Alcohol ConsumptionNCT02895984
Reducing Hazardous Alcohol Use in Social Networks Using Targeted Intervention
A study testing Single-session alcohol intervention (BMI) in people with Alcohol Consumption and Alcohol Abuse, run by Brown University.
Trial summary
Alcohol use is almost ubiquitous on college campuses and first-year students are at particularly high risk of alcohol-related harm when they first make the transition to college. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Any ageHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- Alcohol Consumption, Alcohol Abuse
- What is being tested?
- Single-session alcohol intervention (BMI)
- Type of treatment
- Lifestyle or therapy programme
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 1,424 participants
- Where
- No sites listed yet
- Study dates
- 1 Aug 2016to 31 Oct 2017
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- None posted in the registry
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages Any age
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Child, Adult, Older adult
Who may be able to join
- Students enrolled as full-time first-year students at Brown University
Who cannot join
- Students not enrolled as full-time first-year students at Brown University
About this study
Alcohol use is almost ubiquitous on college campuses and first-year students are at particularly high risk of alcohol-related harm when they first make the transition to college. Peers are important agents in socializing both healthy and unhealthy behaviors, but despite the clear role of peer behavior in the maintenance of college problem drinking, there have been no efforts to measure the effect of individual change on the reduction of alcohol-related risks in the broader student body. That is, despite the importance of social connections for inducing and maintaining alcohol use in youth, intervention approaches have not measured nor capitalized on the potential of social influences for changing this problem behavior. It is essential that we understand the indirect effects of individual interventions and the impact such interventions have on the social structure and social connections. The best way to evaluate such effects is to use a research design that experimentally manipulates drinking using the best available intervention and measures its effects on the social network and its members.
The purpose of this research is to investigate whether using an established individual Brief Motivational Intervention (BMI) administered to a small number of influential network members embedded in a social network significantly reduces heavy drinking and alcohol consequences among close peers who do not receive any intervention. In addition, the investigators will investigate social influence mechanisms of this transmitted effect, investigate how specific types of network connections and relationships moderate the indirect intervention effect, and investigate the effects of the intervention on network position and structure. First-year students at Brown will be enrolled and assessed early in their fall 2016 academic semester. Heavy drinkers in each dormitory who are in the top quartile of betweenness centrality, a social network construct that reflects high connectivity and potential influence, will either receive BMI or serve as controls, according to their dormitory's intervention assignment. All participants will be assessed again 5 and 12 months after baseline to measure changes in behavior and in peer ties. The long-term objective of this research is to understand how peer influences function in social networks in order to leverage those mechanisms to reduce problematic alcohol use in heavy drinking populations.
Read the detailed description
The proposed design and network analytic methods will allow the investigators to investigate the extent to which an intervention conducted with careful attention to network connection is transmitted to others (Aim 1), how those effects occur (Aim 2), conditions under which those effects are more likely (Aim 3), and how the connections themselves change as a function of the intervention (Aim 4).
AIM 1. To investigate the efficacy of targeted Brief Motivational Intervention for reducing heavy drinking and alcohol consequences in network members who received no intervention. The investigators expect that heavy drinking participants residing in dormitories assigned to BMI but who receive no intervention will show lower frequency of heavy drinking and alcohol consequences at follow-up than their comparison group in NHC dormitories (n = 480; 240 in each condition).
AIM 2. To identify the social influence mechanisms through which the intervention effect is conveyed. The investigators expect that reductions in the following social influence mechanisms will mediate the indirect intervention effect: (1) behavioral modeling of heavy drinking; (2) social reinforcement for drinking or not drinking; (3) offers and provision of alcohol; (4) the perception of peer heavy drinking (descriptive norms); and (5) the perception of peer approval of heavy drinking (injunctive norms).
AIM 3. To identify the network and relationship features that moderate intervention efficacy.
3A. Proximity to Intervention. The investigators expect that heavy drinking network members who: (1) have first-degree ties (i.e., a direct tie) with intervention recipients, (2) have a higher proportion of intervention recipients in their close network (i.e., have the highest exposure to transmitted intervention effects), and (3) have an intervention recipient as a roommate will show the strongest indirect intervention effect.
3B. Quality of Peer Relationships. The investigators expect that stronger relationships with intervention recipients as measured by: (1) best-friend status, (2) higher perceived relationship closeness, (3) higher perceived social support, and (4) reciprocated network nominations, will be related to greater indirect intervention effects.
AIM 4. To investigate the intervention effect on personal-level network position and on drinking-based selection in the network.
