Determining the causal pathways of social and environmental predictors of high-risk alcohol drinking among college students

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Project Summary The purpose of this R15 application is to characterize the broader environmental and social context in which the experience of victimization leads to high-risk alcohol drinking in college populations. The proposed study will allow for a better understanding of the causal pathways between contextual environmental and social exposures and high-risk alcohol use among college students. High-risk alcohol consumption is a serious health problem among college students that leads to many physical, emotional, social, and cognitive consequences, including death. Recently, 38% of college students reported engaging in binge drinking in the last month and 11.4% reporting heavy alcohol use. Alcohol use has been associated with violent victimization, bullying, and discrimination, all of which are contextual social exposures. However, most studies have used study designs and methods that are more vulnerable to bias and few have examined the specific environment or “activity space” in which alcohol use occurs. Since it is likely that the association between the contextual environmental and social exposures and high-risk alcohol drinking varies within certain demographic groups, we will assess whether these relationships differ by gender and by race/ethnicity. Analyses will be performed to better understand the causal pathways between contextual environmental and social predictors and high-risk alcohol use among college students, more specifically mediation by psychosocial factors. To address previous gaps in knowledge the proposed study will use a social-ecological approach that uses innovative methods to collect more accurate temporal and spatial contextual information combined with existing and novel causal inference techniques. We propose the following specific aims: 1) Characterize the activity spaces of college students and examine how they are correlated with contextual environmental and social exposures, and alcohol use behaviors; 2) Examine the direct associations between (a) environmental (i.e., place-based exposures including physical disorder, crime/violence, alcohol outlets, social disorder) and (b) social contexts (i.e., violent victimization, bullying, and discrimination) and high-risk alcohol drinking among college students; and 3) Assess moderation by gender and race/ethnicity and mediation by potential psychosocial variables in the relationship between contextual (a) environmental and (b) social exposures and high-risk alcohol drinking. This research will add to the understanding of the causal pathways between contextual environmental and social predictors and high-risk alcohol drinking among college students and will help elucidate differences by gender and race/ethnicity. This new knowledge will provide information needed to develop appropriate and effective interventions aimed at reducing high-risk alcohol drinking among college students.