Designing binge-drinking prevention campaigns that target Hispanic/Latino college students: Importance of individual attitudes and real-time peer support

• Main Authors: Gabriela Morales, Judith McIntosh White, Lisa German, Mario Dozal, Josh Bentley, David Weiss
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2021-01-01
• Series: Cogent Social Sciences
• Subjects: binge drinking; college students; hispanic/latino college student; alcohol abuse prevention campaigns
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2021.1929681

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.