Changes in Parent-Student Text Message and Phone Call Communication During the Transition to College as Predictors of Cannabis and Simultaneous Use During the First Year.

Parent communication can be protective against cannabis use among young adults. However, changes in parent-student communication frequency naturally occur during the transition from high school to college. Recent research suggests declines in parent-student communication frequency predict increased drinking and consequences during the first year of college, yet these effects on other risky behaviors are unknown. The current study investigated whether post-matriculation changes in frequency of texting/calling with parents predict cannabis use and simultaneous use of cannabis and alcohol, and whether pre-matriculation cannabis and simultaneous use predict changes in communication. First-year students (N = 287, 61.3% female, 50.9% White) reported cannabis and simultaneous use pre- and post-matriculation (T1 & T3) and changes in frequency of texting/calling their mother/father per day (T2). Negative binomial hurdle models examined whether T2 changes in communication frequency predicted T3 cannabis and simultaneous use, and logistic regression models examined whether T1 cannabis and simultaneous use predicted T2 changes in communication frequency. Results revealed that increasing (vs. decreasing) frequency of calling with mothers and texting with fathers was protective against cannabis use, whereas increasing frequency of calling with fathers was associated with greater risk of use. Changes in communication did not significantly predict simultaneous use, nor did pre-matriculation cannabis or simultaneous use predict changes in either mode of communication with parents during the college transition. These findings highlight that changes in mother and father communication may be both beneficial and detrimental to cannabis use depending on the parent and mode of communication. Implications for these findings are discussed.

Text Messages Conveying Parent Drinking Limits: A Potential Avenue for Preventing and Reducing Alcohol Use in College Students.

OBJECTIVE: Although previous research has established that students who perceive that their parents have lower drinking limits consume less alcohol, optimal approaches for effectively communicating these limits are less understood. To address this gap in the literature, the present study examined the effects of hypothetical limit-focused text messages on estimated drinking behavior. METHOD: Undergraduate college students (N=253) completed an online survey in which they were instructed to imagine a scenario where they were planning to go out at night to an event involving drinking. Participants were randomly assigned to a condition where they would receive one of four hypothetical text messages from their mother and/or father containing a range of drinking limits. They were then asked to report how much alcohol they would realistically consume on this night if they were and were not obligated to check in with their parent at the end of the night. RESULTS: Hypothetical text messages from mothers and fathers containing lower drinking limits resulted in lower estimated alcohol consumption. A drinking limit of zero resulted in the least amount of expected alcohol consumption but specifying 1-2 drinks as a limit might produce a similar effect if parents also required their student to check-in at the end of the night. CONCLUSION: Findings from this study provide initial support for future studies to investigate the effects of limit setting text messages sent from parents on college student drinking, as well as the effects of text messages sent from parents requiring that students check-in.

Process Evaluation and Investigation of Cultural Adaptations for an Online Parent-Based Intervention Using a Mixed-Method Approach.

Most alcohol intervention research focuses on program efficacy, yet few studies have investigated the acceptability of a program's design and implementation to the target population or adapting existing alcohol interventions to different populations. To address these gaps in the literature, we (1) examined participant responsiveness to and implementation quality of FITSTART+, a web-app delivered parent-based alcohol intervention designed for incoming first-year college students in the United States, and (2) gathered feedback on how this intervention could be adapted to other populations of parents. A sample of U.S. parents of 17-20-year-old first-year college students (N = 109) participated in FITSTART+ during their child's first year of college and completed a survey about parents' responsiveness to the app and its quality. Next, a sample of non-U.S. parents of adolescents aged 13 to 19 (N = 44) participated in one of 11 focus groups in which they briefly explored the app and then discussed how it could be adapted to be applicable and culturally relevant for them and their context. Results revealed that U.S. parents rated the intervention's quality as high and parents were responsive to the web-app's content, but some did not visit one of the most critical aspects of the intervention (i.e., alcohol-related parenting resources). Non-U.S. participants provided a range of suggestions for adapting the intervention to their context, which varied by culture. Results identify areas for improvement, particularly regarding the use of alcohol-related parenting resources, in this intervention and for web-delivered PBIs more broadly.

