Effects of Behavioral Skills Training and Peer Modeling on College Students\u27 Pours of Standard Servings of Beer

Excessive alcohol consumption among college students is a serious problem. Alcohol education courses have been proposed as one strategy to reduce this problem, with an emphasis on teaching college students to accurately track their drinks. Many of these courses are taught in a small group format, and aim to teach students to accurately identify and pour standard servings, largely because students report using the counting of drinks as a protective strategy against high-risk drinking. Despite the promotion of this strategy, few studies have evaluated training methods to teach this skill. The current study used a nonconcurrent multiple-baseline across subjects design to investigate (1) the effectiveness of behavioral skills training (BST) to teach college students ( N = 19) to accurately pour standard servings of beer, and (2) the effects of peer modeling on maintenance of participants’ pouring skills immediately following BST. Results indicated participants who inaccurately poured a standard serving of beer at baseline ( n = 17) accurately poured following receipt of BST, and all participants ( N = 19) maintained accurate pouring in the presence of peer confederate models who poured either inaccurately or accurately. These results suggest BST can be used to teach college students to accurately pour standard servings of beer. Directions for future research include the evaluation of BST in group alcohol education courses and with different alcohol types and vessels, as well as college students’ skill maintenance following BST