# Mobile Application Intervention Targeting the High Risk Drinking Practice of Prepartying

> **NIH NIH R34** · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · 2020 · $254,238

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
The proposed research project addresses the public health concern of heavy drinking among college students
by developing and testing an innovative mobile-based application to target the specific dangerous drinking
behavior known as prepartying, a risky behavior practiced by upwards of 85% of college students. Prepartying
involves fast-paced heavy drinking in residence halls or off-campus residences prior to going out for the night
where students inevitably drink even more. Findings from over 80 prepartying studies suggest the behavior is
perhaps the riskiest known college drinking behavior, leading to consequences during the prepartying event, to
continued drinking and consequences after prepartying events, and to greater global levels of drinking and
alcohol-related problems. Yet the lack of interventions directly targeting prepartying represents a major gap in
the college student drinking research field, as such an approach could address and reduce the behavior known
to be the greatest risk. For the proposed study, we will develop and test a prepartying-specific brief mobile-app
intervention that is intended to help students reduce their prepartying behavior. We first develop the
intervention content based on theory and research supporting mechanisms of change in brief interventions with
college students and document normative drinking information from 500 college students for inclusion in the
intervention content. We then beta test the intervention with a sample of 14 heavy drinking college students.
Focus group feasibility and acceptability feedback will inform the final intervention content, as well as help us
refine study procedures. We will then pilot test the mobile-based intervention in a randomized controlled trial of
500 college students who preparty frequently (n = 250 intervention, n = 250 attention control) and determine
the efficacy of the intervention on (1) preventing heavy consumption levels and consequences during and after
prepartying in the immediate term (i.e., pre-intervention two weeks to post-intervention two weeks), and on (2)
reducing students’ global levels of heavy drinking and consequences one and three months post-intervention.
Lastly, we will evaluate hypothesized moderators known to contribute to greater risk during prepartying; mainly,
that female students, students under age 21, heavier drinkers, and those motivated to change their drinking will
benefit the most from the intervention. We will test a hypothesized effect that changes in prepartying drinking
post-intervention (baseline to one-month) will explain changes observed in global drinking and consequences
from baseline to three-month post-intervention. This prepartying-specific approach expands on global
interventions and improves upon promising event-specific approaches that only focus on infrequently occurring
events (e.g., 21st birthdays, spring break) by targeting the popular behavior that precedes multiple drinking
contexts an...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10170069
- **Project number:** 7R34AA025968-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Eric R. Pedersen
- **Activity code:** R34 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $254,238
- **Award type:** 7
- **Project period:** 2018-09-10 → 2022-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10170069

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10170069, Mobile Application Intervention Targeting the High Risk Drinking Practice of Prepartying (7R34AA025968-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10170069. Licensed CC0.

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