Talking to Undergraduates about Binge Drinking: What Channels Should we Use?

Binge drinking continues to be a serious problem among college students in the United States. Research shows that health communication campaigns can encourage more responsible alcohol use, but these campaigns must be carefully designed and targeted. One way to increase the effectiveness of health campaigns is to choose the most effective communication channels.

This study surveyed 410 students at a large public research university in the Southwestern U.S. Students reported they were unlikely to seek information about alcohol use, but were most likely to seek such information in face-to-face interactions and from friends or relatives. Students’ next choice was online media, followed by mass media outlets and health care providers. Interestingly, students who had never participated in binge drinking were significantly more likely to seek information about alcohol use from health care providers, support groups, and mentors than students who had engaged in binge drinking.

Student information seeking was also compared by sex and ethnicity. No significant differences were found between males and females or between Hispanics, non-Hispanic Whites, and students of other ethnicities.  

These findings suggest that health campaigns might benefit from leveraging students’ tendency to learn about alcohol from friends and relatives rather than from mass media outlets or health care experts. Viral marketing campaigns designed to foster face-to-face conversations with student opinion leaders might be more effective than mass media messages. Furthermore, since non-binge drinkers were more likely to seek alcohol-related information from health care experts, encouraging binge drinkers to do the same might be productive, too.