Leveraging Social Networks to Promote Sexual Assault Recovery and Reduce Drinking to Cope through a Web-Based Intervention

PROJECT SUMMARY Sexual assault is a persistent public health problem that affects a substantial proportion of college women and is often associated with increases in heavy drinking to cope with post-assault distress. Survivors often recover within social networks such as sororities where heavy drinking is normative, and recovery alongside heavy drinking peers can exacerbate survivors’ drinking to cope. To address this problem, the current application involves the development of a novel intervention designed to promote effective support of survivors within social networks of sororities. Support behaviors incompatible with heavy drinking are expected to increase perceived support among survivors and reduce alcohol use and related consequences among all intervention recipients. The research plan involves: (1) developing a new web-based intervention in collaboration with community stakeholders, (2) testing the feasibility of the intervention within a pilot cluster randomized trial, and (3) examining network characteristics associated with adoption of support behaviors. This Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award (K08) will provide Dr. Anna Jaffe with the research support and training needed to become an independent researcher in the field of alcohol research. Dr. Jaffe has a strong foundation researching the intersection between alcohol use and sexual assault, but requires additional training to become an intervention researcher capable of contributing to broad change by leveraging technology to administer brief interventions within social networks. To facilitate this training, Drs. Mary Larimer, Christine Lee, and Cynthia Stappenbeck will provide mentorship in intervention development and evaluation with relevance to alcohol use, peers, and sexual assault. Additionally, Drs. Nancy Barnett and Tyler McCormick will provide mentorship in social network methodology and related statistical analyses. The University of Washington is an ideal environment for conducting this research and obtaining the content, methodological, and statistical expertise necessary to develop an independent career in alcohol intervention research. The proposed project will provide pilot data to support a R01 submission to test the intervention on a larger scale and evaluate the spread of supportive behaviors through social networks. This highly innovative research plan is consistent with NIAAA strategic goals in the creation of a low-resource technology-based intervention that has the potential to significantly impact public health by improving peer support to survivors of sexual assault and reduce heavy drinking on a broad scale.