Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Objective: The Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws (EUDL) program is the first large-scale federal effort focusing exclusively on underage drinking. We report on the program’s one-year impact on law enforcement and youth drinking behavior in local communities funded in 1999 and 2000.
Method: We used a quasi-experimental design, comparing 69 communities that received EUDL funding with 69 matched comparison communities. A telephone survey was conducted with a repeated cross-sectional sample of youth at baseline (N=2384) and one-year follow up (N=2418) to obtain self-report data on alcohol use, alcohol risk behaviors, and negative consequences of alcohol use. Law enforcement officials in each community were surveyed at baseline (N=202) and one-year follow up (N=205) to obtain data on underage drinking enforcement efforts.
Results: After one year of intervention, law enforcement agencies in communities receiving EUDL funding showed relative increases in the median numbers of compliance checks, Cops in Shops operations, and arrests of youth for purchases, possession, or use of alcohol. Small reductions were observed in the number of youth reporting alcohol use, non-violent consequences of alcohol use, perceptions of alcohol use among peers, and attempts to purchase alcohol, although there were no statistically significant differences between youth in intervention and comparison communities.
Conclusions: The EUDL program has produced important changes in the ways local law enforcement agencies address underage drinking. However, these efforts have not yet produced concomitant changes in youth alcohol use.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The purpose of this cross-cultural study is to examine whether cultural attitudes of students toward drinking provide a “setting” or “cultural context” in which a range of their socially acceptable behaviors may or may not include drinking. By combining the data from a random sample of 4,000 WSU undergraduate students collected using a web survey with the data from in-depth interviews with a sample of 40 students the study revealed a strong alcohol-culture interaction. The results suggest that each individual member’s drinking patterns are influenced not only by the social expectations for drinking behavior which constitute the college students group norms, but also by the norms of the culture to which one belongs.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The purpose of this paper was to assess the impact of public self-consciousness and a cross-situational reactivity to embarrassing encounters on alcohol consumption among college students. Extending prior analyses of the relationship between public self-awareness and alcohol use, we examined the role of perceived peer drinking as a potential conditioning variable. Drawing on the central tenets of tension-reduction and self-presentational models, we tested competing sets of hypotheses concerning the relationship between beliefs about normative drinking practices, public self-consciousness, embarrassability, and drinking behavior. The analysis of self-report data from two undergraduate samples (n=276 and n=149) suggested that public self-consciousness and embarrassability affect alcohol use primarily among students with friends who drink heavily. Among these individuals, embarrassability moderated the public self-consciousness-alcohol use relationship in a manner consistent with the predictions of self-presentational theories. While individuals high in public self-consciousness who exhibited little reactivity to embarrassing situations were heavy drinkers, public self-consciousness was associated with low levels of alcohol consumption among students high in embarrassability. Neither set of analyses supported the tension-reduction hypothesis.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Objectives. This study hypothesized that chronic stressors associated with an everyday social role (work) would interact with a traumatic macrostressor (9/11/01) in predicting mental health. Methods. Mail surveys were returned at wave 3 of a workplace cohort study, in some cases before and in others after 9/ll/01. Questionnaires assessed decision latitude, sexual harassment, generalized workplace abuse, distress and drinking. Regression analyses addressed the main effect of 9/11 and interactions between 9/11 and work stressors, controlling for baseline mental health.

Results. The main effect of 9/11 on elevated drinking was significant for women but not men. For women, work stressors significantly interacted with experiencing 9/ll for drinking and anxiety outcomes.

Conclusions. Women experiencing chronic work stressors were most vulnerable to elevated distress and drinking after 9/11.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: School-based alcohol prevention programs are essential in helping to reduce and eliminate alcohol use among adolescents. Evaluative mechanisms to assess these programs are also vital to developing effective educational strategies that address the circumstances that place adolescents at risk for underage drinking and driving under the influence. This paper will present methods and preliminary results of an evaluation conducted on an experiential drinking and driving prevention program for high school students. The Shattered Dreams program is a first-generation model of school-based alcohol prevention that incorporates simulated alcohol-related consequences with various community elements.