Robert Turrisi - US grants

The research is an empirical investigation of cognitions, attitudes, and social-psychological variables relevant to alcohol server intervention policies. The proposed research consists of data collection on three different samples: (1) bar and tavern owners/upper-level managers, (2) servers, and (30 legal drinking aged college customers. Our goal will be to compare and characterize the different perspectives owner/managers, servers, and college customers have toward server intervention policies. The results of these studies together will identify policies that are more likely to be adopted, variables that are related to owner/manager and server motivations to change existing policies and adopt new policies, and customers perceptions of server intervention policies aimed at reducing intoxication and drunk driving.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The present study is a continuation and further development of a novel program of research designed to reduce the onset and extent of drinking by students during their first year of college, through provision of efficacious individually oriented interventions prior to college entrance. We aim to influence the drinking behavior of college-bound high school athletes during the spring of their senior year of high school, 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. Athletes represent a high-risk and understudied group, and existing research indicates high school athletes drink as much as or more than other students. Research also indicates that for many students, excessive drinking in college is a continuation or exacerbation of high-school drinking tendencies. However, almost all current approaches in the college-drinking domain are based on implementing interventions while the students are at college. Further, there have been no theory-driven, systematic interventions targeting high school athletes so as to prevent alcohol misuse as they transition to college. We intend to implement two early interventions for high school student athletes: (1) a Parent-Based Intervention (PBI) based on the work of Turrisi and colleagues and (2) a Brief Peer-delivered Motivational Intervention (BPMI) based on the work of Larimer and colleagues. There is sufficient empirical evidence demonstrating the efficacy of these interventions in college and older adolescent samples to warrant an examination of their unique and combined additive effects for a high-risk high school athlete sample. The integration of these two research programs will provide a unique theoretical framework and a rich database from which to assess the benefits of parent and peer-delivered intervention approaches at this late stage of adolescent development. Thus, the research will investigate, through the use of a factorial design, the unique and combined utility of the PBI and the BPMI to reduce alcohol onset, usage and negative consequences among high school athletes so as to ultimately reduce college student drinking; identify demographic and psychological characteristics of high school athletes for whom the interventions are more effective versus those for whom the interventions are relatively ineffective; and examine processes by which the interventions influence use and negative consequences for students.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The present study is the further development of a program of research designed to reduce the onset and extent of drinking and contribute to the changing campus norms through implementation of efficacious Parent-Based Interventions (PBIs) based on the work of Turrisi and colleagues (1999;2000;2001). The focus is on influencing drinking behavior of the students through an intervention with their parents during their first year of college. The conversations will take place in one of three conditions;(1) prior to college matriculation during the transition period between high school and college (PCM), (2) Prior to college matriculation and then throughout the fall semester resulting from booster parent "check-ins" (PCMB), or (3) after college matriculation during the fall of the first semester at college (AMC). All efforts will attempt to make students more resistant to influences that encourage the adoption or continuation of heavy drinking behaviors and reduce these behaviors. Our prior research has provided empirical evidence demonstrating the efficacy of the PCM to warrant an examination of its efficacy as an after matriculation intervention. Although there have been positive reports of efficacy of involvement of parent efforts (e.g., Elliot, 2000), virtually no systematic theory-driven research examining efficacy has been published in the peer review literature exploring whether there is a critical period for implementing parent interventions with college students. This void, coupled with an increased number of universities seeking to involve parents before and after matriculation, argues for systematic empirical efforts. Toward this end the aims can be summarized as follows: (1) To investigate and compare the efficacy of PBIs when administered prior to matriculation versus prior to matriculation with boosters versus after matriculation, (2) To identify subgroups for whom the different PBIs are more effective versus less effective, and (3) To examine mediational processes by which the different PBIs influence alcohol use and consequences.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The present study is a continuation of a novel program of research focusing on parental influences on college student drinking. College student drinking remains an important public health problem and there is growing evidence suggesting that consequences are increasing for older students aged 21-24. Research has shown that parents are an important part of comprehensive community prevention efforts and effective as a stand- alone prevention approach. Despite the utility of parents, a notable gap exists in the prevention literature after the freshman year. Further, there is a small literature to inform prevention efforts involving parents of college students and they tend to examine a limited number of constructs. Although there have been studies of parent interventions targeting adolescents and college students, no studies have comprehensively examined variables influencing parents'motivations to communicate with college students throughout their entire college experience. To date our own program of research has focused on implementing and evaluating preventive parent-based interventions for typical freshman, high-risk freshman, and high-risk environments. Thus, the examination of underlying variables influencing parents'motivations to communicate with their sons/daughters that will increase the efficacy and reach of future intervention efforts to larger population of students extending past the freshman year represents the next logical step in the continuation of our research program. To this extent, the research will assess and analyze 1800 parent-student dyads longitudinally across the entire college experience to examine the: 1) Examine the processes by which predictors and mediating constructs of parental communication about alcohol, are associated with parent-student communications;2) Examine the processes by which parent-student communications about alcohol predict student drinking mediating constructs and subsequent student drinking outcomes;and 3) Examine developmental changes using a prospective longitudinal design between parent communication constructs and student drinking outcomes through the entire college experience. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: College student drinking remains an important public health problem and there is growing evidence suggesting that consequences are increasing for older students aged 21-24. Research has shown that parents are an important part of comprehensive community prevention efforts and effective as a stand-alone prevention approach. Despite the utility of parents, a notable gap exists in the prevention literature after the freshman year. Although there have been studies of parent interventions targeting adolescents and college students, no studies have comprehensively examined variables influencing parents'motivations to communicate with college students throughout their entire college experience. Thus, the examination of variables that influences parents'motivations to communicate with their sons/daughters to increase the efficacy and reach of future intervention efforts to larger population of students extending past the freshman year is warranted.

