Adapting Interventions for College Student Drinkers

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): College student drinkers have been suggested to fall into two broadly defined categories: sensation-seeking social drinkers, and emotion-coping drinkers. The second group, though smaller, experiences more psychological difficulties and may carry greater risk of alcohol chronicity. The aims of the proposed research are to develop, manualize, and pilot-test an adapted version (DBT-BASICS) of the established Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS) to integrate skills derived from Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT). In preparation for a Phase 2 clinical trial, we will develop DBT-BASICS in accordance with Rounsaville, Carroll, & Onken's (2001) suggestions for treatment development (i.e., a two part study including manual development and a treatment piloting). Accordingly, our project has been divided into two studies; Study 1 will be Manual Development and in Study 2 we will conduct the Pilot-Study. College students will be recruited through the Psychology Human Subject Pool and will complete a screening questionnaire in a mass testing format (N=795 and N=4800 for Studies 1 and 2 respectively). Students positive for heavy drinking and drinking to cope will participate in Study 1 and receive DBTBASICS (N=50) or, Study 2 and be randomly assigned to DBT-BASICS, BASICS, or Attention Control Condition (ACC) (N=300). Based on previous research, it is expected that approximately 9% of the screening sample will meet study criteria and, of those, 70% will consent to study participation. Of the 70%, it is estimated that up to 20% will be lost due to attrition. By screening 795 students for Study 1 and 4800 for Study 2, we will have enough subjects to yield the desired 40 and 240 respective participants. Follow-up assessments will occur at 4 weeks and 3 months. The current project aims meet the strategic planning goals of the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) by developing a brief behavioral intervention and targeting risky drinking among college students. The award would also aid in developing a promising clinical researcher in the areas of ethical, methodological, and clinical research needed to address our growing need for cost-effective, mental health prevention and treatment.