The College-to-Work Transition & Alcohol Misuse: An Etiologic Study

描述（由申请人提供）：尽管近年来美国大学生的酗酒问题受到了很大的关注，但人们对那些毕业后从事这种行为的人的情况知之甚少。传统观点认为，职业和家庭利益促使毕业生“成熟”，因此，学生一毕业，酗酒的频率就急剧下降。最近的几项研究表明，这种“成熟”的过程可能会越来越延迟，在大学里酗酒的40%的学生中，有三分之一以上在毕业后仍然表现良好。考虑到大多数大学生正是在21岁到24岁之间， 这些数字表明，许多应届毕业生在第一次进入全职工作岗位时，可能会带来这样的模式， (C2W)过渡期-向成年过渡的一个关键阶段-可能是进行干预的一个关键点。然而，人们对可能成为复原力轨迹或持续滥用的基础的保护性和风险因素知之甚少，更不了解这些因素如何相互作用，以影响转型期的人在何时可能面临最大风险。这些知识对于制定有效的干预措施至关重要，这些干预措施可以从战略上提高恢复能力的可能性，并降低那些风险最高的人（即那些在大学滥用酒精的人）持续滥用的风险。因此，拟议的研究将是第一个确定风险和 保护性因素的轨迹保持滥用，促进更有效的，基于证据的干预措施的发展，解决特定需要的风险大学毕业生（ARG），一个高风险群体，已在很大程度上被酒精学者忽视。报告也将从非风险毕业生（NARG）收集。一项在线自我报告调查将分发给美国四所主要大学的毕业生，以确定幸福感和饮酒行为。随后的调查将在毕业后以及求职和就业期间进行。该队列将在毕业后进行长达四年的随访。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Although much attention in recent years has been paid to the problem of binge drinking among college students in the United States, little is known about what happens to those engaging in such behavior after they graduate. Conventional wisdom suggests that career and family interests motivate graduates to "mature", and that as a result, the frequency of heavy drinking declines dramatically as soon as students graduate. Several recent studies suggest that this "maturing out" process may be increasingly delayed, and that over one third of the 40 percent of students abusing alcohol in college continue to do so well after graduation. Given that it is precisely between the ages of 21 to 24 that most college grads enter the workforce, these numbers suggest that many recent grads may bring such patterns with them as they enter the fulltime jobs for the first time, and that the college to work (C2W) transition-a key phase in the transition to adulthood- may be a critical point to intervene. However, little is known about the protective and risk factors that might alternatively underlie trajectories of resiliency or maintained misuse, no less about how these factors may interact to influence who and when those in transition might be most at risk. Such knowledge is critical to the development of efficacious interventions that may strategically boost the likelihood of resilience, and lower the risk of maintained misuse among those most at risk, namely those misusing alcohol in college. Thus, the proposed research will be the first to identify the risk and protective factors underlying trajectories of maintained misuse, facilitating the development of more effective, evidence-based interventions addressing the specific need of at-risk college graduates (ARGs), a high-risk group that has been largely neglected by alcohol scholars. Reporting will be also being collected from non-at-risk graduates (NARGs). An online self-report survey will be distributed to graduating seniors at four major US universities to determine wellbeing and drinking behavior. Subsequent surveys will be delivered after graduation and during the job search and employment. The cohort will be followed up to four years after graduation.