College students’ risky drinking and cannabis use are major public health problems. Almost 80% of college students report consuming alcohol in the past year and more than 1 in 3 report heavy episodic drinking in the past month. Reports also show that college is a high-risk window for cannabis use. This is highly concerning considering that the potency of present-day cannabis has markedly increased, cannabis use and consequences have also risen, and availability continues to grow due to increased legalization across the U.S. Further, a number of studies have shown an increase in co-use of alcohol and cannabis (use of both substances in the same day), which results in significantly more problems compared to either alcohol-only or cannabis-only use.

Our brief parent-based intervention for college students has shown efficacy in reducing risky drinking, but it does not currently have content to address cannabis use or co-use of alcohol and cannabis. The current study will move the field of prevention science forward by testing a modified version of our parent intervention with incoming first-year undergraduate students and their parent or guardian that includes content for them to have broader discussions about alcohol and cannabis use.

Goals

• Evaluate the effectiveness of the brief, parent-based intervention on primary outcomes of alcohol and cannabis use and secondary outcomes of consequences of alcohol and cannabis use.
• Examine the process by which the intervention influences parents’ and college students’ behaviors.
• Identify subgroups for whom the intervention is more versus less effective.

Study Design

The design is a randomized controlled trial with 5 waves of data collection (pre-intervention baseline, 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-month follow-ups).