Reducing Hazardous Alcohol Use in Social Networks using Targeted Intervention

 重度酒精使用及其相关问题是年轻人中严重的公共卫生问题，居住在校园内的大学生显示出最高的危险使用率。在大学环境中，同伴关系是高度重视的风险加剧出现在成年期，但干预方法，使用同伴的社会网络，以诱导改变酗酒尚未开发的大学生群体。社会网络理论认为，对少数突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，作为网络中关系的函数。社会学习理论提供了一个互补的视角，阐明了网络中行为变化的影响可能发生的具体机制。该提案的目的是通过减少同龄社交网络中有影响力的成员的大量饮酒来确定减少大学生大量饮酒和酒精问题的功效。具体目标是：（1）调查有针对性的简短动机干预对减少未接受干预的网络成员酗酒的有效性;（2）确定干预效果传达的社会影响机制;（3）确定调节干预效果的网络和关系特征;（4）调查干预 影响参与者网络位置和网络内基于饮酒的选择。从成功的试点工作建设，一年级学生（N = 1,280）住在一个大学校园的10个一年级宿舍将在今年的第一个月注册和评估。评估将包括行为措施和网络关系，以其他学生在同一个班级。宿舍将按大小配对，并随机分配到一个简短的动机干预（BMI）或自然历史控制（NHC）。使用基线数据，重度饮酒的参与者在中间中心的前四分位数-网络中的社会影响力的指标-（n = 160 12.5%的参与者在每个干预组）将接受一个单一的会议BMI中途通过第一个学期或将作为对照。将在基线后5个月和12个月对所有参与者进行随访评估，并将对样本中未接受直接干预的其他重度饮酒者（N = 480）测试干预的间接影响。从社会学习理论衍生的五个社会影响领域将被视为传递干预效应的机制，而网络接近度和关系质量将被视为调节因素。多层次模型将用于评估干预结果，随机行为者导向模型将用于研究假设的社会影响机制，主持人和网络中的变化。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措施接受者本身。

 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.