The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a web-based motivational feedback intervention targeted towards students who are turning 21 in the following week. The intervention was designed to help students have a fun and safe 21st birthday experience and provides information about students blood alcohol levels, problems that may be experienced at different drinking levels, and tips for how to stay safe while celebrating among other components. 

The purpose of this study was to collect information on what students experience when they drink alcohol and what their thoughts about those experiences are. We were trying to develop new ways of understanding what students experience, which include both positive and negative experiences related to alcohol. Information gathered from this project will be used in a larger study examining college students' daily experiences and the relationship with alcohol.

A collaborative study between University of Washington and several other college campuses in the US, comparing different implementation strategies of alcohol preventive interventions for college students, such as web - or self-help journal formats, group or individual administration, mandatory attendance vs. voluntary attendance. The project also compared commercially available and university-based prevention interventions.

Preparing for mass testing that's designed to investigate the prevalence of alcohol related sexual aggression on campus, and study the presence of normative misperceptions regarding such behaviors. This is the pilot study for a personalized feedback intervention study targeted at reducing alcohol related sexual aggression.

The purpose of this project was to evaluate mechanisms of action for the efficacy of a web-based personalized feedback intervention aimed to reduce high-risk drinking and risky sexual behavior. The specific mechanisms evaluated included social norms and protective behavioral strategies.

Our goal with this pilot project is to understand the experiences students have during drinking events, how to best ask those questions, and to run a small pilot evaluating those measures in a daily event-level study spanning two weeks.  This study will collect pilot data to support a larger R01 grant application in the future. The goal of our planned research program is to use an event-level perspective to examine the influence of negative and positive consequences on subsequent expectancies and drinking behavior, the role of situational and contextual factors on expectancies, and factors associated with the ways in which drinkers incorporate different drinking experiences into future expectations.

Specific aims of the present pilot study include:

1) Pilot test a measure of expectancies, drinking, and consequences using cognitive interviewing, specifically aimed at assessing comprehension and question interpretation.

2) Implement a pilot study in which a small sample of college students complete the piloted measure daily for two weeks to assess the feasibility of collecting daily reports of alcohol use, consequences, and expectancies.

In order to meet legislative guild lines, the Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse (DASA) contracts with the CSHRB to prepare an evaluation plan for the problem gambling (PG) treatment program.  The project included:

1) Completing a literature review

2) Reviewing existing problem gambling treatment programs in Washington State 

3) Designing a full PG evaluation that DASA can complete in the future.

The overall objective of this NIAAA R21 Exploratory/Developmental application is to examine the feasibility of using experience sampling methodologies (ESM) to identify cognitive and emotional risk factors for problem drinking in an at-risk population, female sexual abuse and assault victims. Young adulthood is a period of high risk for both sexual assault and high risk drinking. Moreover, sexual assault is a risk factor for increases in problem drinking as well as alcohol use disorders comorbid with PTSD. The self-medication hypothesis has been proposed as an explanation for this comorbidity, whereupon problem drinking develops as an attempt to modulate negative affect and ameliorate PTSD symptoms. This study proposes using the experience sampling method to better refine our understanding of the temporal relations between PTSD, negative affect, and alcohol use.

This was a 3-year project which started in the spring of 2005. The focus of the project was to see if we can influence the drinking behavior of college-bound high school athletes by enhancing the influence of their parents and/or by introducing them to college student athletes who will serve as peer counselors to provide a brief motivational feedback intervention. This project was a collaborative study between University of Washington and Pennsylvania State University.

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the efficacy of a personalized feedback intervention for marijuana use in:

1) Reducing the prevalence of marijuana use and related harm, and

2) Delaying the onset of initiation of marijuana use among emerging adults during the transition to university. Data collection for this study is now over.

A dissertation study looking at alcohol use and alcohol-related problems among diverse youth, specifically looking at protective factors and factors that will be important in intervention development. The study involved three phases:

Phase 1 included assessment in a Seattle public school and a Seattle Independent school; Phases 2 and 3 included assessment in participants' homes. Currently, the study was recruiting participants as well as preparing for focus groups to be conducted before initiating Phase 1.

The purpose of this research was to evaluate domain specificity of problem gambling in two ways:

1) Similarities and differences among three types of gambling activities and

2) Similarities and differences between gambling and alcohol use. Both types of specificity were evaluated with respect to physiological and self-reported arousal in response to cue exposure.

This study examined the effects of racial identity and substance use on multiracial college students. During fall quarter, we prepared the human subjects application and program the online survey using DatStat Illume to prepare for data collection that began winter quarter.

SNAP is a five year project designed to evaluate the efficacy of web-based personalized normative feedback in correcting normative misperceptions and problem drinking. We are also interested in whether normative feedback is more powerful when it is based on same-sex peers, and whether this is equally true for men and women. This is the third year of this project and tasks will focus largely on participant mailings and recruitment.

The broad, long-term objective of this research is to reduce alcohol use and related negative health, social, and legal consequences in high-risk populations of college students through implementation and evaluation of effective, low-cost individual interventions.  First year students are considered to be at an elevated risk for excessive alcohol consumption and related consequences.  Research suggests that students on average increase their alcohol consumption upon entrance to college.  Furthermore, traditional freshman (aged 17-19) are at a heightened risk of experiencing drinking related consequences compared to upper-classmen and non-traditional freshman.  This study was designed to be an effectiveness trial of institutionalized interventions for first year college students and to evaluate their feasibility on a larger scale.