Strategies: What Works

Strategies that Work for Many College Students

Research shows that students plan ahead and use protective strategies when they party or socialize. We know that most students care about their health and the health of their friends, so it just makes sense. They like to have a good time, and try to avoid getting hurt and having problems.

The Golden 10

Several years ago, U.S. researchers from the Midwest conducted focus groups with college students and discovered 10 common protective strategies. Since then, these 10 strategies have been researched using the National College Health Assessment (NCHA). Students who identified themselves as drinkers are asked the following question:

During the last school year, if you 'partied'/socialized, how often did you...?

1. Keep track of the number of drinks you were having
2. Determine in advance not to exceed a set number of drinks
3. Pace your drinks to one or fewer per hour
4. Avoid drinking games
5. Alternate non-alcoholic with alcoholic beverages
6. Drink alcohol look-alike beverages
7. Choose not to drink
   [You read correctly; even drinkers sometimes choose not to drink at all at a party.]
8. Eat before and/or during drinking
9. Use a designated driver
10. Have a friend let you know when you have had enough

A 2006 study using the national NCHA data from 28,258 students at 44 campuses looked at how strategies impacted students. The researchers wanted to find out how many students used protective strategies and if the students who used strategies experienced fewer problems. This analysis found that of those students who drank in the past 30 days, 73 percent usually or always used at least one of the ten strategies. In fact, 64 percent reported using at least two.

The NCHA survey also asks questions about harm as a consequence of drinking in the past year. The same study looked at four consequences -- physical injury to self, physical injury to someone else, being involved in a fight, and experiencing someone using force, or threat of force to have sex. The incidence of problems was correlated with the number of strategies students used. The results clearly show that the more strategies students used, the safer they were.

Haines, M.P., Barker, G., & Rice, R. (2006). The personal protective behaviors of college student drinkers: Evidence of indigenous protective norms. Journal of American College Health, 55 (2), 69-75.

Active Control Strategies

Research also suggests that the strategies with the greatest protective effect were those where students took active control of his/her own behavior. Counting drinks and pacing drinks correlated with the least amount of harm.

On the other hand, depending on friends ("have a friend let you know when you have had enough") can be a helpful strategy. However, it doesn’t seem to be as helpful in preventing harm as being proactive in avoiding harm.

Strategies related to other factors also appear to be correlated with decreased harm. These strategies include staying with the same group of friends while drinking, remaining in one location while drinking and consuming only one type of alcohol.

Your Strategies

The choice is not simply to drink or not to drink. Students get to choose from a variety of strategies that can help them have a good time -- and stay safe. Students in our focus groups at VCU have told us about additional protective strategies not listed in the national research:

• The 5th Pocket Strategy
• The Rubberband Strategy
• The Buddy System Strategy
• Creative Budget Strategy
• Better Passion Strategy
• Sip Slower Strategy
• Post-It Strategy
• H2O Strategy
• And we know there are more! Submit Your Strategy Now!

Who created the campaign title “What’s your strategy?”

Very Creative University (VCU) students, of course! Read their story.