Although the overall rates of college student drinking appear to have declined slightly since 1980, evidence suggests that more extreme forms of drinking are escalating. Given the recent """"""""Call to Action"""""""" issued by NIAAA detailing the widespread negative consequences associated with college student alcohol use, programs that target general excessive drinking in college students are clearly warranted. Expectancy challenge approaches have been identified as one proven method of applying expectancy theory to reduce alcohol use among college students. In several studies, the expectancy challenge procedure has been shown to successfully change participant's expectancies regarding the effects of alcohol and significantly reduced subsequent alcohol use. However, these challenge studies were based on a multiple-session format and have been primarily focused on male drinkers. The purpose of the present study is to develop a single-session version of the expectancy challenge and demonstrate the effectiveness of the intervention in reducing drinking among heavy drinking males and females at a large state university. In addition to successfully extending this intervention approach to females, the other benefit of the present study is that it has the potential to translate an empirically validated intervention into a strategy that could be widely applied to campuses worldwide by those responsible for addressing alcohol-related problems.
| Lau-Barraco, Cathy; Dunn, Michael E (2008) Evaluation of a single-session expectancy challenge intervention to reduce alcohol use among college students. Psychol Addict Behav 22:168-75 |
