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Background: Sexual assault and heavy alcohol use are prevalent and interrelated public health concerns on university campuses. Surprisingly, however, few alcohol harm reduction interventions address this intersection to help students reduce both personal and community risks for sexual assault in college drinking contexts. Objectives: In the current study, students (ages 18-24) shared strategies they use to protect themselves and others from sexual assault in college drinking contexts, as well as challenges to implementing these strategies. A series of six focus groups were conducted across two universities in the U.S. (N = 35). Participants responded to open-ended questions focused on drinking and sexual assault (e.g., What are some of the things students might do to avoid or address situations where they feel pressured of coerced to hook up or have sex when they do not want to?). Results: Thematic analyses demonstrated students' awareness of protective behavioral and bystander intervention strategies that could help reduce vulnerability to experience sexual assault for themselves or others in drinking contexts. Perceived barriers to using bystander intervention strategies included student's own and friends' heavy drinking (decreased inhibitions, loss of autonomy), ambiguity in deciphering risk (lack of familiarity, minimization, diffusion of responsibility), and gender (gender norms, power imbalances). Conclusions: This study informs the development of interventions that help students identify strategies and overcome barriers to reduce risks for sexual assault in college drinking contexts.
Assuntos
Consumo de Álcool na Faculdade , Delitos Sexuais , Humanos , Delitos Sexuais/prevenção & controle , Universidades , Estudantes , EtanolRESUMO
Objective: The purpose of this research was to test an extension of the incentive motivation model of alcohol by examining effects of personality traits on drinking motives and contexts, as mediated by social isolation. Methods: Participants were 1269 adults who resided in the United States (n = 618) or United Kingdom (n = 651) and completed an online questionnaire measuring the traits of negative emotionality and resilience, along with social isolation, drinking motives (coping, social) and drinking contexts (alone, at a party, at a bar/club). Six months later, 70% of the participants returned to complete a similar online questionnaire. Results: Path analysis was used to test the hypothesized models and revealed that negative emotionality had a prospective indirect effect on drinking to cope and drinking alone through increased social isolation over the 6-month period of observation. In contrast, the trait of resilience had a prospective indirect effect on reductions in the drinking to cope motive and reductions in drinking alone, through decreased social isolation. Conclusion: The findings suggest that personality traits that contribute to social isolation may be risk factors for dysfunctional drinking motives and contexts.
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Resumen La previa (i.e., el consumo de alcohol antes de asistir al evento de la salida en el que puede, o no, consumirse más alcohol) incrementa marcadamente el riesgo de experimentar consecuencias negativas asociadas al consumo de alcohol. Aunque el consumo de alcohol es muy prevalente entre los adolescentes argentinos, son escasos los trabajos centrados en la previa. Este trabajo describe el consumo de alcohol y la conducta de previa en adolescentes argentinos (13 a 18 años), identifica el efecto de las normas descriptivas y los motivos de previa sobre la frecuencia de previa y la cantidad de alcohol consumido durante esta práctica, y examina variaciones en el consumo general de alcohol y en la cantidad de consecuencias negativas derivadas, en función de realizar, o no, la previa. Participaron 402 adolescentes (52.7 % mujeres) que completaron una encuesta sobre consumo de alcohol, consecuencias negativas asociadas, conducta y motivos de previa, y normas descriptivas sobre estos encuentros. El 60 % de los adolescentes reportó conducta de previa en el último año en la que consumieron, en promedio, 70 gramos de alcohol. El 85 % continuó tomando alcohol después de la previa. Quienes exhiben conducta de previa, comparados con quienes beben pero no hacen previa, consumen significativamente más alcohol y experimentan más consecuencias negativas derivadas de este consumo. A nivel multivariado, las normas descriptivas fueron el mejor predictor de los indicadores de previa. Los hallazgos sugieren que la previa sería un factor de riesgo para tener trayectorias de consumo problemático y sería beneficioso prevenir este tipo de prácticas.
Abstract In Argentina, alcohol is the most consumed psychoactive substance among adolescents and, similar to other western countries, rates of alcohol use markedly increase during this developmental stage. Arguably more concerning, heavy episodic drinking (HED, a.k.a. binge drinking) is also highly prevalent. Heavy episodic drinking can be defined as the consumption of a large quantity of alcohol (i.e., ≥ 42/70 g of pure alcohol, depending on sex and age) in one, rather brief, single setting. HED is associated with greater occurrence of a myriad of negative consequences such as alcohol-induced increments in impulsivity and risk-taking behaviors, blackouts, drunk driving, sleep and eating impairments, and the development of tolerance. Prepartying (i.e., the consumption of alcohol before attending a social event where more alcohol might, or might not, be available) is a high-risk drinking practice due to its robust association with alcohol-related negative consequences. Different factors influence alcohol use and preparty behavior. Many adolescents overestimate the drinking behaviors of their peers (descriptive norms) which, in turn, is associated with heavier alcohol use. Additionally, previous work found that one of the main reasons or motives for engaging in preparty behavior is the desire of getting intoxicated. Although alcohol use is highly prevalent among Argentinean adolescents, studies focused on prepartying are very scarce. The present study (i) describes alcohol consumption and prepartying behaviors in Argentinean adolescents (13 to 18 years old), (ii) examines the effect of descriptive norms and prepartying motives on prepartying outcomes (i.e., frequency of prepartying and drinking quantity when prepartying) and (iii) examines variations in alcohol drinking outcomes as a function of prepartying. Participants were 402 adolescents (52.7 % women) that completed a pencil and paper survey that measured alcohol consumption, prepartying outcomes, descriptive norms for prepartying, prepartying motives and alcohol-related negative consequences. Most of the sample (83 %) reported lifetime alcohol use and 64 % reported last-month alcohol use. More than half of the sample (57 %) reported engaging in prepartying behavior within the last year where they consumed an average of 70 grams of alcohol. Most of the adolescents who prepartied (85 %) continued drinking alcohol at the event. Adolescents who engaged in preparty behavior, compared to their drinking peers who did not, consumed significantly more alcohol and experienced more alcohol-related negative consequences. Specifically, 90 % of the adolescents who engaged in preparty behavior reported to engaged in heavy drinking episodes within the previous month while 68 % of drinkers who did not preparty reported to engage in that drinking pattern. At the multivariate level, descriptive norms, but not prepartying motives, were significantly associated with preparty behavior. The present results suggest that prepartying could be a risk factor for the involvement in problematic trajectories of alcohol use and, therefore, it would be beneficial to prevent adolescents from engaging in this type of drinking practice. Additionally, the present findings suggest promising avenues for intervention, such as those aimed at targeting descriptive norms. Adolescents tend to overestimate drinking behaviors among their peers, a bias that is associated with heavier alcohol use. Interventions aimed at correcting these biases have shown promising results at reducing drinking behaviors.