Keywords

expectancy, alcohol, greek, college

Abstract

Alcohol consumption and on college campuses has long been a significant problem. The severity of the situation and lack of effective alcohol programming on college campuses warranted the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to commission a Task Force on College Drinking in 2002, which has been vital in revealing drinking patterns and negative consequences which are specific to the college environment. The Task Force proposed three strategies that were empirically validated for prevention and intervention in the college setting. Of the three recommendations, implementing cognitive behavioral skills training and offering motivational enhancement interventions, while proven effective are costly and time consuming to implement. The final strategy recommended, challenging alcohol expectancies, has been validated for use in a group setting making it a more viable option for reaching larger audiences. Within the college environment there are certain factors that have shown to be important in influencing college students' drinking behaviors, attitudes toward drinking, and alcohol related negative consequences. Specifically, membership in a fraternity or sorority has revealed a unique predictor of risky drinking behavior and an increased risk of suffering from negative consequences related to alcohol. The purpose of the present study was to implement an expectancy-based presentation in Greek chapter houses to alter expectancies and decrease risky drinking behavior. Alcohol expectancies were measured before and immediately after the presentation. Alcohol consumption was also assessed in a self-report measure of drinking for the 30 days prior to the presentation as well as 30 days following it. Analyses revealed significant reductions in positive alcohol expectancies and alcohol consumption on measures of quantity (average drinks per sitting), frequency (average drinking days per week), and heavy episodic drinking (average weekly peak blood alcohol content). Therefore, the structure and effectiveness of the current intervention program proves extremely useful and practical for widespread implementation in Greek chapter houses across all college campuses.

Notes

If this is your thesis or dissertation, and want to learn how to access it or for more information about readership statistics, contact us at STARS@ucf.edu

Graduation Date

2010

Advisor

Dunn, Michael

Degree

Master of Science (M.S.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree Program

Psychology Clinical

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0003263

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0003263

Language

English

Release Date

August 2010

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Download

Share

COinS