#BingeDrinking: Using Social Media to Understand College Binge Drinking (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Hazardous drinking among college students persists, despite ongoing university alcohol education and harmful drinking intervention programs. College students often post comments or pictures about drinking episodes on social media platforms. OBJECTIVE We sought to understand the real-time contexts of student drinking that are shown on social media platforms, and to identify opportunities to reduce alcohol-related harms and inform novel alcohol interventions. METHODS We analyzed social media posts from 7 social media platforms using qualitative inductive coding based on grounded theory to identify the contexts of student drinking, and the attitudes and behaviors of students and peers during drinking episodes. We reviewed publicly available social media posts that included references to alcohol, collaborating with undergraduate students at one university to select their most-used platforms and develop locally-relevant search terms. We coded text and visual posts for explicit and implicit alcohol use, classified them as positive, neutral, or negative, and analyzed the frequency of each code. From codes, we derived themes about the student culture around alcohol use. RESULTS A total of 1,151 social media posts was the sample for this study. These included 809 Twitter tweets, 113 Instagram posts, 23 Facebook posts, 8 YouTube posts, 64 Reddit posts, 34 College Confidential posts, and 100 Greek Rank posts. Posts included implicit and explicit portrayal of alcohol use. Across all types of posts reviewed, we found that positive drinking attitudes were most common, followed by negative and then neutral, but valence varied by platform. Posts that portrayed drinking positively received positive peer feedback, and support the idea that drinking is an essential and positive part of student culture. CONCLUSIONS Social media provides a real-time picture of students’ behavior during their own and others’ heavy drinking. Posts portray heavy drinking as a normal part of student culture, reinforced by peers’ positive feedback on posts. Interventions for college drinking should help students manage alcohol intake in real-time, provide safety information during alcohol use, and raise awareness of online privacy concerns and reputation management. Additional interventions for students, alumni, and parents are needed to address the impact of positive attitudes about and traditions of drinking.

Think-aloud testing of a novel safer drinking app for college students during COVID-19 (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Hazardous alcohol consumption, and binge drinking in particular, continues to be common among college students, posing the greatestrisk for their health and safety. Despite widespread exposure to evidence-based preventive interventions among U.S. undergraduates, only modest and temporary effects on risky drinking occur. Formative studies have demonstrated that students want a more engaging intervention tool for risky drinking that can be used “just in time.” OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to test the appeal, relevance, and perceived utility of a draft mobile app for safer student drinking. METHODS Undergraduate student participants tested the draft mobile app via an interactive online prototype with hot spots that responded to their taps to mimic app functionality. They narrated their impressions, navigation, and comments in a standardized Think-Aloud procedure. After each round of Think-aloud interviews, researchers debriefed the investigators and developers to discuss findings and brainstorm app modifications. RESULTS Data indicated that minor changes to the functionality and aesthetics would improve usability of the app. Student testers recommended tailoring the app to the needs of college students and to aspects of the local university’s drinking culture. CONCLUSIONS Findings from this study will be synthesized with information gained from other formative work to determine the final app features. We will test the app in a pilot randomized trial to assess app usage and the impact of the app on college student drinking behavior over several months.

College students’ perspectives on an alcohol prevention programme and student drinking – A focus group study

Aim: While there is considerable research on the efficacy of interventions designed to reduce alcohol consumption and related harms among college students, there is limited research on students’ own perspectives on such interventions. This qualitative study aimed to address this gap by examining college students’ perspectives in the context of an alcohol prevention programme for college students in Ireland. Methods: Focus groups were used as the means of data collection, and participants were selected using purposive sampling based on two criteria – type/location of college and category of student. A total of eight focus groups were conducted at two institutions taking part in the programme. Participants comprised four categories of student: undergraduates, mature students, international students and students who were members of clubs or societies. Results were analysed through the lens of a social-ecological framework. Results: The study findings indicated that students perceived alcohol as being endemic to college life and wider society. As a result, many of the students were sceptical or ambivalent regarding the potential efficacy of alcohol prevention programmes. Despite the perceived pervasiveness of alcohol, the study pointed to heterogeneity in drinking practices among the participants. Moreover, the study participants expressed divergent views when asked whose responsibility it was to control student alcohol consumption. Conclusions: Viewing the findings through a social-ecological lens, students seemed to collectively acknowledge the different layers of influence on student drinking, acknowledging the complex nature of this issue. Providing a greater variety of leisure spaces, including alcohol-free environments, was viewed particularly favourably by the student participants in terms of solutions proposed.

Drinking Behavior Among College Students: Interventions to Increase Mindfulness and Social Capital

The impacts of drinking behaviors are far-reaching, with college student drinking contributing to over 1,500 deaths and an estimated 696,000 assaults on college campuses each year (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism [NIAAA], 2019). There are a variety of explanations to explain why college students engage in risky drinking behaviors. However, there is evidence to suggest that drinking and other substance use may be a result of complex psychological origins, including adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). This paper reviews the literature available on ACEs among college students, how these experiences impact alcohol use among this population, and potential areas for intervention, including those with a focus on mindfulness and social capital.

Drinking Behavior Among College Students: Interventions to Increase Mindfulness and Social Capital

The impacts of drinking behaviors are far-reaching, with college student drinking contributing to over 1,500 deaths and an estimated 696,000 assaults on college campuses each year (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism [NIAAA], 2019). There are a variety of explanations to explain why college students engage in risky drinking behaviors. However, there is evidence to suggest that drinking and other substance use may be a result of complex psychological origins, including adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). This paper reviews the literature available on ACEs among college students, how these experiences impact alcohol use among this population, and potential areas for intervention, including those with a focus on mindfulness and social capital.