University of San Diego Freshman Parent-Teen Research Initiative

Funder: NIAAA

Start Date: 2004

The proposed study is a joint effort between the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, The Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Rhode Island, and focuses on a specific form of intervention based on parent-teen communication approaches to preventing and reducing problem drinking. The overarching aim is to design, conduct, and evaluate an intervention study on entering college freshmen at USD employing the Parent-Based Intervention (PBI) protocol developed by Turrisi and colleagues (1999, 2000, 2001). The PBI approach was selected because of its demonstrated efficacy in reducing heavy drinking and alcohol-related consequences among entering college students (e.g., Turrisi, Jaccard, Taki, Dunnam, & Grimes, 2001). PBI is also an approach that appears particularly well-suited to the college environment and characteristics of the freshmen students at USD (as described in section B.3. Institutional Relevance).

This proposal seeks to achieve the following aims:

  1. Prepare and implement an intervention that enhances the preventive influence of parents on the alcohol abuse of students at USD.
  2. Determine the effects of parental intervention on the subsequent alcohol consumption patterns of students at USD.
  3. Determine the effects of parental intervention on the problems associated with abusive alcohol consumption by students at USD.
  4. Test mediating variables for the effects of parental intervention on the alcohol consumption patterns and alcohol-related problems among students at USD.

Investigators

Rob Turrisi
Professor of Biobehavioral Health
rjt13@psu.edu
Louise Stanger
Lecturer, School of Social Work
San Diego State University
Michael Ichiyama
Professor of Psychology
University of San Diego
ichiyama@sandiego.edu
Mark Wood
Associate Professor of Psychology
University of Rhode Island
Mark_Wood@uri.edu
Roger Hartman
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
Judith Arroyo
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism