| Nationwide, one of the most widespread behavior and lifestyle problems on college campuses is high-risk alcohol use (Kapner, 2003). The purpose of this study was to determine if alcohol education influences college freshmen's attitudes and behaviors related to alcohol consumption, and readiness to change alcohol consumption behaviors.; The population consisted of Newberry College Fall 2004 freshmen (N=109), with upperclass student-athletes and Greek organization members (N=131) used for comparison. Students were required to take the AlcoholEdu for College prevention course. The course is based on the transtheoretical model, which suggests people go through a process that unfolds over time and progresses through several stages before behavior change is final (Prochaska et al., 1994).; Measurement consisted of pre-, post-, and follow-up tests. Analysis using SPSS 11.5 for Windows includes descriptive statistics, analysis of variance (ANOVA), paired samples t-tests, Friedman's two-way analysis of variance by rank, Wilcoxin signed ranks, and general linear model analyses.; The findings indicate that the majority of participants are in precontemplation, the stage in which they see no need to change alcohol consumption behaviors. The results indicate that the AlcoholEdu program increased participants' knowledge regarding alcohols' effects and students' behavior related to alcohol use. No statistically significant difference was found in students' attitudes about their alcohol use, or the stage of change freshmen identified after completing the course. When comparing overall knowledge, attitudes, and stage of readiness to change among freshmen, Greeks, and athletes, there was a statistically significant effect of group (p < .05) of pretest data. However, a simple effect analysis of just posttest data for the same group showed no statistically significant difference of group.; When comparing Greeks, athletes, and freshmen who were neither, one month after completing AlcoholEdu, there was a statistically significant difference (p = .013) in overall knowledge, attitude, and stage of readiness to change. A statistically significant difference (p = .056) was also found among freshmen Greeks, freshmen athletes, and freshmen neither, when compared with Greeks and athletes as measured by scores on the follow-up test. |
