Interest in a stepped approach model (SAM): identification of recruitment strategies for university alcohol programs

This study evaluates interest in a stepped approach model (SAM) of service delivery and identifies variables to enhance recruitment to alcohol programs. Subjects were 2,443 college student drinkers (1,420 men and 1,023 women) at a large midwestern university (selected by stratified systematic sampling) who completed a questionnaire on drinking behavior and interest in five intervention steps. Results indicated that there was more interest in interventions that required less time, which supports predictions of SAM. Overall lack of interest peaked at 67% for men and 65% for women and did not change significantly across the last three steps of SAM, which included traditional interventions of group and individual counseling. The data suggest that the stepped approach is more viable than conventional approaches, recruitment is unquestionably an exigent research priority because of the overwhelming lack of interest in alcohol programs, and specific variables that were identified may be important for recruiting particular subgroups.