Building Undergraduate Coping & Knowledge for Stress-Resilience
Purpose
Nearly 60% of college students use alcohol and 30% binge drink monthly. This is alarming given that heavy alcohol use is linked to serious detrimental outcomes. Despite various prevention and intervention strategies, heavy alcohol use has remained relatively stable over the past decade. Individual differences in stress response connote risk for alcohol use disorder. Anxiety sensitivity (AS) and intolerance of uncertainty (IU) are two key cognitive vulnerabilities that can hinder resilience by amplifying stress responses and promoting maladaptive coping strategies, such as alcohol use. Effective stress management is a cornerstone of resilience. The Intervention for Managing Psychological Responding to Overwhelming Emotions (IMPROVE) targets AS and IU, key barriers to resilience, by modifying cognitive processes that amplify stress and negative affect. In this study, undergraduate students who engage in heavy drinking behaviors and experience elevated anxiety symptoms will be randomized to IMPROVE or a control health promotion intervention (N=20 per arm). All participants will complete daily ecological momentary assessments (EMA) delivered to participants' mobile phones to capture real-world alcohol use before, during, and after the intervention. The investigators will evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of IMPROVE (Aim 1). The investigators will also include a multimodal battery of self-report and objective lab-based measures of AS and IU involving startle eyeblink potentiation and event-related potentials via electromyography (EMG) and electroencephalography (EEG). This will allow the investigators to examine whether IMPROVE changes IU and AS, and to assess if changes in these targets are associated with changes in alcohol use (Aim 2).
Conditions
- Alcohol Use
- College Drinking
- Anxiety
Eligibility
- Eligible Ages
- Over 18 Years
- Eligible Genders
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria
- report elevated psychological distress (i.e., Kessler Psychological Distress Scale scores >12) - engage in heavy drinking behaviors (i.e., 15 drinks per week for biological males and 8 drinks per week for biological females) - age 18 or older - can read and comprehend English - has access to a smartphone
Exclusion Criteria
- limited mental competency/inability to give informed consent - current comorbid moderate to severe substance use disorder other than nicotine
Study Design
- Phase
- N/A
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Parallel Assignment
- Intervention Model Description
- Participants will be randomized to receive one of two possible interventions.
- Primary Purpose
- Prevention
- Masking
- Double (Participant, Outcomes Assessor)
- Masking Description
- Raters completing the outcome assessments will be blind to condition. Participants are told they are receiving an intervention to help cope with distress but not which of the two interventions is the active and which is the control.
Arm Groups
| Arm | Description | Assigned Intervention |
|---|---|---|
|
Experimental IMPROVE |
In this arm, participants will receive the IMPROVE intervention, a clinician-delivered protocol targeting anxiety and uncertainty. |
|
|
Active Comparator HET |
In this arm, participants will receive a clinician-delivered protocol with a digital component, called Health Education Treatment (HET). HET focuses on healthy living more broadly and does not include information about anxiety or uncertainty. |
|
Recruiting Locations
More Details
- Status
- Recruiting
- Sponsor
- Ohio State University
