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Explored the experiences of public university students (N = 1,573) in five domains (e.g., mental health, remote learning) during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and whether these experiences differed as a function of college generation status. Mental health challenges were observed, with first-generation students reporting higher depression, anxiety, and pandemic-related stress than continuing-generation students. One-fourth of students reported suicidal ideation/suicide attempts since the start of the pandemic, but few (15%; fewer first- than continuing-generation) had accessed mental health services. Other common stressors included having to self-isolate due to exposure to, living with someone who tested positive for, and having been diagnosed with, COVID-19. Disruptions in social connection were prevalent. Students reported limited access to various social supports, feeling isolated, and having endured close relationship losses. Remote learning challenges included having to share devices, lacking reliable Internet and dedicated home learning spaces, and being disturbed by others at home (more first- than continuing-generation students). The pandemic has widened the divide between first- and continuing-generation students and has exacerbated the challenges faced by all students (and created new ones). Identifying these challenges is an essential first step toward developing methods for enhancing student well-being in the higher education 'new normal.' KEYWORDS: COVID-19, pandemic, mental health, first-generation students, social connection, 'Hello professor, these last two days we have been dealing with my niece in the hospital with covid [sic] and she has pneumonia at the same time and she's been [...]

Objective: Despite the commonly observed co-occurrence of obsessive–compulsive symptoms (OCS) and substance use in clinical populations, few researchers have examined potential mechanisms which contribute to this relationship. This study assessed the mediating role of drinking motives in the relationship between OCS, alcohol consumption, and its resulting health risks among U.S. adults. Methods: Adult participants (n = 1966; Mage = 47.72, SD = 17.91; 76.30% female; 86.10% non-Hispanic White) sourced from Research Match answered an online questionnaire containing measures related to substance use and anxiety-related symptoms. Results: As hypothesized, there was a significant positive indirect path between OCS and both alcohol consumption and risky alcohol use through coping motives. However, there were also small indirect effects of OCS through social motivations for consumption and conformity motivations for risky alcohol use. Conclusions: These results add evidence that coping motives play a role in OCS and alcohol misuse and highlights the need to also consider drinking motives related to social facilitation and conformity in those with co-occurring OCS and alcohol misuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social anxiety symptoms may increase risk for heavy drinking and alcohol-related negative consequences during pregaming (drinking before a social event); efforts to identify malleable psychosocial risk factors are needed. This study examined cross-sectional relationships between social anxiety symptoms, pregaming behaviors, negative alcohol-related consequences, and pregaming-specific motives, moderated by gender. Undergraduates who endorsed current drinking (N = 7528) completed a self-report survey on drinking behaviors as part of a large, multisite study. Social anxiety symptoms were not associated with lifetime history of pregaming. Among participants who engaged in past 30-day pregaming, social anxiety symptoms were related to more negative alcohol-related consequences, greater interpersonal enhancement motives, and lower situational control motives. Social anxiety symptoms were not associated with pregaming quantity. The associations between social anxiety symptoms and pregaming frequency, situational control, and intimate pursuit motives varied by gender. Findings highlight social anxiety symptoms and gender as important factors associated with pregaming-specific motives and behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drinking games and prepartying (i.e., drinking before going to a social gathering/event) have emerged as high-risk drinking behaviors in high school students. The present study examines the current prepartying behaviors of high school students who report current participation in extreme consumption games (e.g., Chugging) with those who do not. High school students (N=182) reporting current drinking games participation completed anonymous surveys. Gamers who prepartied frequently (vs. those who did not) were approximately 1.5 times more likely to play extreme consumption games, even after controlling for demographics, typical consumption, and participation in other types of drinking games. Practitioners should target adolescents who participate in extreme consumption games, particularly those who participate in this high-risk activity as a form of prepartying.

BackgroundDrinking game participation has been associated with increased frequency and quantity of alcohol use, as well as alcohol-related problems, in college students. To date, the assessment of drinking games typically entails the use of self-developed measures of frequency of participation and amount of alcohol consumed while playing.ObjectivesThe Hazardous Drinking Games Measure (HDGM) is the first effort to create a comprehensive yet concise method of assessing drinking game participation. The HDGM assesses drinking during games, the specific types of drinking games played, and negative consequences experienced as a result of playing drinking games.MethodData from three samples of college students (n = 1002) who completed the HDGM and other self-report questionnaires of drinking behaviors were used for exploratory analyses.ResultsExploratory analyses suggest that the HDGM adequately captures the nuances of drinking game participation in this population and demonstrates initial evidence of good content and criterion-related validity and test-retest reliability. However, the HDGM did not predict risky drinking above and beyond standard measures of drinks per week and alcohol-related problems in any samples.ConclusionThe HDGM may be useful for campus-wide assessment of drinking games and as a source of game-specific feedback when integrated into campus prevention and intervention efforts.

