Reducing Hazardous Alcohol Use in Social Networks using Targeted Intervention

 描述(申请人提供)：酗酒及其相关问题在年轻人中是一个严重的公共卫生问题，居住在校园的大学生表现出最高的危险使用率。高度重视同伴关系的大学环境加剧了成年初期的风险，但还没有为大学生群体开发出利用同伴社交网络来改变酗酒状况的干预方法。社会网络理论认为，对少数杰出的社会网络成员进行经验上有效的干预可以导致整个网络的变化，这是网络中联系的函数。社会学习理论提供了一个补充视角，阐明了网络中行为变化的影响可能发生的具体机制。这项建议的目的是通过减少同龄人社交网络中有影响力的成员的酗酒行为，来确定减少大学生酗酒和酗酒问题的有效性。具体目的是：(1)调查有针对性的短暂动机干预在未接受干预的网络成员中减少酗酒的有效性；(2)确定通过哪些社会影响机制传递干预效果；(3)确定适度干预效果的网络和关系特征；以及(4)调查干预 对参与者网络位置和网络内基于饮酒的选择的影响。在试点工作成功的基础上，住在一个大学校园10个一年级宿舍的一年级学生(N=1280)将在一年的第一个月进行招生和评估。评估将包括行为测量和与同一学年其他学生的网络联系。宿舍将按大小配对，并随机分配到短暂的动机干预(BMI)或自然历史控制(NHC)。使用基线数据，处于中间性中心性前四分位数的重度饮酒参与者(每个干预组中有160名12.5%的参与者)在第一学期中途将收到一次单次BMI，或将作为对照。所有参与者将在基线后5个月和12个月进行跟踪评估，并将在样本中未接受直接干预的其他酗酒者(N=480)中测试干预的间接效果。从社会学习理论衍生出的五个社会影响领域将被考察为传播干预效应的机制，网络亲近度和关系质量将被调查为调节变量。多层次建模将用于评估干预结果，面向随机行为者的建模将用于检查假设的社会影响机制、调解人和网络中的变化。这项研究设计代表了酒精预防干预研究中的大胆一步，并有可能为干预措施的发展提供信息，这些干预措施的影响超出了干预接受者本身。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Heavy alcohol use and its associated problems are a serious public health issue among young adults, with college students residing on campus showing the highest rates of hazardous use. The college environment in which peer relationships are highly valued exacerbates risks seen in emerging adulthood, but intervention approaches that use the peer social network to induce change in heavy drinking have not been developed for college student populations. Social network theory suggests that an empirically effective intervention administered to a minority of prominent social network members can result in change throughout the network as a function of ties in the network. Social learning theory provides a complementary perspective that articulates specific mechanisms through which the influence of behavior change in a network may occur. The objective of this proposal is to establish the efficacy of reducing heavy drinking and alcohol problems in college students by reducing the heavy drinking of influential members in their peer social network. The specific aims are to: (1) investigate the efficacy of targeted Brief Motivational Intervention for reducing heavy drinking in network members who received no intervention; (2) identify the social influence mechanisms through which the intervention effect was conveyed; (3) identify network and relationship features that moderate intervention efficacy; and (4) investigate the intervention effect on participant network position and drinking-based selection within the network. Building from successful pilot work, first-year students (N = 1,280) living in 10 first-year dormitories on one college campus will be enrolled and assessed in the first month of the year. Assessments will include behavioral measures and network ties to other students in the same class year. Dormitories will be paired by size and randomly assigned to a Brief Motivational Intervention (BMI) or Natural History Control (NHC). Using baseline data, heavy drinking participants in the top quartile of betweenness centrality - an indicator of social influence in the network - (n = 160 12.5% of participants in each intervention group) will receive a single session BMI midway through the first academic semester or will serve as controls. Follow-up assessments will be conducted on all participants 5 and 12 months post-baseline and the indirect effect of the intervention will be tested on the other heavy drinkers in the sample (N = 480) who received no direct intervention. Five domains of social influence derived from social learning theory will be investigated as mechanisms of the transmitted intervention effect, and network proximity and relationship quality will be investigated as moderators. Multilevel modeling will be used to evaluate intervention outcomes, and stochastic actor-oriented modeling will be used to examine hypothesized social influence mechanisms, moderators, and changes in the network. This research design represents a bold step in alcohol preventative intervention research and has the potential to inform the development of interventions that have effects beyond the intervention recipients themselves.