Reducing High-Risk Spring Break Drinking: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Introduction: College student drinking and related problems have received much attention in the past 20 years with several effective prevention and intervention approaches developed to reduce harmful consequences. Despite great advances, there are known events where young adults are at high risk for excessive alcohol use and negative consequences, such as 21^st birthdays, tailgating, and Spring Break (SB) trips. Recently, Event Specific Prevention (ESP) strategies have been successful in reducing alcohol use during 21^stbirthdays. However, questions remain regarding to what extent these strategies will work for longer high-risk events as opposed to single day drinking occasions. Going on SB trips is particularly associated with numerous risks including physical, sexual, and legal risks. Thus, the present study adapted an ESP strategy for targeting high-risk SB drinking and negative consequences and examined the comparative efficacy against that of a documented general alcohol intervention (i.e., Brief Alcohol and Screening and Intervention for College Students, BASICS).  We evaluated the efficacy of general BASICS and SB-specific in-person and web-based BASICS interventions among college students intending to go on SB trips with friends. Additionally, we explored whether inclusion of friends to receive web-based intervention materials enhanced intervention effects.

Method: Participants included 783 college students (56.1% women, Age_m= 20.5) intending to go on a SB trip with friends and who intended to drink heavily on at least one day during SB. Screening and baseline assessments occurred one to eight weeks prior to SB and follow-up occurred one week after SB. Participants were randomized to one of six conditions: SB in-person BASICS, SB in-person BASICS + Friend, SB web BASICS, SB web BASICS + Friend, general BASICS, or an attention control condition.

Results: Results indicated significant intervention effects for SB in-person BASICS in reducing SB drinking compared to the control group, particularly on trip days. Specifically, the SB in-person intervention was associated with fewer drinks consumed and lower eBACs over all days and on the peak drinking day when participants were on a SB trip with friends. Intervention effects were not found in reducing alcohol-related consequences.

Conclusions: Overall, results suggest an in-person SB-specific intervention is effective at reducing SB drinking, especially during trips. In contrast, interventions that contain non-SB related content, are web-based, or seek to involve friends may be less effective. These results argue for development of more targeted interventions for engaging students and changing risk behaviors during specific events.