Drinking games are a high-risk social drinking activity consisting of rules and guidelines that determine when and how much to drink (Polizzotto et al., 2007). Borsari's (2004) seminal review paper on drinking games in the college environment succinctly captured the published literature as of February 2004. However, research on college drinking games has grown exponentially during the last decade, necessitating an updated review of the literature. This review provides an in-depth summary and synthesis of current drinking games research (e.g., characteristics of drinking games, and behavioral, demographic, social, and psychological influences on participation) and suggests several promising areas for future drinking games research. This review is intended to foster a better understanding of drinking game behaviors among college students and improve efforts to reduce the negative impact of this practice on college campuses.

College students involved in Greek life (i.e., members of fraternities and sororities) are at heightened risk for experiencing greater alcohol use and problems compared to non-members. Protective behavioral strategies (PBS) are effective at reducing alcohol-related harm, particularly among those at increased risk for alcohol-related consequences. Thus, Greek life students may experience great benefit from PBS use; however, few studies have examined PBS use among Greek-affiliated college students. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether relations among PBS use, alcohol use, and alcohol-related problems varied according to Greek life status. Participants were 2879 college students (25.3% Greek- affiliated; 69.1% female) from 12 US universities who reported past-month alcohol use. Participants completed measures of Greek life status, alcohol use and problems, and PBS use via online survey. Greek life students reported more weekly drinks, more alcohol-related problems, and less frequent PBS use than non-Greek students. A moderated mediation model found that alcohol use mediated the relation between PBS use and alcohol-related consequences, such that more frequent PBS use was associated with lower alcohol use, which was in turn associated with fewer negative consequences. Further, there was a significant moderation effect, such that the negative relationship between PBS use and alcohol use was strengthened for Greek life students. The current study extends previous work indicating that PBS are particularly beneficial for individuals at heightened risk for experiencing alcohol-related problems to also include members of Greek life. Interventions promoting PBS use may assist in decreasing alcohol-related harm among Greek life students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many young adults who are enrolled in a university play drinking games (DG), a risky drinking practice that is known to facilitate heavy alcohol consumption. DG participation is associated with increased risk for harm and as such, identifying university students at risk for experiencing DG harms is key. Standardized instruments designed to assess DG behavior and related outcomes are limited by having no established cutoffs to identify those individuals who play DG who are at risk for hazardous alcohol use. In the present study, we developed a short form of the Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire-Drinking Games (B-YAACQ-DG) for use among university student samples based on differential item functioning (DIF)-free items across gender, and established cutoffs indicating hazardous use using receiver-operating characteristic curves with AUDIT scores of 6+ as the reference standard. Students (N = 1,299; ages 18–25; 67.7% women; 71.0% White) from four large public universities in the United States completed a confidential online survey. Although gender-based DIF on several items on the B-YAACQ-DG emerged, there were 16-items that were DIF-free across men and women. An optimal cutoff score for detection of hazardous use for the full version (23-items) of the B-YAACQ-DG was experiencing 4+ DG consequences in the past month, and 3+ consequences for the 16-item DIF-free version. Health practitioners and alcohol researchers can use the B-YAACQ-DG alongside the AUDIT, to identify university students who play DGs that are in need of intervention. The B-YAACQ-DG can also be used to assess specific DG harms experienced among students who play DGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Negative urgency (NU), the tendency to act rashly during negative emotional states, is a robust risk factor for alcohol misuse that is posited to function in part through alcohol‐related cognitions. Nonetheless, relatively little research has examined mood‐based fluctuations in such cognitions, which could help to explain how the trait of NU translates to impulsive alcohol‐related behaviors. We examined how NU impacted several alcohol cognitions (positive/negative alcohol expectancies, positive/negative alcohol valuations, and alcohol craving for positive/negative emotional reinforcement) before and after negative, neutral, or positive mood inductions. We hypothesized that NU would predict greater and more favorable endorsement of alcohol and its effects following negative (vs. positive or neutral) mood induction. Methods: Participants (N = 428) were southern‐midwestern college students recruited for an online experiment. Following the provision of consent, participants rated NU and preinduction alcohol cognitions, and were then randomly assigned to one of three (negative, neutral, or positive) mood inductions; subsequently, postinduction alcohol‐cognition ratings were immediately obtained. We conducted six robust multilevel linear models (one per DV) examining NU's influence on within‐person changes in alcohol