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New Prevention Resources Reinforce Evidence-Based Practice in College Alcohol Abuse Prevention

Health, Safety, and Well-being
September 22, 2015 David Arnold NASPA
Evidence-Based Interventions for Collegiate Substance Abuse Prevention

The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) created a standard for evidence-based harmful and underage student alcohol use prevention in 2002 with A Call to Action: Changing the Culture of Drinking at U.S. Colleges. A significant update in 2007 helped to strengthen the field’s use of evidence-informed strategy, but current practitioners in college drug and alcohol abuse prevention have worked off of these documents since that update.

Updated Documentation for College Alcohol Intervention Programs and Strategies

Today, the NIAAA releases the spiritual successor to A Call to Action. More than two years in the making, CollegeAIM (which stands for Alcohol Intervention Matrix) is a resource to help college and university prevention practitioners address harmful and underage student drinking. CollegeAIM is distinctive due to the breadth of its research and analysis, the expertise of its contributors, and the convenience of its presentation. It provides details and rates nearly 60 alcohol interventions in terms of effectiveness, costs, and other factors, presenting information in a user-friendly and accessible way.

Using Evidence to Inform Prevention Strategy: Smarter Practices, Bigger Impact

Using evidence-based strategies is vital in alcohol and substance abuse prevention practice, especially when working with limited resources. As it turns out, research has revealed that some commonly-used prevention strategies are actually an ineffective use of resources, so reevaluating practices will allow practitioners and institutions of higher education to maximize the impact of their substance abuse prevention initiatives.

CollegeAIM provides colleges with an easy to use tool in directing efforts toward evidence-informed strategies to prevent underage drinking, alcohol abuse, and binge drinking on college campuses. Dr. Jonathan Gibralter, President of Wells College, has called CollegeAIM “one of the most thoroughly vetted and user-friendly summaries of intervention strategies" that he has seen in decades, and it is expected that it will be a well-received and useful tool for colleges and universities in planning, implementing, and evaluating prevention practice.

Prevention practices will continue to utilize the modeled “3-in-1 approach” from the NIAAA, categorizing those efforts available into one of three categories: individual approaches, targeted/group approaches, and community/environmental approaches. Combining strategies to address the unique concerns of each campus population remains a hallmark of effective campus prevention strategies for harmful and underage drinking.

Accessing the Tool

All student affairs professionals are able to access the materials in CollegeAIM, which is designed for practitioners with varying levels of prevention mastery. Campus prevention does not exist in a vacuum, and exceptional college and university prevention captures a multi-disciplinary approach. From orientation to campus services, conduct through to career development, there is a piece everyone in a student affairs department can access in CollegeAIM.

The NIAAA will be sending information directly to college presidents this week, to accompany the launch of the CollegeAIM on the NIAAA’s webpage.

The NIAAA will be presenting information about the CollegeAIM and how to use the tool to create and maintain prevention programs on college campuses at the 2016 NASPA Strategies Conference: Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Prevention in Orlando, FL.


Editor’s Note (2016): The following section has been added after the original publication date to provide readers with information regarding upcoming events and new resources.

Upcoming Related Events or Resources:
  • 2017 NASPA Strategies Conference: Alcohol, Other Drug, and Violence Prevention Conference: As a part of the NASPA Strategies Conferences, student affairs administrators will come together in Austin, TX to discuss concerns and strategies related to preventing high-risk alcohol use and substance abuse among college students, and how these harmful behaviors may impact academic success or degree completion.
  • BACCHUS Initiatives of NASPA: Empowering student leaders to become peer educators, promoting the health and safety of students on college campuses, this initiative features a host of resources and trainings to help administrators incorporate peer education as a part of their prevention strategy.
  • NASPA Alcohol and Other Drug Knowledge Community: A space and resource for administrators to discuss and share ideas pertaining to substance abuse prevention on campus.