College students face unique risk factors for substance use, with alcohol remaining central to mental health concerns, academic stressors, and developmental processes during the transition to young adulthood. While evidence-based strategies (EBSs) for college alcohol prevention exist, a significant gap persists between their availability and successful implementation on campuses. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s College Alcohol Intervention Matrix (CollegeAIM) tool was developed to aid campuses in selecting appropriate EBSs, yet its adoption and effectiveness remain understudied with no peer-reviewed research examining how prevention professionals use or perceive the tool. Therefore, the present study evaluated the CollegeAIM tool from a D&I science perspective, using surveys with student affairs professionals and analysis of strategic planning documents to understand tool usage, professional perceptions, and the extent of CollegeAIM integration in institutional prevention strategies.
The study included 142 student affairs professionals across 23 institutions from a statewide higher education prevention coalition in the Midwest United States. Participants were prevention professionals with variable experience (< 1 to 10+ years) involved in alcohol and substance prevention selection or implementation on their campuses. Data collection involved strategic planning documents (2021-2022) analyzed via basic content analysis and surveys assessing awareness, familiarity, and use of the CollegeAIM tool. All participants rated CollegeAIM tool’s comprehensiveness, helpfulness, and user-friendliness, and completed the Acceptability of Intervention Measure (AIM), Feasibility of Intervention Measure (FIM), and Intervention Appropriateness Measure (IAM) scales to assess their current campus strategies, the CollegeAIM tool, and the evidence-based strategies listed in CollegeAIM. All items rated on a 1-5 scale and analyzed using descriptive statistics.
The results revealed limited awareness and use of the CollegeAIM tool among prevention professionals, with only 18% of participants indicating they or their colleagues had used the tool, and 9% reporting personal use alongside institutional use. Among the 25 participants who had used CollegeAIM, 60% relied on it at least minimally in their evidence-based strategy decision-making process, with the matrices being the most utilized components. All participants rated the CollegeAIM tool components as moderately to very comprehensive, user-friendly, and helpful, and perceived the tool as acceptable and appropriate for alcohol prevention strategy selection. Participants rated the evidence-based strategies listed in CollegeAIM as significantly more acceptable and appropriate than their current campus strategies. Strategic planning analysis revealed that only 13% of institutions explicitly referenced CollegeAIM, yet institutions were implementing an average of 2.52 individual-focused and 3.04 environmental-focused CollegeAIM strategies. However, the majority of planned strategies came from lower effectiveness categories (39% individual-focused, 91% environmental-focused), with no significant differences between CollegeAIM users and non-users in selecting highly effective strategies.
Takeaway: Despite positive user perceptions, the CollegeAIM tool remains underutilized with professionals predominantly selecting lower-effectiveness strategies, highlighting the need for enhanced dissemination, training, and implementation support to bridge the research-to-practice gap in college alcohol prevention.