R. Scott Olds

The role of sex-specific normative beliefs in undergraduate alcohol use.

OBJECTIVES To create explanatory models of 3 undergraduate drinking practices based on sex-specific norms. METHODS An electronic, student survey at one Mid-western university produced a representative sample of college students. RESULTS Multivariate analyses indicated that close-friend norms were the best predictors of drinking frequency, quantity, and drunkenness. With one exception, typical student (or distal) norms had no significant relationship to drinking. Opposite-sex norms had associations with drinking above and beyond that explained by same-sex norms. CONCLUSIONS The findings challenge the current application of the popular social norms approach that relies on distal drinking norms to provide normative feedback.

Adolescent Perceptions of College Student Drinking.

OBJECTIVE To extend knowledge about perceived drinking norms by assessing perceptions of college student drinking in a sample of 7th- to 12th-graders. METHODS Anonymous questionnaire was administered to 2,017 adolescents in two Ohio school districts. RESULTS By seventh grade, 89.6% of the students had formed normative perceptions of collegiate drinking. A canonical correlation analysis revealed that perceptions of collegiate drinking have substantial, independent relationships not only with alcohol use intensity and drinking onset, but also with indicators of tobacco and other drug use as well. CONCLUSIONS Exaggerated perceptions of college student drinking are psychosocial markers of substance use in 7th- to 12th-graders.

Profiles of alcohol- and marijuana-impaired adolescent drivers

The aim of the study was to identify risk factors that distinguish alcohol-impaired and marijuana-impaired drivers from non-impaired drivers, among adolescents with a history of using these substances. An anonymous questionnaire was administered to 6594 seventh- to twelfth-grade students in nine Ohio public school districts. Data analyses were conducted on the 11th to 12th grade sub-sample that had prior experience of alcohol (n = 1378) and/or marijuana use (n = 678). Logistic regression analyses confirmed that the involvements in alcohol-impaired and marijuana-impaired driving were both associated with higher levels of use of these two drugs. However, the profiles of these two risk behaviors were relatively distinct. Boyfriend/girlfriend alcohol use, hours spent at a job, race, family structure, and academic performance also had significant, independent relationships with the two driving practices. To effectively deter impaired driving among adolescents, prevention efforts must address the social context of adolescent alcohol and marijuana use.

Reconceptualizing Research on Undergraduate Alcohol Use The Need for Student Engagement

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is presented as an unrecognized and urgently needed approach for addressing the persistent public health concern of college student drinking in the United States. A major contention of this article is that the lack of progress in reducing alcohol-related harm among college students during the past several decades has been the research communitys failure to effectively engage and collaborate with undergraduates on shared concerns. The challenges of addressing college student drinking are reviewed, distinctive features of CBPR are described, and suggestions are provided for adopting CBPR as a more viable approach than those offered by traditional campus strategies.

Application of the Marketing Mix to Health Promotion Marketing

Abstract Marketing and health promotion are similar activities in that both attempt to influence behavior. The difference lies in focus of activities. Marketing focuses on needs of the individual as indicated by the individual. Health promotion generally focuses on health needs of the individual as identified by the health promoter. This difference emphasizes the utility of marketing for health promotion. Marketing can be a tool for increasing awareness of and participation in health promotion activities. However, in order to utilize marketing effectively, an understanding of marketing principles is necessary. One such principle is the marketing mix which consists of the product, price, place, and promotion. The idea is to develop the right product, offer it at the right price, in a place where the individual may easily obtain it, and promote it to increase awareness and motivation. It is the blend of marketing mix elements that largely determines success of the marketing effort. This paper discusses the ...

Are restrained eaters accurate monitors of their intoxication? Results from a field experiment.

Brief interventions encourage college students to eat more before drinking to prevent harm (Dimeff et al., 1999), although many women decrease their caloric intake (Giles et al., 2009) and the number of eating episodes (Luce et al., 2012) prior to drinking alcohol. Participants were 37 undergraduate women (24.3% Caucasian) who were recruited from a local bar district in the Midwest. This study examined whether changes in eating after intending to drink interacted with dietary restraint to predict accuracy of ones intoxication. Results indicated that changes in eating significantly moderated the relationship between dietary restraint and accuracy of ones intoxication level. After eating more food before intending to drink, women higher in restraint were more likely to overestimate their intoxication than women lower in restraint. There were no differences between women with high levels and low levels of dietary restraint in the accuracy of their intoxication after eating less food before intending to drink. Future research would benefit from examining interoceptive awareness as a possible mechanism involved in this relationship.

Driving privileges facilitate impaired driving in those youths who use alcohol or marijuana.

The aim of this study was to determine whether possession of a drivers license increases the risk of impaired driving among adolescents who use alcohol or marijuana. An anonymous questionnaire was administered to secondary school students in northeast Ohio across multiple school districts. Logistic regression analyses revealed that after accounting for socio-demographic variables, legal driving privileges were independent risk factors for both alcohol- and marijuana-impaired driving, and more robust than substance use in distinguishing between impaired and non-impaired drivers. Prevention strategies must address conventional licensing policies in addition to social and contextual factors leading to adolescent alcohol and marijuana use and associated risks.

Influence of skip patterns on item non-response in a substance use survey of 7th to 12th grade students.

This retrospective case study assessed the influence of item non-response error on subsequent response to questionnaire items assessing adolescent alcohol and marijuana use. Post-hoc analyses were conducted on survey results obtained from 4,371 7th to 12th grade students in Ohio in 2005. A skip pattern design in a conventional questionnaire appeared to increase non-response error rates at first introduction. In previous cigarette users, these errors were associated with under-reporting of alcohol and marijuana use on subsequent questions. These effects were less prevalent in high-achieving students. Skip patterns can contribute to substantial underestimation of alcohol and marijuana use in adolescents.