How Do Bystanders Help in Drinking Situations: The Bystanders to Alcohol Risk Scale--Strategies

Bystander intervention (BI) is a promising approach for promoting collective behavior change that has been applied to several domains, including sexual assault, bullying, and more recently, problematic alcohol use. Accurately measuring the strategies that bystanders use to reduce others' alcohol-related risk is an essential step toward improving bystanders' ability to reduce alcohol-related harm in their communities, but current measures of BI are not easily modifiable and applicable for alcohol-related BI. The current study aimed to develop a valid and reliable measure of the bystander construct most proximal to the reduction of risk: bystander strategies.

Young adults (N = 1,011) who reported being around someone who showed signs of alcohol intoxication in the past 3 months were recruited via Qualtrics Panels to participate in an online survey; a subsample (n = 345) completed a 2-week follow-up. Psychometric evaluation included exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, item response theory analyses, convergent validity, and test-retest reliability.

An initial set of 52 items was reduced to 17 items, representing two different factors. The first factor, Level 1, reflected strategies used during circumstances of acute risk. The second factor, Level 2, reflected strategies used to reduce risk for more longstanding problems with alcohol. Both factors demonstrated good model fit, strong internal consistency, evidence of convergent validity, and moderate test-retest reliability.

This novel measure can contribute to the production of knowledge about the use and efficacy of peer-focused strategies and the value of BI training for alcohol use.