Abstract

Among U.S. college students, alcohol abuse, including binge-drinking, is an increasingly serious and pervasive problem. Student alcohol abuse can lead to societal and individual impacts, including “increasing rates of driving under the influence, unintentional injuries, and deaths, and a host of other social, psychological, and physiological problems”. Discovering particular characteristics and patterns of communication during the college/university life stage may assist the design of more effective health promotion campaigns aimed at alcohol abuse prevention/cessation.Unfortunately, to date, interventions aimed at changing student behaviors and environmental facilitators have had limited success. In particular, little research has focused on understanding the nature of appeals targeting Hispanic/Latino students (e.g.). Such interventions may benefit from additional focus on increasing college students’ social support reliance and/or on boosting their perceptions of self-efficacy and from further identification of specific appeals resonating with Hispanic/Latino students. The present study investigates students’ self-reported levels of both of these factors and provides implications for including appeals targeting these factors in health intervention campaigns.

摘要

在美国大学生中，酗酒，包括酗酒，是一个日益严重和普遍的问题。学生酗酒会导致社会和个人影响，包括“酒后驾驶、意外伤害和死亡以及许多其他社会、心理和生理问题的发生率增加”。在大学/大学生活阶段发现特定的特征和交流模式可能有助于设计更有效的旨在预防/戒酒的健康促进运动。不幸的是，迄今为止，旨在改变学生行为和环境促进者的干预措施取得的成功有限. 特别是，很少有研究关注了解针对西班牙裔/拉丁裔学生（例如）的诉求的性质。此类干预措施可能受益于额外关注增加大学生对社会支持的依赖和/或提高他们对自我效能的看法，以及进一步确定与西班牙裔/拉丁裔学生产生共鸣的特定吸引力。本研究调查了学生对这两个因素的自我报告水平，并为将针对这些因素的呼吁纳入健康干预活动提供了启示。