An Incentive Approach to Reduce Alcohol Abuse At Parties

这项为期两年的研究计划延续了我们十多年来为减少大学生酗酒所做的努力。我们已经测试了各种理论驱动的干预措施，包括a）教育学生关于他们对同龄人饮酒规范的高估，B）向兄弟会聚会的主持人教授服务器干预，c）在聚会环境中提供BAC反馈，d）在兄弟会聚会上布置摊位，以说明过度饮酒的负面后果，以及e）教参加聚会的人简单的表演游戏，他们可以用在自己和别人身上，以估计他们是否受到太大的损害而不能开车。虽然其中一些干预措施影响了自我报告的酒精消费量和随之而来的负面结果的显着减少，但没有一个干预措施影响了缔约方实际血液酒精浓度（BAC）的显着减少。这项拟议中的研究采取了一种完全不同的、直接的方法来减少兄弟会派对上的过度饮酒。我们基于强化理论和控制饮酒对这种方法进行了试点测试，结果显示效果显著。具体来说，我们建议测试的激励/奖励技术全面降低平均BAC在两个兄弟会党显着0.063（n=86）和0.056（n=91），分别从基线平均值0.092（n=96）和0.102（n=83）在两个先前的党举行的同一兄弟会。此外，激励/奖励干预将合法醉酒（BAC等于或大于0.08）的派对参与者数量从两个基线派对的52（54.2%）和52（62.7%）减少到两个干预派对的26（30.2%）和20（22%）。激励/奖励干预只是让参加聚会的人，如果他或她的BAC（在晚上11：30到凌晨12：30之间测量）低于0.05，就可以参加100美元的现金抽奖。前测后测组随机试验方法（默里，1998年）提出，以证明一个特定的干预方案将是有效的，在一些随机选择的兄弟会。拟议的研究还评估了是否重复暴露于具有激励/奖励偶然性的聚会，以将BAC保持在0.05以下，可以改变关于聚会饮酒的社会规范，并导致长期维持兄弟会聚会的醉酒程度降低。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This two-year research proposal continues our attempts for over a decade to reduce alcohol abuse among university students. We have tested a variety of theory-driven interventions, including a) educating students about their overestimation of peer drinking norms, b) teaching server intervention to the hosts of fraternity parties, c) providing BAC feedback in party settings, d) manning booths at fraternity parties to illustrate negative consequences of excessive alcohol consumption, and e) teaching partygoers simple performance games they can use on themselves and others to estimate whether they are too impaired to drive. Although some of these interventions influenced a significant reduction in self-reported alcohol consumption and concomitant negative outcomes, none influenced a significant reduction in actual blood alcohol concentration (BAC) at parties. The proposed research takes a completely different and straightforward approach to reducing excessive alcohol consumption at fraternity parties. Our pilot testing of this approach, based on theories of reinforcement and controlled drinking, showed remarkable effects. Specifically, the incentive/reward technique we propose to test comprehensively reduced mean BAC at two fraternity parties significantly to .063 (n=86) and .056 (n=91), respectively from baseline means of .092 (n=96) and .102 (n=83) at two prior parties held by the same fraternity. Moreover, the incentive/reward intervention reduced the number of partygoers who were legally drunk (BAC equal to or greater than .08) from 52 (54.2 percent) and 52(62.7 percent) at the two baseline parties to 26 (30.2 percent) and 20 (22 percent) at the two intervention parties. The incentive/reward intervention simply enabled partygoers to enter a $100 cash raffle if his or her BAC, measured between the hours of 11:30pm and 12:30am, was below .05. Pretest-posttest group randomized trial methodology (Murray, 1998) is proposed to demonstrate that a particular intervention package will be effective across a number of randomly selected fraternities. The proposed research also evaluates whether repeated exposures to parties with an incentive/reward contingency to hold BAC below .05 can change social norms with regard to party drinking and lead to long-term maintenance of lowered intoxication at fraternity parties.