Receptiveness to Formal and Informal Alcohol Intervention Approaches Among Emerging Adults Without Bachelor's Degrees

Non-college emerging adults (NCEAs) are more likely to experience lifetime alcohol harms than peers with bachelor's degrees and lack access to campus-based prevention efforts. Little is known about their receptiveness to alcohol interventions. This study evaluated NCEA receptiveness to a variety of alcohol interventions and examined possible predictors of receptiveness.

Participants (N = 242, M_age = 26, range = 18-30) were recruited from an online survey platform and averaged 11.82 (SD = 6.41) past-year alcohol consequences. Participants rated receptiveness to 20 alcohol intervention modalities. We conducted t-tests to assess differences in receptiveness across interventions, ANOVAs to assess differences in receptiveness by gender and treatment history, and regressions to assess the relationship between receptiveness and drinking risk indicators.

Most participants were receptive to discussions with friends (80%) and family (67%) and to formal interventions like individual therapy in-person (75%) and via videoconference (65%). Less than 25% of participants reported openness to discuss drinking with religious leaders or human resource professionals. Alcohol severity, motivation to change, treatment history, and negative affect were associated with greater receptiveness to a variety of interventions, including medications.

Most NCEAs would be open to a variety of alcohol interventions, especially conversations with friends and family and individual therapy. Participants with greater alcohol severity, negative affect, motivation to change, or alcohol treatment history were more receptive to a wider range of interventions. Results support efforts to provide NCEAs with myriad low-barrier alcohol interventions, including brief individual therapy and informal peer and family-based approaches.