Beverage Server Training: Results of an Environmental Strategy to Reduce Binge and Underage Drinking in Retail Establishments Surrounding College Campuses

Binge drinking and underage drinking among students is a persistent problem for college campuses and their surrounding communities. Particularly, underage student access to alcohol at retail establishments and service to intoxicated persons are issues of interest to both city and campus officials. Many efforts have been directed at retail establishments with varying degrees of success. One intervention in particular is training of employees at retail establishments who serve alcohol. The delivery, content, cost, and outcomes of these training modules have all varied significantly.

This evaluation focuses on the University of Missouri's Wellness Resource Center's beverage server training program. This training program overcomes many challenges others have faced. This program is free to any Missouri establishment that has a liquor license or business establishment for training of servers and it is an individual, online course. These two aspects in particular overcome two significant barriers to other server training; cost and staff turnover.

This session will focus on the content of the curriculum, how campuses have promoted the course, and what has led to their successes. Additionally, characteristics of servers completing the course and evaluation outcomes will be presented. Outcomes include knowledge of state law, attitudes about serving minors and intoxicated persons, and skills based training (i.e. recognizing when a person is intoxicated, recognizing fake identification) which are determined through a paired pre-post test comparison with post-test data being collected at six week follow-up.