4A. Network position. Differences between the intervention recipients in the BMI and NHC groups at follow-up will be investigated on: (1) betweenness centrality (how often the participant falls on the shortest path between two others) and (2) prestige (number of nominations of the participant by others). There is little literature on how network positions change following behavioral intervention, so directional hypotheses are not proposed.
4B. Drinking-based selection. At follow-up, the investigators expect less drinking-based selection in the BMI group compared to the NHC group.
- Conditions
- Alcohol Consumption, Alcohol Abuse
- Being tested
- Single-session alcohol intervention (BMI)
- Keywords
- Social network analysis, Brief Motivational Interviewing, College Students
- Medical subject headings
- Alcohol Drinking, Alcoholism
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Single-session alcohol intervention (BMI)Behavioural
The intervention recipients will receive a 1-hour individual BMI. The BMI will follow the central principles of Motivational Interviewing (MI) and will include all the components determined to be efficacious in existing multi-component BMIs (e.g., personalized feedback on indicators of alcohol-related risk, including signs of alcohol dependence and family history of alcohol risk; normative comparisons of the participant's alcohol consumption with same-sex peers in his/her dorm and throughout campus, and protective behavioral strategies). Additional components will include reviewing the pros and cons of the participant's current pattern of alcohol use, providing estimates of the participant's recent Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC), and providing information about risks of specific negative outcomes at different levels of drinking. Participants will identify goals for behavior change, and with the counselor will develop a plan to achieve the goals and to address barriers to success.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Brief Motivational Intervention (BMI) | Experimental | The intervention recipients in the BMI group will receive a 1-hour single-session alcohol intervention (BMI) with personalized normative feedback. Receives: Behavioral: Single-session alcohol intervention (BMI) |
| Natural History Control (NHC) | No intervention | Students in the NHC group will receive no contact. |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Change in frequency of heavy drinking
Heavy episodic drinking (HED) frequency is defined as the number of occasions in which participants drank 4+ (for females) or 5+ (for males) standard alcoholic drinks per drinking occasion during the past 30 days.
Measured: baseline, 5-months post baseline, 12-months post-baseline
Change in endorsed negative alcohol consequences
24-item (no/yes) response on the Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire
Measured: baseline, 5-months post baseline, 12-months post-baseline
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted12 Sep 2016 (estimated)
- Study start1 Aug 2016
- Primary completion31 Oct 2017
- Study completion31 Oct 2017
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Publications (5)Papers the sponsor has linked to this study.
- Other trials for Alcohol ConsumptionStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- Single blind
- Who is masked
- Participant
- Enrolment
- 1,424 participants (actual)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- Brown University
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- Oregon Research Institute, Smith College, University of Massachusetts, Worcester
- Responsible party
- Principal investigator, Nancy Barnett, Brown University
- Investigators
- Nancy P Barnett, PhD, Principal investigator, Brown University
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT02895984
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- 1R01AA02352201A1
- Status last verified
- Jul 2019
- First submitted
- 22 Aug 2016
- Last updated
- 2 Aug 2019
- Results posted
- No
- Individual data sharing
- No
Publications
Barnett NP, Rogers ML, Haikalis M, Meisel MK, DiGuiseppi G, Jackson KM, Light JM, Ott MQ, Clark MA. Perceived changes in drinking are a mechanism of spillover effects from a brief alcohol intervention conducted in a college social network. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2026 Jun;94(6):364-376. doi: 10.1037/ccp0001015.
PubMed 42406486Ott MQ, Clark MA, Balestrieri SG, Gamarel KE, Barnett NP. Social Networks and Sexual and Gender Minority Disparities in Alcohol Use and Consequences Among First-Year College Students. LGBT Health. 2022 Oct;9(7):489-495. doi: 10.1089/lgbt.2019.0225. Epub 2022 Jun 21.
PubMed 35727117Barnett NP, Clark MA, Kenney SR, DiGuiseppi G, Meisel MK, Balestrieri S, Ott MQ, Light J. Enrollment and assessment of a first-year college class social network for a controlled trial of the indirect effect of a brief motivational intervention. Contemp Clin Trials. 2019 Jan;76:16-23. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2018.10.015. Epub 2018 Nov 1.
PubMed 30391343DiGuiseppi GT, Meisel MK, Balestrieri SG, Ott MQ, Clark MA, Barnett NP. Relationships between social network characteristics, alcohol use, and alcohol-related consequences in a large network of first-year college students: How do peer drinking norms fit in? Psychol Addict Behav. 2018 Dec;32(8):914-921. doi: 10.1037/adb0000402. Epub 2018 Sep 27.
