The Relationship Between Drinking Control Strategies and College Student Alcohol Use

• Published in: Psychology of addictive behaviors Vol. 21; no. 3; pp. 338 - 345
• Main Authors: Sugarman, Dawn E, Carey, Kate B
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Psychological Association 01-09-2007
• Subjects: Addictive behaviors; Adolescent; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Alcohol Abuse; Alcohol consumption; Alcohol Drinking - prevention & control; Alcohol Drinking - psychology; Alcohol Use; Alcohol-Related Disorders - prevention & control; Alcohol-Related Disorders - psychology; Alcoholism; Alcoholism and acute alcohol poisoning; Biological and medical sciences; College Students; Female; Harm Reduction; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Heavy drinking; Human; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Motivation; Preventive programmes; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Self-Control; Social Environment; Students - psychology; Surveys and Questionnaires; Toxicology; Undergraduate students; alcohol use; drinking control strategies; college students; Consumption; Human; Alcoholic beverage; University environment; Self control; Strategy; Student; Avoidance
• ISSN: 0893-164X; 1939-1501
• DOI: 10.1037/0893-164X.21.3.338

Interventions designed to reduce heavy drinking among college students often contain suggestions for drinking control strategies. However, little is known about the relationship between the use of these strategies and alcohol consumption. The authors developed a measure of drinking control strategies and investigated its psychometric properties in a sample of 250 college drinkers. Strategies clustered into three factors: selective avoidance of heavy drinking activities and situations, strategies used while drinking, and alternatives to drinking. These three types of strategies were independently associated with alcohol use; however, the first and last types were negatively associated with alcohol consumption, whereas the second type was positively associated with alcohol use. The findings from this study suggest that the type of strategy recommended may be important when the goal is alcohol reduction.