Effects of the FITSTART + PBI on drinking and negative alcohol-related consequences during the first year of college.

Objective: This study evaluated FITSTART+, a parent-based intervention (PBI), for preventing risky drinking among first-year college students. Participants: Participants were traditional first-year students aged between 17 and 20. Method: In total, 391 eligible students completed a baseline survey and their parents were then invited to use the FITSTART+ PBI or Control web-applications. 266 students had a parent who created a profile in the app (FITSTART+ PBI, n = 134; FITSTART+ Control, n = 132). Additionally, 58 parents randomized to the FITSTART+ PBI did not complete the personalized normative feedback (PNF) component of the intervention. Results: No significant effect on drinking or related consequences was detected between Intervention and Control groups. However, exploratory analyses revealed that completing PNF in the FITSTART+ PBI condition was associated with a greater likelihood of remaining zero on consequences at follow-ups. Conclusion: The PNF component of the FITSTART+ PBI showed potential in preventing risky drinking, warranting further research.

Do Changes in Parent-Student Phone Call and Text Message Communication During the Transition to College Predict First-Year Drinking and Consequences? A Prospective Study.

OBJECTIVE: We examined (a) whether changes in parent-student phone call and text messaging communication during the transition into college are associated with alcohol use and related consequences, and (b) whether pre-matriculation drinking patterns predicted these changes in parent-student communication. METHOD: First-year students (n = 246; M age [SD] = 17.91 [0.39] years; 61.8% female) participated in a longitudinal survey study as a part of a larger study. Before matriculation (Time 0), participants reported their drinking and whether they experienced alcohol consequences in the past 30 days. Approximately 1 month into their first semester (Time 1), participants reported if the frequency of their calling and texting their parents had decreased, remained the same, or increased since the start of college. Drinking and consequences were then reassessed 4 months later (Time 2). Analytic models evaluated (a) whether a decrease in calling and texting parents, as reported by students (compared with an increase or no change), predicted drinking outcomes, and (b) whether pre-college drinking (compared with nondrinking) predicted changes in communication. RESULTS: Changes in phone calls and texting with mothers and fathers during the first month of college predicted alcohol use and consequences into the second semester. In addition, heavy drinking predicted lower odds of texting frequency with mothers staying the same or increasing. CONCLUSIONS: This study underscores that consistent call or text communication with students during their transition into college could serve as a protective factor against alcohol risk. By closely monitoring such communication, parents may be better equipped to identify potential signs of risky drinking behavior in their first-year students.

An examination of the associations between depressive symptoms, perceived parental discipline, alcohol use, and drinking-related consequences during the first year of college: A moderated mediation model.

Background: Depression is prevalent among adolescents and young adults and is associated with experiencing increased negative alcohol-related consequences; thus, it is imperative to identify malleable protective factors for alcohol risks in young adults experiencing elevated depressive symptoms. The current study longitudinally explored the effects of perceived parental alcohol-related discipline on the relationship between depressive symptoms, alcohol use, and negative drinking consequences during the transition into college. Methods: Incoming college students (N = 272, 63.2% female) completed web-based surveys before (July, T1) and after (October, T2) the transition into college and reported depressive symptoms, perceived alcohol-related discipline, alcohol use, and consequences of drinking experienced in the past 30 days. Results: The moderated mediation model revealed that at above average perceptions of alcohol-related discipline, depressive symptoms were negatively associated with alcohol use, which in turn was associated with experiencing fewer negative consequences of drinking. Limitations: The current study did not measure a diagnosis of major depressive disorder, and therefore our results may differ among clinical populations. In addition, we did not measure other parenting constructs shown to protect students with elevated levels of depressive symptoms from experiencing consequences (i.e., monitoring). Conclusions: The present findings suggest perceptions of parental alcohol-related discipline measured here (e.g., having a privilege taken away, being scolded or grounded) can be protective against alcohol risks among college students experiencing above average depressive symptoms. Parent-based alcohol interventions administered prior to matriculation should encourage parents of depressed students to clearly communicate consequences for drinking to their child.

"Let's Not Talk About It": Parents' Reasons for Not Discussing Alcohol Use With Emerging Adult Children.

PURPOSE: It is unclear why parents avoid discussing alcohol use with their emerging adult (EA) children. Understanding parents' reasons for not communicating could inform parent-based interventions (PBIs) aimed at encouraging constructive discussions. The current study adds to the literature by examining common reasons parents avoid discussing alcohol use with their EA children. METHODS: Parents of EAs completed a web-based survey that included items assessing reasons for not communicating about alcohol, as well as measures of alcohol communication intentions, parenting self-efficacy, relationship quality, and interest in participating in an alcohol PBI. RESULTS: Results from the Exploratory Factor Analysis revealed five core reasons why parents do not communicate about alcohol: (1) they lack the skills or resources to communicate; (2) they believe their child is a nondrinker; (3) they believe their child is an independent, trustworthy decision maker; (4) they can teach their child how to drink through modeling; (5) they believe communication is futile. Believing that an EA could and should make their own alcohol decisions was the most common reason for not communicating. In multivariate analyses, this reason for not communicating was associated with greater levels of parental self-efficacy and perceiving a child to drink less alcohol. Further, this reason for not communicating was associated with lower intentions to communicate about drinking and less interest in taking part in a PBI. DISCUSSION: Most parents reported barriers to communication. Understanding why parents are reluctant to discuss alcohol use could inform PBI efforts.

A Comparison of Parents' and Students' Reports of General and Alcohol-Specific Parenting Behaviors Across the Four Years of College.

OBJECTIVE: Whether college students' reports of their parents' behaviors are as reliable a predictor of student drinking as their parents' own reports remains an open question and a point of contention in the literature. To address this, the current study examined concordance between college student and mother/father reports of the same parenting behaviors relevant to parent-based college drinking interventions (relationship quality, monitoring, and permissiveness), and the extent to which student and parental reports differed in their relation to college drinking and consequences. METHOD: The sample consisted of 1,429 students and 1,761 parents recruited from three large public universities in the United States (814 mother-daughter, 563 mother-son, 233 father-daughter, and 151 father-son dyads). Students and their parents were each invited to complete four surveys over the course of the students' first 4 years of college (one survey per year). RESULTS: Paired samples t tests revealed that parental reports of parenting constructs were typically more conservative than student reports. Intraclass correlations revealed moderate associations between parental and student reports on relationship quality, general monitoring, and permissiveness. The associations between parenting constructs and drinking and consequences were also consistent when using parental and student reports of permissiveness. Results were generally consistent for all four types of dyads, and at each of the four time points. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, these findings provide additional support for the use of student reports of parental behaviors as a valid proxy of parents' actual reports and as a reliable predictor of college student drinking and consequences.

A randomized controlled trial of an online alcohol and sexual risk prevention program for college students studying abroad.

INTRODUCTION: American college students who study abroad experience increases in their drinking behavior, concerning risky sexual behaviors, and high rates of sexual violence while abroad. Despite these concerns, institutions offer limited programming to students prior to departure to address these risks and no empirically supported interventions currently exist that are targeted toward preventing increased drinking, risky sexual behavior, and sexual violence abroad. To help address alcohol and sexual risk abroad, we designed a brief, single-session online predeparture intervention focused on risk and protective factors known to associate with alcohol and sexual risk abroad. METHODS: Using a sample of 650 college students from 40 home institutions, we conducted a randomized controlled trial of the intervention and tested its effects on drinking (drinks per week, binge drinking frequency, alcohol related-consequences), risky sexual behaviors, and sexual violence victimization during the trip abroad (first month, last month abroad) and one-month and three-months after return home. RESULTS: We observed small, but nonsignificant, intervention effects on drinks per week and binge drinking days during the first month abroad and three months after they had returned home to the United States, and small, significant effects on risky sexual behaviors during the first month abroad. The study found no observable effects at any time point for alcohol-related consequences or for sexual violence victimization abroad. CONCLUSIONS: Though mostly nonsignificant, small initial intervention effects were promising in this first empirical test of an alcohol and sexual risk prevention program for study abroad students. However, students may need more intensive programming with booster sessions to experience lasting intervention effects during this particularly high-risk period. GOV IDENTIFIER: NCT03928067.