PubMed 30265059Kenney SR, DiGuiseppi GT, Meisel MK, Balestrieri SG, Barnett NP. Poor mental health, peer drinking norms, and alcohol risk in a social network of first-year college students. Addict Behav. 2018 Sep;84:151-159. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2018.04.012. Epub 2018 Apr 16.
PubMed 29684764
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 2 Aug 2019. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Reducing Hazardous Alcohol Use in Social Networks Using Targeted Intervention
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT02895984
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- 1R01AA02352201A1
- Conditions
- Alcohol Consumption, Alcohol Abuse
- Keywords
- Social network analysis, Brief Motivational Interviewing, College Students
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Enrolment
- 1,424 participants (actual)
- Lead sponsor
- Brown UniversityUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- Oregon Research Institute, Smith College, University of Massachusetts, Worcester
- Study start
- 1 Aug 2016 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 31 Oct 2017 (actual)
- Study completion
- 31 Oct 2017 (actual)
- First posted
- 12 Sep 2016 (estimated)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
Alcohol use is almost ubiquitous on college campuses and first-year students are at particularly high risk of alcohol-related harm when they first make the transition to college. Peers are important agents in socializing both healthy and unhealthy behaviors, but despite the clear role of peer behavior in the maintenance of college problem drinking, there have been no efforts to measure the effect of individual change on the reduction of alcohol-related risks in the broader student body. That is, despite the importance of social connections for inducing and maintaining alcohol use in youth, intervention approaches have not measured nor capitalized on the potential of social influences for changing this problem behavior. It is essential that we understand the indirect effects of individual interventions and the impact such interventions have on the social structure and social connections. The best way to evaluate such effects is to use a research design that experimentally manipulates drinking using the best available intervention and measures its effects on the social network and its members.
The purpose of this research is to investigate whether using an established individual Brief Motivational Intervention (BMI) administered to a small number of influential network members embedded in a social network significantly reduces heavy drinking and alcohol consequences among close peers who do not receive any intervention. In addition, the investigators will investigate social influence mechanisms of this transmitted effect, investigate how specific types of network connections and relationships moderate the indirect intervention effect, and investigate the effects of the intervention on network position and structure. First-year students at Brown will be enrolled and assessed early in their fall 2016 academic semester. Heavy drinkers in each dormitory who are in the top quartile of betweenness centrality, a social network construct that reflects high connectivity and potential influence, will either receive BMI or serve as controls, according to their dormitory's intervention assignment. All participants will be assessed again 5 and 12 months after baseline to measure changes in behavior and in peer ties. The long-term objective of this research is to understand how peer influences function in social networks in order to leverage those mechanisms to reduce problematic alcohol use in heavy drinking populations.
Detailed description
The proposed design and network analytic methods will allow the investigators to investigate the extent to which an intervention conducted with careful attention to network connection is transmitted to others (Aim 1), how those effects occur (Aim 2), conditions under which those effects are more likely (Aim 3), and how the connections themselves change as a function of the intervention (Aim 4).
AIM 1. To investigate the efficacy of targeted Brief Motivational Intervention for reducing heavy drinking and alcohol consequences in network members who received no intervention. The investigators expect that heavy drinking participants residing in dormitories assigned to BMI but who receive no intervention will show lower frequency of heavy drinking and alcohol consequences at follow-up than their comparison group in NHC dormitories (n = 480; 240 in each condition).
AIM 2. To identify the social influence mechanisms through which the intervention effect is conveyed. The investigators expect that reductions in the following social influence mechanisms will mediate the indirect intervention effect: (1) behavioral modeling of heavy drinking; (2) social reinforcement for drinking or not drinking; (3) offers and provision of alcohol; (4) the perception of peer heavy drinking (descriptive norms); and (5) the perception of peer approval of heavy drinking (injunctive norms).
AIM 3. To identify the network and relationship features that moderate intervention efficacy.
3A. Proximity to Intervention. The investigators expect that heavy drinking network members who: (1) have first-degree ties (i.e., a direct tie) with intervention recipients, (2) have a higher proportion of intervention recipients in their close network (i.e., have the highest exposure to transmitted intervention effects), and (3) have an intervention recipient as a roommate will show the strongest indirect intervention effect.
3B. Quality of Peer Relationships. The investigators expect that stronger relationships with intervention recipients as measured by: (1) best-friend status, (2) higher perceived relationship closeness, (3) higher perceived social support, and (4) reciprocated network nominations, will be related to greater indirect intervention effects.
AIM 4. To investigate the intervention effect on personal-level network position and on drinking-based selection in the network.
4A. Network position. Differences between the intervention recipients in the BMI and NHC groups at follow-up will be investigated on: (1) betweenness centrality (how often the participant falls on the shortest path between two others) and (2) prestige (number of nominations of the participant by others). There is little literature on how network positions change following behavioral intervention, so directional hypotheses are not proposed.
