Risky alcohol consumption among college students continues to be widespread public health concern in university-served areas throughout the United States. Consequences of harmful alcohol use are well documented, spanning may aspects of physical and mental health, and affecting numerous outcomes related to academic performance, safety, etc. Protective behavioral strategies are sets of proactive techniques utilized to attenuate or eliminate unwanted or harmful behaviors, with alcohol use being a common example. This study investigates how college students prepare and implement protective behavioral strategies (PBS) for alcohol consumption.
The study’s sample consists of 189 college students from recruited via a registrar-based system at a large university in the Northwestern United States (N=189, 46.68% female, mean age= 20.16 years). Eligibility criteria included reporting alcohol consumption at least twice per week during previous month and binge drinking once in the previous two weeks. Participants completed daily surveys related to alcohol use and PBS planning/use for 8 weekends (defined as Thursday-Sunday), in addition to four random non-weekend days over the 8-week timespan. The following variables were measured in the battery of surveys: drinking behaviors yesterday, protective behavioral strategy use yesterday, PBS plans, and drinking intentions. The data was analyzed using generalized estimating equations and multilevel linear regressions.
Results of the study found that the planning of PBS concerning limiting/stopping alcohol consumption was significantly related to the implementation of those strategies. In addition, increased drinking intentions were associated with greater use of limiting/stopping PBS. These findings were similar for PBS subtypes concerning manner of drinking and harm reduction, with the exception being that no association was found between manner of drinking and drinking intentions.
Takeaway: college student use of PBS may vary according to how a student plans to drink (example: intentions to drink more resulted in greater use of harm reduction strategies). The implementation of planned PBS was found to be prevalent, and efforts to improve and refine these types of strategies may offer additional benefits to students at risk for alcohol-related harm.