title: Help-seeking for alcohol-related problems in college students: correlates and preferred resources.
abstract: Despite the development of a variety of efficacious alcohol intervention approaches for college students, few student drinkers seek help. The present study assessed students' history of help-seeking for alcohol problems, as well as their estimates of how likely they would be to use various help-seeking resources, should they wish to change their drinking. Participants were 197 college students who reported recent heavy drinking (46% male, 68.5% White, 27.4% African-American). Participants completed measures related to their drinking and their use (both past use and likelihood of future use) of 14 different alcohol help-seeking options. Repeated-measures analyses of variance revealed that students preferred informal help-seeking (e.g., talking to friends and family) over formal (e.g., talking with a counselor or medical provider) and anonymous resources (e.g., internet- or computer-based programs). Higher self-ideal discrepancy, greater depressive symptoms, and more alcohol-related consequences were positively associated with actual past help-seeking. Alcohol-related problems and normative discrepancy were negatively associated with hypothetical likelihood of utilizing all three help-seeking resources. These results suggest that heavy drinking college students prefer low-threshold intervention options including peer, family, computerized, and brief motivational interventions. Only 36 participants (18.3% of the sample) reported that they had utilized any of the help-seeking options queried, suggesting that campus prevention efforts should include both promoting low-threshold interventions and attempting to increase the salience of alcohol-related risk and the potential utility of changing drinking patterns.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152, USA. jbuscemi@memphis.edu
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Buscemi
authors.forename: James G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.forename: Matthew P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Martens
authors.forename: Meghan E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: McDevitt-Murphy
authors.forename: Ashley A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Dennhardt
authors.forename: Jessica R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Skidmore
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D019973:Alcohol-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003376:Counseling; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D010379:Peer Group; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult