<p>Just had a conversation with a neighbor whose D is attending a top 30 LAC as a freshman this year. D is required to take a 5 week alcohol class–one hour per week for five weeks. Are there other schools who have similar requirements? I am aware of some schools that require online surveys, modules, etc. but this was the first I’d heard about requiring an actual class. From my somewhat archaic, parental point of view, it seems like a good idea.
College kids might disagree!</p>
<p>Georgetown recently required that incoming students take Alcohol.edu, which is a two/three hour program on alcohol education. I think the class of 2010 was the first to take it; our class wasn’t required to take it unless you were written up for an alcohol violation. It was online, and from what I can tell, not too effective.</p>
<p>Alcohol education really is stupid; the vast majority of people who drink irresponsibly and/or underage know exactly what they are doing and the risks, and choose to do so anyways. Continually reminding them of the risks doesn’t change the behaviors, it just serves as an irritant.</p>
<p>The results thus far from AlcoholEdu are in fact excellent. No, they don’t stop binge drinking, eliminate heavy drinking, increase rates of abstinence. They do reduce incidence of dangerous drinking, increase knowledge of warning signs to which students respond, reduce the number of times a student binges a year.</p>
<p>There is a LOT of evidence surrounding its effectiveness in changing acute alcohol-related incidents; what is not clear is whether it has any long-term impact on chronic drinking or current or future alcoholism.</p>
<p>Not all alcohol classes are the same, and there are not many that have a research base behind them. (That’s why I specifically asked what school.)</p>
<p>As for the pretests: close to a majority of those who claim they are currently abstinent from alcohol use and expect they will remain so when they go off to college do not in fact remain so - hence the importance of AlcoholEdu for “abstainers”.</p>
<p>My daughter has to do online alcohol education (for Cornell). She showed me the initial questionnaire and pretest, which she completed at home before she left. I was not impressed, but at least the school is trying. It was difficult for my daughter to complete some of the questions appropriately because she is an adamant abstainer, a possibility that doesn’t seem to have been considered by the people who made up the questionnaire.</p>
<p>My son has a required 3 hour online alcohol education course before attending Northeastern University. One of the first questions is if you (the test taker) are a drinker. He is not sure if his negative answer meant a longer course (he lacks experience) or a shorter course.</p>
<p>Mini, if you have information about programs that are researched based, please share it with us. I’d like to know more about programs that work!</p>
<p>That’s interesting Mini. My son completed the online AlcoholEdu program for Worcester Polytech, and it took him quite a while to do! Hope it helps. He’s an abstainer so far, but so were the kids he hung out with in HS. I know college can change that.</p>
<p>“Mini, if you have information about programs that are researched based, please share it with us. I’d like to know more about programs that work!”</p>
<p>AlcoholEdu works, as noted. Social norms marketing campaigns work, at least among schools where binge drinking isn’t above average to begin with. There is scholarly debate as to whether they work where things are above average. Total enforced bans (which I do not favor) work, as at University of Oklahoma. It doesn’t stop students from drinking, but forces those who wish to do so to move off campus to do so. What it means is that there are many fewer “spur of the moment” decisions to binge - one has to plan it. Four-times-in-two-weeks binge drinkers become one-timers. Cooperative arrangements with local enforcement, often coordinated with other efforts like social norms marketing, have worked - the social norms marketing provides the intellectual foundation that binge drinking isn’t the norm, and then being thrown in jail overnight makes it seem even more aberrant. Students DO get the message, even if it just happens to their friends. (This one was piloted at Western Washington University, in my state.) Chemical dependency treatment works* for those who are already alcohol dependent, which, on many campuses, is roughly 15% of the white male population (and some higher.) *Works means they don’t have to return to treatment, and it happens about 1/3rd of the time, which is better than treatment for many chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, or asthma. “Feedback” brief interventions are very promising - students literally don’t know how much they are drinking (usually more than they think, or intend) and even five-minute interventions providing them with information is often enough to change risky behavior. Most students DON’T in fact know what they are doing. Alcohol literacy campaigns can work (and they are part of AlcoholEdu) in changing attitudes, though whether they actually change behavior has not been demonstrated.</p>
<p>Please note that when I say “works”, I mean on a population-wide, public health basis. I have no illusions that any single magic bullet works for any individual student in all situations. </p>
<p>My favorite alcohol researcher in the country is Aaron White at Duke.</p>
<p>He was the one who demonstrated the massive alcohol blackout rate at Duke, and in doing so also called attention to the extraordinary rape and sexual assault risk there. </p>
<p>The other thing that matters is what you are trying to accomplish. Lower the amount of underage drinking, or the percentage of those who do so? Curtail the most dangerous drinking? Limit the riskiest behaviors associated with drinking? Lower the binge drinking rate? Intervene in the lives of current or potential chronic alcohol abusers and prevent long-term problems? Different science-based strategies can be tailored to different goals, but some of them will work at cross purposes if one doesn’t have a clear objective in mind.</p>
<p>Caltech requires the AlcoholEdu program and parents can log-on as well to view what the program offers. I understand UC Berkeley requires it as well.</p>
<p>Mini- Thank you for the reference. Perhaps I misunderstand you when you write, “He was the one who demonstrated the massive alcohol blackout rate at Duke, and in doing so also called attention to the extraordinary rape and sexual assault risk there.”</p>
<p>I do not read White’s statements to exclusively and specifically indict Duke with regard to blackouts and alcohol related sexual assault. I think we all agree that this is a large problem on many campuses. Duke is one of the universities that require the alcohol ed modules for incoming freshmen, and the alcohol issue is freely and openly discussed in many fora on campus.</p>
<p>Actually, it was White that specifically studied the blackout rate of Duke students through their health clinic. That was his first major published paper. He didn’t “indict” Duke - he gathered and published data. It wasn’t comparative data - it was Duke alone.</p>
<p>"White et al. (2002) recently surveyed 772 undergraduates regarding their experiences with blackouts. The occurrence of a blackout was operationally defined as a positive response to the question, “Have you ever awoken after a night of drinking not able to remember things that you did or places that you went?” Approximately ½ (51%) of those who had ever consumed alcohol reported experiencing at least one blackout at some point in their lives, and 40% experienced one in the year before the survey. Among those who drank in the two weeks before the survey, nearly 1/10 (9.4%) experienced a blackout during this time period. "</p>
<p>The survey was of Duke students. Almost 10% of Duke students who drank had experienced a blackout in the previous two weeks.</p>
<p>And it is pretty much thanks to White, virtually singlehandedly, that alcohol is finally being discussed on the Duke campus. That is a GOOD thing, and would be great if were to happen on all campuses.</p>