studies, COVID-19-related increases in drinking frequency were accompanied by decreases in quantity, heavy drinking, and drunkenness. Yet, in Study 2, although heavier drinkers reduced their drinking, among non-heavy drinkers several indices of consumption increased or remained stable . Both studies also provided evidence of reductions in social drinking with friends and roommates and at parties and increased drinking with family. Participants confirmed that their drinking decreased due to reduced social opportunities and/or settings, limited access to alcohol, and reasons related to health and self-discipline. Increases were attributed to greater opportunity (more time) and boredom and to a lesser extent, lower perceived risk of harm and to cope with distress.ConclusionThis study documents COVID-19-related changes in drinking among college student drinkers that were attributable to changes in context, particularly a shift away from heavy drinking with peers to lighter drinking with family. Given the continued threat of COVID-19, it is imperative for researchers, administrators, and parents to understand these trends as they may have lasting effects on college student drinking behaviors.

Project description:The high levels of problematic drinking in college students make clear the need for improvement in the prediction of problematic drinking. We conducted a laboratory-based experiment that investigated whether implicit measures of alcohol-related associations, self-control, and their interaction predicted drinking. Although a few studies have evaluated self-control as a moderator of the relationship between implicit measures of alcohol-related associations and drinking, this study extended that work by using a previously-validated manipulation that included a more (vs. less) cognitively demanding task and incentive to restrain drinking and by evaluating multiple validated measures of alcohol-related associations. Experimental condition was expected to moderate the relationship between implicit measures of alcohol-related associations and drinking, with a more positive relationship between alcohol-related associations and drinking among participants who completed the more (vs. less) cognitive demanding task. Secondary aims were to evaluate how individual differences in control factors (implicit theories about willpower and working memory capacity) might further moderate those relationships. One hundred and five U.S. undergraduate heavy episodic drinkers completed baseline measures of: drinking patterns, three Implicit Association Tests (evaluating drinking identity, alcohol excite, alcohol approach associations) and their explicit measure counterparts, implicit theories about willpower, and working memory capacity. Participants were randomized to complete a task that was more (vs. less) cognitively demanding and were given an incentive to restrain their drinking. They then completed an alcohol taste test. Results were not consistent with expectations. Despite using a previously validated manipulation, there was no evidence that one condition was more demanding than the other, and none of the predicted interactions reached statistical significance. The findings raise questions about the relation between self-control, implicit measures of alcohol-related associations, and drinking, as well as the conditions under which implicit measures of alcohol-related associations predict alcohol consumption in the laboratory.

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.

Dataset Information

Comparing Alcohol Use of Pre-COVID-Era and COVID-Era Cohorts of Mandated College Student Drinkers.

Objective

Method

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Comparing Alcohol Use of Pre-COVID-Era and COVID-Era Cohorts of Mandated College Student Drinkers.

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