cognitions across each mood induction. Results: No three‐way interactions were identified and only one two‐way interaction involving NU was identified. There were main effects across mood induction conditions and time points for NU predicting greater endorsement of positive and negative alcohol outcome expectancies, and greater alcohol craving for positive and negative emotional reinforcement. Conclusions: Greater NU predicts greater perceived likelihood of alcohol's effects, alongside greater desire for mood improvement from alcohol. The absence of three‐way interactive effects indicates NU's influence on mood‐dependent fluctuations in alcohol cognitions may manifest over longer timescales (e.g., months and years), involve alternative cognitive processes (e.g., drinking motives and implicit alcohol cognitions), and apply more broadly to desires for mood improvement than purely negative emotional reinforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alcohol intoxication may influence how bystanders interpret other people's consent and refusal cues. We examined the effects of alcohol intoxication on participants' perceptions of characters' consent and refusal indicators in a fictional vignette depicting an alcohol-involved sexual encounter. Young adults (n = 119, 52% women) participated in an alcohol administration experiment examining the influence of acute intoxication on bystander perceptions during a vignette depicting a character who is intoxicated and declines a sexual advance from another character, who ignores her refusal and continues to pursue sexual activity. Participants were randomly assigned to an alcohol or non-alcohol condition and then guided through a semi-structured interview in which we asked about the characters' consent and refusal cues. Interviews were analyzed using both inductive and deductive coding. Most participants eventually indicated the encounter was nonconsensual, but approximately 9% of participants described the encounter as entirely consensual and another 42% of participants described the interaction as initially consensual and then nonconsensual. Participants discussed nuanced accounts of consent and refusal cues, including indicators related to alcohol consumption. Disregarding intoxication and gender, participants eventually recognized the situation as nonconsensual and thus potentially risky. However, some participants recognized this risk earlier in the encounter than others. Consequently, bystanders who recognize risk later in a situation may have fewer opportunities to intervene before a situation escalates. We recommend sexual assault prevention educators take a more nuanced approach when discussing consent and refusal indicators, emphasizing contextual factors that may indicate risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: High rates of sexual victimization among college students necessitate further study of factors associated with sexual assault risk detection. The present study examined how social information processing relates to sexual assault risk detection as a function of sexual assault victimization history. Participants: 225 undergraduates (M[subscript age] = 19.12, SD = 1.44; 66% women). Methods: Participants completed an online questionnaire assessing victimization history, an emotion identification task, and a sexual assault risk detection task between June 2013 and May 2014. Results: Emotion identification moderated the association between victimization history and risk detection such that sexual assault survivors with lower emotion identification accuracy also reported the least risk in a sexual assault vignette. Conclusions: Findings suggest that differences in social information processing, specifically recognition of others' emotions, are associated with sexual assault risk detection. College prevention programs could incorporate emotional awareness strategies, particularly for men and women who are sexual assault survivors.

Drinking games are widespread on college campuses and pose health risks to their players. Although there has been considerable research progress in the college drinking games literature, there does not appear to be a standard definition of the term "drinking games." Researchers, however, have attempted to classify and categorize drinking games in a systematic manner. For example, one category of drinking games (e.g., chugging, keg stands) is often referred to as consumption or extreme consumption games. Questions remain as to whether or how these types of games align with researchers' definitions of drinking games or the categorization systems advanced by researchers in the field. Potential challenges regarding the definition and categorization of drinking games, particularly with respect to extreme consumption types of games, are discussed.

ObjectivesTo examine how legal age status, gender, and self-reported reasons for pregaming are linked to pregaming for two common drinking contexts: a bar and a Greek party.MethodParticipants who reported pregaming at least once a month (n = 2888 students aged 18-25 years) were recruited from 30 colleges/universities across the United States.ResultsMany students pregame for social reasons regardless of pregaming destination. Multivariate analyses indicated that legal age students were more likely than underage students to pregame before going to a bar, whereas the opposite was true with respect to pregaming for a Greek party. Women were more likely than men to pregame before going to a bar or a Greek party, whereas men reported higher levels of consumption while pregaming for these destinations compared with women.ConclusionsThe present findings suggest areas for targeted intervention efforts and promising avenues for research on context-specific pregaming behaviors among college students.

