Stand-Alone Personalized Normative Feedback for College Student Drinkers: A Meta-Analytic Review, 2004 to 2014 |
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Authors: | Keri B Dotson Michael E Dunn Clint A Bowers |
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Institution: | Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, United States of America.; Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology (BIPS), GERMANY, |
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Abstract: | BackgroundNorms clarification has been identified as an effective component of college student drinking interventions, prompting research on norms clarification as a single-component intervention known as Personalized Normative Feedback (PNF). Previous reviews have examined PNF in combination with other components but not as a stand-alone intervention.ObjectivesTo investigate the degree to which computer-delivered stand-alone personalized normative feedback interventions reduce alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harms among college students and to compare gender-neutral and gender-specific PNF.Data SourcesElectronic databases were searched systematically through November 2014. Reference lists were reviewed manually and forward and backward searches were conducted.Selection CriteriaOutcome studies that compared computer-delivered, stand-alone PNF intervention with an assessment only, attention-matched, or active treatment control and reported alcohol use and harms among college students.MethodsBetween-group effect sizes were calculated as the standardized mean difference in change scores between treatment and control groups divided by pooled standard deviation. Within-group effect sizes were calculated as the raw mean difference between baseline and follow-up divided by pooled within-groups standard deviation.ResultsEight studies (13 interventions) with a total of 2,050 participants were included. Compared to control participants, students who received gender-neutral (d
between = 0.291, 95% CI 0.159, 0.423]) and gender-specific PNF (d
between = 0.284, 95% CI 0.117, 0.451]) reported greater reductions in drinking from baseline to follow-up. Students who received gender-neutral PNF reported 3.027 (95% CI 2.171, 3.882]) fewer drinks per week at first follow-up and gender-specific PNF reported 3.089 (95% CI 0.992, 5.186]) fewer drinks. Intervention effects were small for harms (d
between = 0.157, 95% CI 0.037, 0.278]).ConclusionsComputer-delivered PNF is an effective stand-alone approach for reducing college student drinking and has a small impact on alcohol-related harms. Effects are small but clinically relevant when considered from a public health perspective. Additional research is needed to examine computer-delivered, stand-alone PNF as a population-level prevention program. |
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