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 Fraternity members continue to drink as much and as often as usual,
even while enrolled in programs aimed at reducing drinking, and they
have the same number of alcohol-related problems – such as injury,
sexual assault and expulsion - as brethren not involved in programs,
the researchers conclude in the journal Health Psychology.
“This was somewhat surprising given the success of alcohol risk
reduction interventions in other student groups,” said lead author
Lori Scott-Sheldon, a senior scientist in the Centers for Behavioral
and Preventive Medicine at The Miriam Hospital in Providence, Rhode
Island.
Members of Greek letter organizations, both fraternities and
sororities, tend to drink more alcohol, drink more often and
experience more alcohol-related consequences compared with students
not in Greek organizations, the researchers note.
To determine how well interventions might work in these groups, the
team searched for studies that tracked the outcomes for individual
students and found 15 papers that met their criteria.
The studies included a total of 6,026 student members of Greek
organizations and 21 different alcohol intervention programs. Only
one in five participating students were women and nearly all were
white.
The research team determined how well the interventions worked by
looking at how much students reduced the amount they drank per week
or per month, how often students drank and how many alcohol-related
problems they experienced.
Most of the interventions were given to students in groups and
provided alcohol education, such as explaining how to calculate
blood-alcohol levels, introduced strategies to moderate drinking and
addressed high-risk situations like parties.
Most interventions did not focus on helping students set goals for
themselves, give personal feedback or talk about social norms or
motives for drinking.
Overall, the researchers found, students in intervention programs
tended to drink more per week or per month compared to those who did
not participate in the program, but the study team notes that these
results may not have been reliable.
Shorter interventions and those that challenged the positive
expectations students had about drinking at specific events tended
to work best for fraternity members. Other approaches had little
effect.
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“Because there were no interventions targeted specifically to
sorority women, we don’t really know how well interventions may or
may not work for sorority members,” Scott-Sheldon told Reuters
Health by email.
Steven Giles of Wake Forest University in Charlotte, North Carolina,
who studies college drinking, is not convinced that interventions do
not work on fraternity members. The study team did not include
studies of interventions that use mass media or rely on the school
community to help, he noted.
There are serious consequences to excessive drinking, said Giles,
who was not involved in the review. “Students who are heavy college
drinkers are more likely to struggle with alcoholism in adulthood,”
he told Reuters Health by email.
Greek-organization members may view some alcohol-related problems
like blacking out, fighting or driving under the influence as a
badge of membership or something to be glorified, he said.
Giles warned, however, that people who experience these problems and
others, like sexual assault, can face lifelong psychological or
legal issues. “We should all take this problem seriously,” he said.
New interventions that are specifically targeted toward Greek
members and their attitudes about drinking are needed, Scott-Sheldon
said.
“We also want to engage Greek leaders in health promotion
initiatives, making sure that they have a place at the table and are
part of the solution,” she said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1TEA0ZI Health Psychology, online May 16,
2016.
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