Introduction
The Network of Colleges and Universities Committed to the Elimination of Drug and Alcohol Abuse established as one of its goals identifying areas and problems for further research and development. Similarly, funding priorities of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 demonstrated a commitment by Congress to drug and alcohol research by providing $40 million in supplemental funds for expanding research efforts in the areas of drug and alcohol abuse.
It was determined that further research was needed because there had been up to that time very little systematic analysis of college student drug and alcohol abuse. The existing research did not provide sufficient insight for higher education institutions to implement policies and programs to prevent abuse. Typically, research efforts were limited to describing the prevalence of drug and alcohol abuse on a single campus by various subsets of the population. Ongoing measures of knowledge, attitudes, and behavior were lacking as well as reports of programmatic successes and obstacles to implementing the campus-based effort. National and institutional efforts lacked evidence to guide the allocation of resources to programs where there is a high prognosis for success in helping students both to limit risk behavior and enhance academic performance.
In July 1989, a distinguished group of researchers and practitioners from universities, government agencies, and research centers was convened with the purpose of developing a research agenda that addressed the issues of collegiate alcohol and drug abuse. Their charge was fourfold: to review the current research and information in college student alcohol and drug use and abuse; to determine the gaps as well as the strengths with particular attention given to the implications for practice; to identify the major areas of applied research including areas such as causal factors, usage patterns, attitudes, and evaluation techniques; and to develop a plan for conducting further research in each of the identified topic areas.
As a result of that meeting, four follow-up papers were commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education. The commissioned papers, which are included in this publication, present what is known in the field regarding theories and models of prevention, college environments, and assessment. They identify major areas where applied research on alcohol and drug abuse and the college campus is needed and provide a written review to be used for program development and in-service training.
We hope that this document will be useful to you as you develop or evaluate your institution's effort to eradicate alcohol and other drug abuse from the collegiate environment.
![[ Home ]](/icons/EDhome.gif){kind=icon}