Abstract Drunk driving is a major public health problem. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported nearly 10,000 people died in alcohol-related crashes in the U.S. in 2014. The problem is further magnified when one considers that each year over 1.3 million drivers in the U.S. are arrested for alcohol-impaired driving. As alarming as these statistics are they pale by comparison to estimates indicating that they only represent 1% of the 121 million self-reported episodes of alcohol-impaired driving among U.S. drivers each year. The proposed research will attempt to curb these alarming trends and move the field forward by conducting a randomized controlled trial testing a brief parent- intervention's ability to change adolescents' drinking, impaired driving, and riding with impaired driver behaviors. Our prior brief parent-based interventions have provided sufficient preliminary evidence of participation, communication, and efficacy for changing under-age drinking to warrant a large-scale comprehensive study. The study will use an extremely rigorous design that meets the Society for Prevention Research Criteria for Efficacy as described in Flay et al.12, a nationally representative sample assessed at 3- waves (baseline, 6 mo. and 12 mo.) to examine generalizability and sustained effects, and an oversampled Hispanic/Latino subgroup to examine the parent-intervention's potential to reduce a health disparity in an underserved population. The aims are as follows: Aim 1: Evaluate the efficacy of the parent intervention (short and long term); Aim 2: Examine mediators of the PBI that directly influence drinking, impaired driving, and riding with impaired driver behaviors; and Aim 3: Identify moderators to help inform future tailoring and improvement in intervention effectiveness. To the extent that the research is successful, it will provide an easy to implement and low cost alternative that can be widely disseminated to address this important public health problem.  

Abstract While many consequences of college risky drinking affect the students themselves (e.g., hangovers, embarrassment, academics), other problems such as impaired driving (IMPD) jeopardize public safety and must be addressed. Reports show: 1) college student ?high-intensity? drinkers (10+ drinks per occasion) experience more problems, including increased impaired driving, and 2) although over 1.3 million drivers in the U.S. are arrested for impaired driving annually, they only represent 1% of the estimated 121 million self-reported episodes of impaired driving each year. Our recent NIAAA-funded research identified specific parenting behaviors related to college students? risky drinking and consequences that are not being adequately addressed in college-level parent interventions. This research revealed: 1) many parents allow their teens to drink alcohol in an attempt to take the mystery away and provide opportunities to teach them safer drinking practices; 2) parental permissiveness toward underage drinking, even though it was intended to be protective by parents, had the opposite effect and was significantly associated with increased drinking and consequences throughout college; and 3) the effects of parental permissiveness was not attenuated by other positive parenting behaviors (e.g., communication, monitoring). In response, we developed and piloted a brief 15-20 minute intervention (P-Chat) that uses principles of Motivational Interviewing to reduce defensiveness and change parents? permissiveness. The pilot data demonstrate our ability to implement the P-Chat with fidelity; modify parents? willingness to change; and most importantly, change parents? permissive behaviors. These data provide justification to warrant a larger-scale comprehensive study examining the effects of the P-Chat on reducing students? risky drinking and consequences. Our proposed study will use an extremely rigorous design to test the P-Chat. The aims are as follows: Aim 1: Assess the effects of the P-Chat at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months post-baseline relative to a rigorous active comparison condition (the original evidence-based PBI), an assessment only-control, and a combined intervention condition the P-Chat plus the PBI (P-Chat+); Aim 2: Examine the process by which the P-Chat influences parents? permissiveness (and communications) and college students? behaviors (e.g., motives, expectancies, norms, and willingness to consume alcohol) using a well-developed theoretical model; and Aim 3: Examine subgroups for which the P-Chat is more effective versus less effective. Our moderators will be broadly based and focus on baseline student characteristics (e.g., sex, age of onset of alcohol use) and parent characteristics (e.g., sex, age, education, marital status, monitoring). To the extent that the research is successful, it will provide an efficacious approach to address an important public health problem.