Limited qualitative research has been conducted to understand the experiences of victims of sexual harassment or assault (SHA) when a bystander intervenes. Even less research has focused on the consequences of bystander actions from the victim's perspective, particularly regarding the aggressor's subsequent behavior toward the victim and occurrence of verbal or physical harm to those involved. This qualitative study aimed to address these limitations with the following research questions: (a) what strategies did victims of SHA identify bystanders use when intervening? (b) what strategies were present when the aggressor's behavior was stopped, paused, or continued toward the victim? and (c) what strategies were present when verbal or physical harm occurred to someone involved? Adult women between the ages of 18 to 30 (N = 25, college student = 80%) were interviewed about one situation of bystander intervention during SHA since the age of 16 years. Findings suggest that victims identified direct, distance, distract, delegate, and proximity strategies by bystanders. Most participants reported that the aggressor's behavior stopped or paused following bystander action, and in these cases, at least one distance or direct strategy was reportedly used most frequently. Approximately, 24% and 8% of participants reported verbal or physical harm, respectively, to at least one party. Direct and distance strategies were most frequently mentioned in experiences of SHA that involved harm. When the aggressor's behavior continued (i.e., was not altered during the event) despite bystander actions, strategies most frequently reported included distract, delegate, and proximity. Together, results suggest that bystander intervention training programs and future research may be needed to understand under what contexts certain strategies successfully prevent or thwart SHA while maintaining emotional and physical safety for those involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we describe several role-playing exercises on acculturation and relevant cultural adjustment processes that we incorporated into Tomcho and Foel's classroom activity on acculturation, and we report data that examine subsequent changes in students' responses on pretest and posttest measures shortly after the activity and present qualitative themes derived from students' reflections taken from an assignment at the end of the semester. We found no increases in students' perceptions that role-playing can help them gain a better understanding of acculturation. However, there were increases in students' awareness that acculturation is a real-world phenomenon, their understanding of how acculturation can impact people's lives, and their sensitivity and empathy for people who face some of the challenges associated with acculturation, even after controlling for students' pretest level of interest in cultural issues. Furthermore, thematic analyses indicated that students learned some of the challenges associated with acculturation and were able to label personal experiences associated with acculturation. They also gained concrete knowledge about and in-depth realization of the concept of acculturation. Instructors who teach psychology classes can use this exercise to complement traditional methods of teaching.

Objective: Although binge drinking is commonly defined as the consumption of at least 5 drinks in 1 sitting for men and 4 for women, the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) defines binge drinking as the consumption of 6 or more drinks in 1 sitting for both men and women. This study examined the effect of using gender-specific binge drinking definitions on overall AUDIT scores. Participants: Participants were 331 college men and 1224 college women. Methods: Participants completed a self-report questionnaire, which included the AUDIT. Results: Findings showed that defining binge drinking as 4 or more drinks for women, rather than 6 or more, does impact their AUDIT scores and could affect the percentage of women classified as hazardous users. Among men, AUDIT scores were unaffected by the use of a gender-specific definition of binge drinking. Conclusions: Results suggest that the AUDIT might be underidentifying hazardous users among college women. (Contains 2 figures.)

In the present study, we examined a bidimensional model of acculturation (which includes both heritage and U.S. practices, values, and identifications) in relation to hazardous alcohol use, illicit drug use, unsafe sexual behavior, and impaired driving. A sample of 3,251 first- and second-generation immigrant students from 30 U.S. colleges and universities completed measures of behavioral acculturation; cultural values (individualism, collectivism, and self-construal); ethnic and U.S. identity; and patterns of alcohol and drug use, engagement in potentially unsafe sexual activities, and driving while (or riding with a driver who was) intoxicated. Results indicate that heritage practices and collectivist values were generally protective against health risk behaviors, with collectivist values most strongly and consistently protective. Nonetheless, heritage identifications were positively associated with sexual risk taking for Hispanics. U.S. practices, values, and identifications were not consistently related to risk behavior participation. Results are discussed in terms of bidimensional approaches to acculturation, the immigrant paradox, and implications for counseling practice. (Contains 1 figure, 4 tables, and 1 footnote.)