"Follow my Finsta": Drinking trajectories in relation to auxiliary Instagram accounts.

OBJECTIVE: This study explored the burgeoning youth practice of possessing a fake, secondary Instagram account known as a "Finsta" in relation to exposure to alcohol-related content and college drinking. PARTICIPANTS: First-year university students with at least a primary Instagram account (N = 296) completed online surveys. METHOD: Surveys assessed whether participants did or did not have a Finsta pre-matriculation (T1), Instagram alcohol content exposure one month into college (T2), and alcohol use at T1 and near the end of the first year (T3). RESULTS: Moderated mediation analysis revealed that having a Finsta at T1 was associated with greater exposure to alcohol-related posts at T2 and, for male but not female students, predicted heavier drinking at T3. CONCLUSION: Findings are consistent with previous results suggesting that males may be more behaviorally impacted by peers' depictions of alcohol use on social media. This carries implications for social media-based intervention efforts targeting first-year students.

Sexual violence victimization among American college students studying abroad.

Objective: Research has just begun to identify American college students who study abroad as a group at-risk for sexual violence victimization. The purpose of the current study was to examine the context of these incidents. Participants: We utilized a large longitudinal sample of 2,428 United States college students studying abroad for between 4 and 21 weeks in 12 different foreign countries. Methods: We estimated descriptive statistics and logistic regression models to assess prevalence and correlates of sexual victimization abroad, as well as effect size comparisons to quantify changes in drinking abroad. Results: Over one-fifth of students experienced sexual violence while abroad, including sexual assault and verbal coercion. Women, younger students, those who experienced sexual violence prior, and heavier drinkers had the greatest odds of sexual violence victimization abroad. Conclusions: Findings point to the need for evidence-based programming to reduce sexual violence risk among American college students studying in foreign countries.

Injunctive and descriptive normative feedback for college drinking prevention: Is the whole greater than the sum of its parts?

OBJECTIVE: Single-component personalized normative feedback (PNF) interventions and multicomponent personalized feedback interventions (PFI) have been shown to reduce alcohol consumption among college students. The present study compared the efficacy of PNF interventions targeting descriptive norms alone (descriptive PNF), injunctive norms alone (injunctive PNF), or their combination (combined PNF), against a multicomponent PFI and an attention control condition. METHOD: Undergraduates (N = 1,137) across two universities who reported a minimum of one past-month episode of heavy episodic drinking (i.e., 4 +/5 + drinks on a single occasion for females/males) completed assessments at baseline and 3, 6, and 12 months postintervention. RESULTS: Relative to the attention control, participants in each of the four intervention conditions showed greater reductions in perceived descriptive/injunctive norms, total drinks per week, and alcohol-related consequences. Peak estimated blood alcohol concentration was also reduced in the injunctive PNF, combined PNF, and multicomponent PFI conditions, with the latter two conditions showing an advantage for duration of effects. The multicomponent PFI condition also evidenced greater reductions than the injunctive PNF in descriptive norms at 3-month and injunctive norms at 6- and 12-month follow-ups. No other group comparisons on any outcome were significant. CONCLUSIONS: Each intervention has merit for use in college student harm reduction efforts. Single-component or combined PNF could be considered a potential starting point, as PNF is less burdensome than a multicomponent PFI when considering ease and length of delivery. Results can inform optimization of norms-based interventions and guide recommendations on efficacious components for reducing alcohol use and harms on college campuses. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Capturing the bigger picture: A gestalt of general and alcohol-specific social media usage during the transition to college as a predictor of first-year alcohol use and consequences.

