Identifying effective components of alcohol misuse prevention programs.

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Despite the interest in programs for the prevention of alcohol misuse and alcoholism, the effectiveness of many preventive techniques has not been demonstrated empirically. An experiment tested the efficacy of the following 3 informational components of many alcohol misuse prevention programs: the severity of the consequences of excessive drinking, an individual''s personal vulnerability to these unpleasant consequences, the effectiveness of moderate drinking in preventing these problems. These 3 components are not only familiar parts of many alcohol education programs but are also important constructs in theories of preventive health behaviors. These theories and concepts were applied systematically to the study of programs for the prevention of alcohol misuse and alcoholism, using 100 college-student drinkers as subjects. If the program convinced the drinkers that moderate drinking was an effective means of avoiding severe alcohol-related problems, the stronger were their intentions to moderate their drinking; if moderate drinking was believed to be an ineffective coping response, beliefs in personal vulnerability actually weakened intentions to drink responsibly. An identical pattern of findings was obtained in a previous investigation of the efficacy of anti-smoking campaigns. If a preventive response recommended by health professionals (e.g., drink moderately) is perceived as an ineffective means of avoiding unpleasant consequences, audience members will reject that recommendation; if the preventive response is perceived as effective, people will adopt it.

This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit: