You are here:

The Influence of a Web-based Course on Alcohol Consumption and Binge Drinking Behavior Among First Year Students
DISSERTATION

, North Carolina State University, United States

North Carolina State University . Awarded

Abstract

Underage drinking and risky alcohol consumption are issues that have garnered a great deal of national and local attention and subsequently many prevention efforts. The consumption of alcohol and binge drinking by minors jeopardizes not only their quality of life and academic success, but also places the individual and others at an increased risk for negative outcomes. Much of this attention and effort has been targeted towards college age students. Appropriately so, since according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), approximately eighty percent of college students consume alcohol with more than forty percent reporting engaging in binge drinking at least once during the past 2 weeks from questioning (NIAAA, 2002). This project explored one university’s effort to address the issues of underage drinking and binge drinking among its first-year students who were under the age of twenty-one. As part of a multi-faceted alcohol prevention campaign, a public university began requiring that all first-year students under the age of twenty-one complete AlcoholEdu, a population level, web-based alcohol education course, before beginning their initial Fall semester. This study examined how the AlcoholEdu course impacted the consumption of alcohol and binge drinking behavior of first-year students thirty to forty-five days after course completion and again the following Spring semester. Overall, there was not a statistically significant decrease in average number of alcoholic drinks consumed or percentage of students binge drinking post AlcoholEdu or in the following Spring semester. However, post hoc analyses revealed that after completing the AlcoholEdu course, first-year students with a history of alcohol consumption decreased or stabilized their use to previous high school drinking levels. Unfortunately, the gains obtained in the Fall semester post AlcoholEdu were no longer evident in the following Spring semester with average number of alcoholic drinks and binge drinking almost doubling among first-year students.

Citation

Robinson, L.D. The Influence of a Web-based Course on Alcohol Consumption and Binge Drinking Behavior Among First Year Students. Ph.D. thesis, North Carolina State University. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from .

This record was imported from ProQuest on October 23, 2013. [Original Record]

Citation reproduced with permission of ProQuest LLC.

For copies of dissertations and theses: (800) 521-0600/(734) 761-4700 or https://dissexpress.umi.com

Keywords