Secondary effects of myPlaybook on college athletes’ avoidance of drinking games or pregaming as a protective behavior strategy: A multisite randomized controlled study

Rationale: Student-athletes are at risk for engaging in drinking games and pregaming. Research suggests that brief motivational and alcohol education intervention approaches designed to reduce harmful drinking behaviors may not be effective in lowering students’ participation in drinking games or pregaming. Method: We evaluated the effects of myPlaybook (a student-athlete-specific web-based alcohol intervention) on student-athletes’ avoidance of drinking games and pregaming over a 4-month period. Seventy-three NCAA member institutions were randomly assigned to the treatment condition or a no-intervention control. Student-athletes at these schools (N?=?2449) completed assessments at baseline, 1-, and 4-months post-intervention. At each assessment, participants indicated how often they used each of several harm prevention strategies when they drank in the past month including “avoided drinking games” and “avoided drinking before going out (i.e., pregaming or pre-drinking).” Results: Controlling for gender and race/ethnicity, treatment condition was not associated with change in avoidance of drinking games and pregaming between baseline and either follow-up. Athletic season did not moderate treatment effects on avoidance of either behavior. We found no evidence that myPlaybook, a general alcohol-reduction intervention, is efficacious in influencing student-athletes’ avoidance of drinking games or pregaming as a protective strategy. Conclusions: Findings from the present study as well as other research suggest that general alcohol-focused interventions may not have secondary effects on reducing students’ participation in drinking games and pregaming and as such, more specific targeted interventions should be investigated