Prevention Research Center Alcohol and Skin Cancer Projects - Projects
Project ACT
Project ACT was designed to develop and evaluate an intervention strategy to reduce the onset and extent of binge drinking in students during their first year of college. The approach taken was relatively novel in that the focus of the intervention was on influencing binge drinking behavior of the students before they came to college, through their parents, during the critical time between high school graduation and the beginning of college. Almost all current approaches in the binge drinking domain are based on implementing an intervention while the students are at college. By contrast, the present approach attempted to reach students just before they came to college, so as to make them more resistant to influences that encouraged the adoption or continuation of binge drinking behaviors.
Funded by the NIAAA.
The Zero-Tolerance Project
The Zero-Tolerance project was designed in conjunction with the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) as an intervention to prevent underage drinking and driving. This five year study will implement an enforcement and publicity zero-tolerance program in State College, which will include increased sobriety checkpoints, emphasis on zero-tolerance laws, use of passive alcohol sensors and publicity and media advocacy. It will also address the sustainability of such a program in the State College community. The program will be evaluated using driver and pedestrian surveys around downtown areas.
Funded by the NIAAA.
For more information, e-mail projectzt@psu.edu.
Project Options
Project Options was designed to examine how well Medical Doctors can deliver the 2-3 minute ABC (Address Behavior Change) method of physician-patient communication during a routine office visit, following training and supervision. Brief Negotiated Interviews (BNIs) have been shown to be efficacious in modifying health-related behaviors that are extremely resistant to change (e.g. smoking), and may be a promising approach to use in lowering UV risk behaviors. The ABC method was developed to emphasize a collaborative relationship between health care providers and patients when addressing behavior change, rather than MDs dictating change to a patient. A future goal of this research is to determine if the ABC intervention is effective in changing patient behavior.
Funded by the NIH and NCI.
For more information, contact projectoptions@psu.edu.
Project iSTART
Project iSTART, a collaboration with East Tennessee State University, is a web-based, appearance-focused intervention directed at a nationally representative sample of high school girls with a goal of reducing tanning intentions, frequency, and the overall percentage of users while increasing sun protective behavior. We will track these students for two years to examine whether the intervention is able to reduce long-term skin cancer risk behaviors. We will also identify subgroups for whom the intervention is more effective versus less effective, such as having a mother who tans, peer group affiliation or year in school. High school represents a critical developmental stage for both melanoma risk and for the development of regular, frequent tanning habits, and Project iSTART will be the first anti-tanning intervention delivered to high school teens via the internet.
Funded by the NCI.
For more information, e-mail projectistart@psu.edu.
Project Skin Watch
Project Skin Watch was designed to enhance the ability of patients with a history of melanoma and their significant others to self-identify the recurrence of skin cancer in order to promote early detection and treatment. The focus of the study is to teach individuals who are at an increased risk of developing melanoma and their partners how to detect future melanomas through the utilization of skin self-examinations. Further the study implements a longitudinal design and compares intervention delivery mechanisms (take home manual vs. in-person training) which will help us identify whether the intervention enhances early detection as well as the optimal method of intervention delivery.
Funded by the NIH and NCI.
Project EMERGE
Project EMERGE was designed to examine the different patterns, consequences, and risk factors of alcohol use among emerging adults who never enrolled in any type of academic or training institution (e.g., trade schools, community colleges, 4-year universities) after graduating high school. Although such youth comprise a substantial portion of young adults in the United States, virtually no intervention efforts are directed toward preventing high-risk alcohol use or related consequences among this group. A future goal of this research is to understand the similarities and differences of alcohol use and related consequences in non-college youth in comparison to young adults who do attend college or other academic institutions.
Funded by the Penn State Consortium on Families and Children.
Project PACT
Project PACT was designed to gain a better understanding of parental communication and its relationship to student drinking behavior throughout the college years by examining patterns that emerge while individuals are under the legal drinking age, on through age 21. It specifically implements a longitudinal design to examine processes by which parent communication affects student drinking outcomes through the entire college experience.
Funded by the NIAAA.
For more information, e-mail projectpact@psu.edu.
Project Engage
Project Engage was designed to examine two specific alcohol-related consequences linked with heavy drinking that can have lasting effects far beyond the college years. We are interested in examining behaviors related to drinking and driving and riding with drinking drivers, as well as various alcohol- and dating-related protective behaviors used to prevent unwanted, forced, and regretted sex amongst college students in order to assess what predictors appear to have a strong influence on these drinking-related consequences.
Funded by the NIAAA.
For more information, e-mail projectengage@psu.edu.
