UT Arlington to test digital prevention for first-year students’ substance use

Researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington have received a five-year, $3.25 million award from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to develop and test a digital prevention program for first-year college students. The planned study will follow 800 students in two cohorts of 400 who begin college either abstaining from alcohol and cannabis or using them only infrequently. Participants will first complete a personalized digital feedback program and then receive text-message support during their first semester.

The award is funding a prevention and implementation study; no results about the program’s effectiveness are available yet. The project is led by UT Arlington’s Studying Alcohol and Related Risks, or STARR, Lab, which focuses on developing and evaluating approaches to preventing and reducing substance use among adolescents and young adults. Dana Litt, a social work professor, is the principal investigator, and Melissa Lewis, also a social work professor, is a coinvestigator.

The team is concentrating on the first six to eight weeks and, more broadly, the first semester, when students encounter new environments, social situations, peer networks and choices involving alcohol and cannabis. The researchers aim to determine whether the intervention can delay or prevent substance-use initiation and prevent an increase in use among students whose baseline use is absent or infrequent. Addressing both alcohol and cannabis reflects substance-use patterns among college students.

Nationally representative data cited in the award announcement show that 72.3% of college students reported past-year alcohol use and 39.4% reported past-year cannabis use in 2025. The researchers also cited prior work suggesting that alcohol and cannabis co-use has risen over time. Approximately 20% to 30% of college students report simultaneous use, meaning that they use both substances at the same time so that their effects overlap.

The announcement states that simultaneous use can intensify impairment and related risks, although it reported no new measurements of co-use or its consequences. After the initial personalized feedback program, students are scheduled to receive six text messages per week during the first 12 weeks of school. The messages will provide support as students navigate unfamiliar environments, social situations and risk factors during the semester.

Researchers said the project is intended to help participants maintain lower-risk behaviors throughout their first year of college. The study will gather feedback throughout the 12-week period from participating students and campus partners, including representatives from Counseling and Psychological Services, Apartment and Residence Life, Fraternity and Sorority Life and other university departments. That feedback is intended to identify barriers early and help determine whether the intervention can be sustained beyond the grant period.

UT Arlington will use a Hybrid Type 1 effectiveness implementation design to assess the intervention’s effectiveness and its integration into campus settings at the same time. The team described this as a way to address practical adoption questions while the program is being evaluated, rather than waiting through a separate implementation phase after an effectiveness study. The protocol specifies a defined population of 800 first-year students across two cohorts, with outcomes focused on delaying or preventing initiation and escalation of alcohol or cannabis use.

It does not report completed comparisons, observed effects or evidence that the digital feedback and text-message support will reduce substance use or related harms. The announcement also does not isolate the effect of either intervention component. Results will therefore be needed to determine whether the combined strategy changes student behavior, can be delivered consistently on campus and can continue after the five-year award ends.

Subject of Research: Digital prevention of alcohol and cannabis initiation and escalation among first-year college students

Article Title: Tackling risky substance use before it starts

Article References: Tackling risky substance use before it starts. Original publication (Bibliographic details unavailable.)

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: college students, alcohol use, cannabis use, prevention, digital intervention, text messaging, implementation science, UT Arlington, Tackling, risky, substance, starts