Addressing Drinking Among College Students: A Review of the Empirical Literature

Alcohol abuse on the college campus has been identified as a major health concern. Alcohol prevention and treatment programs have been widely used as one method of addressing this problem. This review describes 15 empirically evaluated programs that have used a comparison group and have examined changes in actual drinking behavior. Programs varied widely in both emphasis and delivery. Overall, it is concluded that strictly educational approaches were associated with the least effect, while other types of attitudinal and skills-based approaches produced roughly equivalent and modest reductions in drinking behavior. Additionally, program duration seemed to be unrelated to outcome. Findings are discussed in terms of their impact on future studies and current collegiate alcohol programming.