Alcohol Treatment and Prevention Systems at U.S. Colleges

Heavy alcohol use among college students is widespread and associated with serious negative health and social consequences. Colleges address these problems using various approaches including screening, intervention, treatment, policy and enforcement. However, little is known about current practices of colleges across all of these components and the extent to which these efforts are integrated. As part of a three-year study to assess college systems that address student alcohol use we conducted online surveys of three types of campus leaders (directors of health care, campus administrators, directors of enforcement/security) at a representative sample of 569 four-year colleges in the U.S. (response rates = 61%). We assessed college policy and practice in screening, intervention, treatment, control policies, and enforcement and used latent class analyses to identify how these approaches to alcohol group together. We will describe results of these analyses, identify distinct classes of alcohol systems (e.g., campuses that implement all components, campuses that do not implement any of the components) and describe specific campus (e.g., private vs. public, small vs. large enrollment) and community (e.g., population size) characteristics that are associated with specific classes of college alcohol systems. Finally, we will describe whether some campuses are implementing comprehensive alcohol systems and identify which components can be strengthened across campuses.