4B. Drinking-based selection. At follow-up, the investigators expect less drinking-based selection in the BMI group compared to the NHC group.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- Single blind (participant)
- Number of arms
- 2
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Brief Motivational Intervention (BMI) | Experimental | Behavioral: Single-session alcohol intervention (BMI)The intervention recipients in the BMI group will receive a 1-hour single-session alcohol intervention (BMI) with personalized normative feedback. |
| Natural History Control (NHC) | No intervention | –Students in the NHC group will receive no contact. |
Who may qualify
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepted
- Age groups
- Child, Adult, Older adult
Key inclusion criteria (1 listed)
- Students enrolled as full-time first-year students at Brown University
Key exclusion criteria (1 listed)
- Students not enrolled as full-time first-year students at Brown University
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Single-session alcohol intervention (BMI)The intervention recipients will receive a 1-hour individual BMI. The BMI will follow the central principles of Motivational Interviewing (MI) and will include all the components determined to be efficacious in existing multi-component BMIs (e.g., personalized feedback on indicators of alcohol-related risk, including signs of alcohol dependence and family history of alcohol risk; normative comparisons of the participant's alcohol consumption with same-sex peers in his/her dorm and throughout campus, and protective behavioral strategies). Additional components will include reviewing the pros and cons of the participant's current pattern of alcohol use, providing estimates of the participant's recent Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC), and providing information about risks of specific negative outcomes at different levels of drinking. Participants will identify goals for behavior change, and with the counselor will develop a plan to achieve the goals and to address barriers to success. | Behavioural | Brief Motivational Intervention (BMI) |
Primary outcome
Change in frequency of heavy drinking
Time frame: baseline, 5-months post baseline, 12-months post-baseline
Heavy episodic drinking (HED) frequency is defined as the number of occasions in which participants drank 4+ (for females) or 5+ (for males) standard alcoholic drinks per drinking occasion during the past 30 days.
Change in endorsed negative alcohol consequences
Time frame: baseline, 5-months post baseline, 12-months post-baseline
24-item (no/yes) response on the Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire
Results and safety
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 2 Aug 2019.
- Derived from this study: PubMed 42406486Barnett NP, Rogers ML, Haikalis M, Meisel MK, DiGuiseppi G, Jackson KM, Light JM, Ott MQ, Clark MA. Perceived changes in drinking are a mechanism of spillover effects from a brief alcohol intervention conducted in a college social network. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2026 Jun;94(6):364-376. doi: 10.1037/ccp0001015.
- Derived from this study: PubMed 35727117Ott MQ, Clark MA, Balestrieri SG, Gamarel KE, Barnett NP. Social Networks and Sexual and Gender Minority Disparities in Alcohol Use and Consequences Among First-Year College Students. LGBT Health. 2022 Oct;9(7):489-495. doi: 10.1089/lgbt.2019.0225. Epub 2022 Jun 21.
- Derived from this study: PubMed 30391343Barnett NP, Clark MA, Kenney SR, DiGuiseppi G, Meisel MK, Balestrieri S, Ott MQ, Light J. Enrollment and assessment of a first-year college class social network for a controlled trial of the indirect effect of a brief motivational intervention. Contemp Clin Trials. 2019 Jan;76:16-23. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2018.10.015. Epub 2018 Nov 1.
- Derived from this study: PubMed 30265059DiGuiseppi GT, Meisel MK, Balestrieri SG, Ott MQ, Clark MA, Barnett NP. Relationships between social network characteristics, alcohol use, and alcohol-related consequences in a large network of first-year college students: How do peer drinking norms fit in? Psychol Addict Behav. 2018 Dec;32(8):914-921. doi: 10.1037/adb0000402. Epub 2018 Sep 27.
- Derived from this study: PubMed 29684764Kenney SR, DiGuiseppi GT, Meisel MK, Balestrieri SG, Barnett NP. Poor mental health, peer drinking norms, and alcohol risk in a social network of first-year college students. Addict Behav. 2018 Sep;84:151-159. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2018.04.012. Epub 2018 Apr 16.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: No
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part. This study is not recruiting at the moment.
Nancy P Barnett, PhD principal investigator
Brown University
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing Single-session alcohol intervention (BMI) in people with Alcohol Consumption and Alcohol Abuse, run by Brown University.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 1 inclusion and 1 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 2 Aug 2019. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Change in frequency of heavy drinking (time frame: baseline, 5-months post baseline, 12-months post-baseline). The study lists 2 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT02895984, which also lists 5 linked publications.
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 2 Aug 2019.