Heavy episodes of alcohol consumption have been noted to negatively impact the health of females. Despite this the majority of alcohol research has employed male subjects. The present secondary prevention study intends to employ a longitudinal design to assess the utility of goal-setting for decreasing female college student's heavy drinking occasions. In addition, related self-regulation variables such as self-efficacy will be assessed to examine concurrent relationships between these variables and to test their utility in predicting future heavy drinking. College females who engage in heavy drinking and express interest in learning about or in changing their drinking will be assessed and randomly assigned to one of 3 goal conditions. Goal conditions include: no goal/assessment; series of proximal goals; distal goal. Subjects assigned to the two active goal conditions will receive feedback concerning their current behavior arid their assigned goal. All subjects will be provided with a list of drinking control strategies. Subjects will be reassessed on self- regulation variables and on drinking behavior at one and two months post goal assignment. Collateral verification data on subject drinking behavior will be assessed at these time points to provide validation of drinking behavior.