Previous research has shown a reliable association between social media (SM) use and drinking among college students. However, most studies have investigated SM behaviors (e.g., time spent on a platform, posting frequency) in isolation and on a single site. While some have studied multiple SM behaviors across platforms using person-centered approaches (e.g., latent profile analysis [LPA]), these studies have failed to take alcohol-related SM behaviors into account. This longitudinal study addressed this gap in the literature by using LPA to identify subpopulations of SM users during the college transition (N = 319; 62.1% female) using general (frequency of checking, time spent on, and frequency of posting to Instagram/Facebook/Snapchat; Finstagram ownership) and alcohol-related SM behaviors (posting alcohol, partying, and marijuana content). LPA results revealed three SM user profiles at baseline: low general use with low alcohol-related posting (LGU + LAP), high general use with low alcohol-related posting (HGU + LAP), and high general use with high alcohol-related posting (HGU + HAP). Prospective analyses revealed that HGU + HAP membership was associated with greater descriptive peer drinking norms, alcohol use, and consequences relative to HGU + LAP and LGU + LAP membership. Results suggest that there are distinct patterns of general and alcohol-related SM use during the college transition associated with risky drinking that can inform interventions combating SM-related alcohol risks. These findings illustrate the importance of investigating SM use holistically and suggests studying alcohol-related SM behaviors may reveal differences in individuals' alcohol risk that general SM behaviors might not capture.

Taking alcohol from one's parents' home without permission as a risk factor for greater alcohol and marijuana use during the transition into college.

While adolescents and underage emerging adults typically obtain alcohol from social sources (e.g., parents, friends, parties), taking alcohol from the home without permission is not well understood. The current study investigated plausible individual characteristics associated with taking alcohol from one's parents' home without permission and associations between taking alcohol and drinking, alcohol consequences, and marijuana use. Two cohorts of alcohol-experienced underage emerging adults (N = 562) completed a web-based survey pre-college matriculation. Participants reported sources of alcohol (friend, mother, father, party, took it from home); drinking; consequences; marijuana use (ever and past 30 days); age of alcohol initiation; symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress; parental modeling of drinking; and demographic information. Results revealed that taking alcohol was significantly associated with several of the measures examined here (e.g., having obtained alcohol from friends, parents, and parties; earlier age of alcohol initiation; parental modeling of alcohol). Having taken alcohol from the home without permission and obtained it from friends were uniquely associated with increased odds of typical weekly drinking, consequences, and marijuana use in the past 30 days when controlling for all other variables assessed in this study (including drinking, in the consequences and marijuana models). Parent-based interventions targeting adolescents and emerging adults should inform parents of the risks associated with taking alcohol from the home and obtaining it from friends. Further, parents should also be informed that supplying their adolescent with alcohol or modeling drinking may increase the likelihood that they take alcohol from their home.

Systematic Bias in Self-Reported Social Media Use in the Age of Platform Swinging: Implications for Studying Social Media Use in Relation to Adolescent Health Behavior.

Public health researchers are increasingly interested in the potential relationships between social media (SM) use, well-being, and health behavior among adolescents. However, most research has assessed daily SM time via self-report survey questions, despite a lack of clarity around the accuracy of such reports given the current tendency of youth to access SM on multiple electronic devices and cycle between multiple SM platforms on a daily basis (i.e., platform swinging). The current study investigates the potential for systematic reporting biases to skew findings. Three hundred and twenty incoming college students downloaded software on their computers, tablets, and smartphones to track their active use of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat over a 2-week surveillance period and then self-reported their average daily minutes on each platform immediately after. Larger proportions of students over-estimated than under-estimated their use, with the largest overestimations found on the most heavily used platforms. Females logged significantly more SM time and were less accurate in reporting than were males and, independently, the likelihood of substantial inaccuracies in reporting total SM time and time on most individual platforms increased with each additional SM platform participants reported using. Findings demonstrate that self-reported estimates of SM time among adolescents in the age of SM platform swinging are prone to substantial error and may lead to biased conclusions about relationships between variables. Alternative measurement approaches are suggested to improve the validity of future research in this area.

