Characterization of Risky Drinking College Drivers and Readiness to Change

Screening risky drinking college drivers is important in prevention research. This study validates existing impaired driving risk criterion by Schumacher et al. (2002) on 2,659 undergraduates where 64.8% were female, 54.3% were white, average age = 20.7 (SD=18.8). Drinking and drinking and driving were assessed by Impaired Driving Screener and readiness rulers to assess behavior change. There were 3 risk groups based on number of drinking and driving episodes in last 30 days [low= 0 (n=2122 or 79.8%); moderate=1 (n=231 or 8.7%); high=2 or more (n=306 or 11.5%)]. Most high risk students (90.5%) were monthly drinkers (intoxicated 1 or more times/month) while 65.4% and 23.8% in moderate and low groups drank monthly. High risk (42.5%) were more likely to binge drink (> 5 drinks at least twice/week) compared to moderate (10.8%) and low risk (4.2%) groups. All high and moderate risk students drove after drinking in lifetime, but so did 30% of low risk group. High risk group drove after drinking 4.0 (SD=3.6) times in past 30 days. High (92.5%) and moderate (86.6%) risk students were lifetime passengers of a drinking driver compared to 54.1% in low risk group. Twice as many high risk students (5.9%) were arrested for drinking and driving as moderate (3%) compared to 0.9% for the low group. Moderate risk students were more confident to quit drinking and driving than high risk students. Similar was found for importance and readiness constructs. Findings support screening criterion is associated with differential risk behavior and readiness to change indicants.