Resources to Reduce Underage Drinking Risks and Associated Harms: Social Ecological Perspectives.

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Higher Education Administration
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Underage college student alcohol consumption leads to negative outcomes for students, institutions, and communities.
• Existing interventions often lack evidence-base or fail to address the complexity of the issue.
• The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism developed CollegeAIM to guide intervention selection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review and highlight individual and environmental strategies for reducing college student alcohol use and harms.
• To utilize the social ecological model to organize interventions evaluated in CollegeAIM.
• To provide a resource for implementing effective campus and community-based alcohol interventions.

Main Methods:

• The review synthesizes peer-reviewed literature on nearly 60 campus and community interventions.
• CollegeAIM's matrix-based tool categorizes interventions by strategy and target.
• The social ecological model frames the analysis of individual- and environmental-level strategies.

Main Results:

• CollegeAIM evaluates a wide range of campus and community interventions.
• Strategies are presented for both individual-level behavior change and environmental modifications.
• The tool supports informed selection of evidence-based practices.

Conclusions:

• CollegeAIM provides a valuable resource for higher education professionals to address harmful college student drinking.
• Implementing evidence-based strategies at individual and environmental levels is crucial.
• Interventions addressing pre-college drinking behaviors, such as the "Talk. They Hear You." app, are also recommended.