Exposure to interpersonal stigma enhances the effectiveness of a culturally adapted personalized normative feedback alcohol intervention for sexual minority women.

Stigma-related stress and inflated perceptions of substance use norms are positioned in the literature as theoretically distinct explanations for disproportionate substance use among sexual minorities. As research has yet to examine how these variables may interact in an intervention context, this study examined the impact of recent experiences with violence and harassment due to sexual minority status (i.e., interpersonal stigma exposure) on the effectiveness of a culturally adapted personalized normative feedback intervention for lesbian, bisexual, and queer (LBQ) women. A sub-sample of 499 moderate-to-heavy drinking LBQ women were randomized to receive personalized normative feedback (PNF) on alcohol use or control topics within a broader digital competition designed to challenge negative LBQ stereotypes. At baseline, recent interpersonal stigma exposure strengthened the relationship between perceived LBQ alcohol-related norms and participants' own alcohol-related behaviors (i.e., consumption and consequences). At follow-up, 3 months later, recent interpersonal stigma exposure moderated the effectiveness of alcohol PNF with substantially less drinking and consequences among participants in the treatment condition reporting recent violence or harassment due to sexual minority status, relative to those reporting no such experiences. Underscoring the utility of PNF for LBQ women and potentially other heavy drinking stigmatized populations, findings suggest that a greater tendency to conform to over-estimated ingroup drinking norms may be another way in which minority status-based violence and harassment contributes to alcohol consumption in stigmatized populations.

Evaluating Non-response Bias in a Parent-Based College Alcohol Intervention.

Background: The purpose of this study was to address a dearth in the literature on non-response bias in parent-based interventions (PBIs) by investigating parenting constructs that might be associated with whether a parent volunteers to participate in a no-incentive college drinking PBI. Method: Incoming first-year students (N = 386) completed an online questionnaire that included items assessing plausible predictors of participation in a PBI (students' drinking, perceptions of parents' harm-reduction and zero-tolerance alcohol communication, whether parents allowed alcohol, and changes in parents' alcohol rules). Four months later, all parents of first-year students at the study university were invited to join the PBI, which was described as a resource guide to teach them how to help their student navigate the college transition and prepare them for life at their university. Results: Parents who signed up for the intervention used greater harm-reduction communication than those who did not sign up, were more likely to have allowed alcohol use, and signing up was significantly associated with student reports that fathers became less strict toward drinking after high school. Students' drinking and zero-tolerance communication did not significantly differ between the groups. Conclusion: Results indicate that non-response bias can be an issue when utilizing a real-world, non-RCT recruitment approach to invite parents into a PBI (i.e., non-incentivized, inviting all parents). Findings suggest that more comprehensive recruitment strategies may be required to increase parent diversity in PBIs.

A Gamified Personalized Normative Feedback App to Reduce Drinking Among Sexual Minority Women: Randomized Controlled Trial and Feasibility Study.

