Behavior Change Techniques Used in Binge Drinking Interventions among College Students: A Systematic Review

ABSTRACT

The Behavior Change Technique Taxonomy version one (BCTTv1) was used to identify behavior change techniques (BCTs) to understand the current state of science of binge drinking interventions targeting college students. Thirteen studies were reviewed and 32 different BCTs were identified, with the most frequently coded BCTs being Feedback on behavior (2.2) and Social comparison (6.2). There was no apparent reason for how many BCTs were used in each intervention. Binge drinking interventions must use more diverse methods and focus on using several BCT categories like Regulation (11), which develops skills for behavioral maintenance, to create more effective prevention efforts.

KEYWORDS:

• Binge drinking
• systematic review
• behavior change techniques
• college students

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Paige Keysor for her help coding the behavior change techniques in the articles reviewed in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential competing interest was reported by Paul Branscum or Jessica Sorcher.

This material was presented at the 2020 annual conference of the Society of Behavioral Medicine. The full citation is as follows:

Sorcher, J., Keysor, P., & Branscum, P. (2020, April). Behavior change techniques used in binge drinking interventions among college students: A systematic review. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 54 (Supplement 1), S656. The Society of Behavioral Medicine Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.

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Funding

The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.