“Private online courses spell out drinking norms for students”

Private online courses spell out drinking norms for students

Posted: 20 Aug 2010 08:31 PM PDT

By ALAN GOFORTH

Special to The Star

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Most parents scrimp and save for years to finance their child's college education. One careless decision by their student about alcohol consumption can make that investment disappear overnight.

"As best we can measure it, there has been very little change in the prevalence of binge drinking on college campuses," said Bob Saltz, senior scientist at the Prevention Research Center in Berkeley, Calif.

Saltz, whose organization is part of the National Institutes of Health, defines binge drinking as five or more consecutive drinks.

"Although there is no objective way to measure it, we believe there has been an increase in outrageous behavior related to drinking," he said. "That can include missing classes, drinking and driving, and fighting."

While many universities require students to attend alcohol awareness programs, especially at the start of freshman year, several businesses now provide an option: online training to college students, for a fee. The purpose is to help parents protect not only their educational investment but the future job eligibility — and possibly health — of their child.

"Alcohol education is incredibly important," said Ari Novick, president of AlcoholDrugClass.com in Laguna Beach, Calif. "The cost to educate is extraordinarily low relative to the cost of most college classes, and the knowledge may pay dividends to the student."

AlcoholDrugClass.com has been in business since 2003. The program focuses on two areas — prevention and rehabilitation after an alcohol-related incident.

Tom Wilson started the Tom Wilson Counseling Center in Boise, Idaho, in 1990 and later added online training.

"Students are asked to compare their drinking to their peers' to see where they stand," he said. "No lecture, no warnings, no scare tactics — just feedback. Norms are used to help them see how their drinking fits among the general population."

Typical online courses cover such topics as risk factors; the effects of alcohol on the brain, nervous system and body; comparative risks between men and women; stress management skills; and the consequences of alcohol abuse for minors. Many courses also provide an opportunity for students to evaluate their own drinking habits and compare them with those of their peers.

Wilson offers courses that range from $49 for a three-hour class to $450 for a comprehensive 24-hour course. Novick's courses cost $175 for eight hours or $275 for 16 hours.

Are they worth the money for parents struggling for pay for tuition, room and board, and supplies?

"We are just starting to see the results of these online programs, and they can be effective," Saltz said. "Just teaching the facts about alcohol doesn't work. Newer and more effective online programs contain modules that ask students to enter information about their own drinking habits. They then report back on how they compare with peers, because students almost always perceive that peers drink more than they do. The modules also provide mechanisms to prevent drinking from becoming a problem."

As with most anything else, it pays to shop around. Saltz recommends a course with a "combination of information; normative feedback that compares a student's drinking with his or her peers; and skills for controlling their own consumption, such as at a party setting." He also recommends asking whether a course has been critiqued by industry professionals.

"I'm not sure it depends on any credentials of the trainer," he said. "It's more whether the curriculum has ever been formally evaluated."

Just as with an insurance policy, the objective is to protect against a short-term mistake that may have long-term consequences.

"An alcohol-related issue can quickly get posted to a student's Facebook account or Twitter page," Wilson said. "Pictures of a student drinking can haunt them for years, affecting their future potential for entering the armed forces or landing a professional position."

In addition to being concerned about protecting the financial investment in a child's education, Wilson said, parents should be concerned about the "psychological consequences for their child from their social networking site when their binge drinking is recorded for eternity."

College binge drinking
•Nearly half of all college students surveyed consumed four or five drinks in one sitting within the previous weeks, according to a 1997 national study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health.

•Students who live in a fraternity or sorority house are the heaviest drinkers —– 86 percent of fraternity residents and 80 percent of sorority residents report binge drinking.

•In a recent study, 39 percent of college women binge-drank within a two-week period, compared with 50 percent of college men.

•Colleges with high binge-drinking rates were more likely to attract students who were binge drinkers in high school.

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

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