BACKGROUND: Sexual minority women disproportionately engage in heavy drinking and shoulder the burden of alcohol dependence. Although several intensive interventions are being developed to meet the needs of treatment-seeking sexual minority women, there remains a lack of preventive interventions to reduce drinking and its consequences among women not yet motivated to reduce their alcohol consumption. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to examine the feasibility and efficacy of reducing alcohol-related risks via personalized normative feedback (PNF) on alcohol use and coping delivered within LezParlay, a social media-inspired digital competition designed to challenge negative stereotypes about lesbian, bisexual, and queer (LBQ)-identified sexual minority women. METHODS: Feasibility was assessed by examining engagement with LezParlay outside the context of an incentivized research study, assessing the characteristics of the LBQ women taking part, and examining the competition's ability to derive risk-reducing actual norms as well as levels of acceptability and perceived benefits reported by participants. Intervention efficacy was examined by randomizing a subsample of 499 LBQ alcohol consumers (ie, drinkers) already taking part in the competition to receive sexual identity-specific PNF on alcohol use and coping, alcohol use only, or control topics over only 2 rounds of play. Changes in alcohol use and negative consequences were examined 2 and 4 months after the delivery of treatment PNF. RESULTS: A total of 2667 diverse LBQ women played ≥1 round of LezParlay. The competition attracted large numbers of moderate and heavy drinkers; however, risk-reducing actual norms could still be derived from competition rounds and featured in PNF. Efficacy results revealed that drinkers who received PNF on alcohol use and both alcohol use and coping had similar reductions in their weekly drinks (P=.003; P<.001), peak drinks (P<.001; P<.001), and negative consequences (P<.001; P<.001) relative to those who received PNF on control topics at the 2-month follow-up. However, at the 4-month follow-up, reductions in alcohol consumption outcomes faded among those who received alcohol PNF only (weekly: P=.06; peak: P=.11), whereas they remained relatively robust among those who received PNF on both alcohol use and coping (weekly: P=.02; peak: P=.03). Finally, participants found the competition highly acceptable and psychologically beneficial as a whole. CONCLUSIONS: The LezParlay competition was found to be a feasible and efficacious means of reducing alcohol-related risks in this population. Our findings demonstrate the utility of correcting sexual identity-specific drinking and coping norms to reduce alcohol-related risks among LBQ women and suggest that this approach may also prove fruitful in other stigmatized health disparity populations. To engage these populations in the real world and expand the psychological benefits associated with PNF, our findings also point to packaging PNF within a broader, culturally tailored competition designed to challenge negative group stereotypes. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03884478; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03884478. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): RR2-10.2196/24647.

Do the effects of parent-based alcohol interventions depend on college residence? A short communication.

Parent-based interventions (PBIs) and living at home with one's parents both have been shown to mitigate alcohol risk associated with the first year of college. The current study extends these findings by examining the independent and interactive effects of these two constructs on first-year drinking. The sample included 82 parent-student dyads. Parents were randomized to receive an online PBI that either did (intervention; n = 44) or did not (n = 38) include alcohol-related content in December 2020. Students completed online surveys assessing college residence and drinking (typical weekly and peak) in August 2020 (T1) and February 2021 (T2). Hierarchical zero-inflated Poisson models assessed the main and interaction effects of having a parent in the intervention group (vs control) and living with parents (vs without) on drinking outcomes, controlling for T1 alcohol use. Results revealed that living with parents predicted decreases in typical weekly drinking and having a parent in the intervention predicted decreases in the number of drinks consumed on one's peak drinking occasion at T2. Treatment*residence was also significantly associated with typical weekly drinking in the inflated model. These results suggest that moving out was associated with a greater likelihood of not drinking during a typical week if students had a parent in the intervention and a lower likelihood of not drinking during a typical week if they had a parent in the control application. Together, findings support continued exploration of this online PBI as it appears to reduce peak drinking during the first year of college and reduces the odds of students drinking during a typical week when they move out of their parents' home.

Assessing parents' motives for talking about alcohol with their emerging adult children.

Past research has explored the content and frequency of alcohol-specific communication between parents and their emerging adult children. The current study aimed to address a gap in the research by examining parents' motivation for discussing alcohol. To accomplish this, we developed a multidimensional Parent Motives for Alcohol Communication Scale (PMACS). A total of 633 parents completed the PMACS along with measures assessing communication frequency, communication content, attitudes toward drinking, relationship quality, and perceptions of child alcohol use. An Exploratory Factor Analysis yielded five core communication motives. Parents were commonly motivated by desires to prevent their child's alcohol use, to respond to their child's heavy drinking, to teach their child how to drink safely, to meet relationship needs or expectations, and by a family history of alcohol problems. After controlling for demographic factors, communication motives predicted frequency of alcohol-specific communication. The patterns of relationship among motives and conceptually related constructs provided preliminary support for the construct validity of the PMACS.