Vol. 92, Issue 3
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Is alcohol a problem at NCCU?
Research survey studies the use of alcohol on campus.
By Latisse Suggs
Echo staff writer
The Collaborative Minority Institution Alcohol Research Development Center of N.C. Central University is administering an audio computer-assisted self-interview survey.
The NCCU CMIARD Student Alcohol Survey is the first of its kind to be administered at a predominantly black college.
“The research that has been done until now has been at large predominantly white universities,” said Valerie Williams, research scientist and principal investigator of the NCCU Student Alcohol Survey.
Conducting the research at Duke, UCLA or Harvard limits the participation of African-American college students at historically black colleges and universities in alcohol research, according to Williams.
The objective of the Student Alcohol Survey, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, is to collect data about HBCU students’ experiences with alcohol and to expand research to include the unique experiences of HBCU students.
NCCU students were randomly selected to participate in the study from the student database in the Office of Research, Evaluation, and Planning.
Students are not required to participate. And if they decide to participate they are not required to answer any question that they do not want to answer.
Students are asked to complete a computerized questionnaire regarding their alcohol use and a series of psychosocial scales measuring different personal characteristics.
There are 9 sections to the Student Alcohol Survey.
Part One is the background questionnaire. It asks questions about the student, his or her health, and familybackground.
Part 2 asks about the student about the extent of their social support.
Parts 3-8 ask detailed questions about the student’s drinking history, reasons for drinking and experiences with alcohol.
Part 9 measures the survey taker’s religious involvement.
The participants are asked to take their time and respond honestly so that the data collected will be accurate. Upon completion of the survey, participants receive $10 for their time and cooperation.
However, thoughtful responses could result in the survey taking over an hour.
Some students say that the survey takes too long and admit that they did not answer all of the questions truthfully.
“Being paid took the purity out of my answers,” said Walter Pittman, N.C.C.U. Mass Communications major. “I was thinking, ‘Let me finish this crap so I can get this $10.’”
“Sometimes we lose a student and they just start clicking,” said Williams. “This is the first year (of the survey) so we hope to refine and improve it.”
Williams says she reads all of the participants’ anonymous written feedback about the survey and takes the criticism constructively.
“Sometimes students do point out actual flaws and that helps us make changes to the survey,” she said. “The person who upset me the most said, ‘The questions are stupid and the same ones are asked over and over again.’ This isn’t true. We do ask the same type of questions, but about different types of alcohol.”
“Now that I’m a research assistant, I understand why the questions are asked this way,” said NCCU psycholgoy major, Shareefah Al’Uqdah.
“When I took the survey, I felt that the questions were tedious. But I now understand why they were necessary. Watching other participants, I feel that most students are taking the survey seriously. Although some are just taking it to get the $10, I feel that there are enough accurate responses given to make the study successful.”
This is important because the survey, along with other student alcohol research being conducted on campus will help to determine what type of intervention and prevention methods are best for African-Americans, encourage research at non-research universities, and bring more attention to minority issues.
“My motivation is to do clean research and include students who want to do research,” said Williams, who has a Ph.D. in psychometrics and quantitative psychology.
“It is important for students to realize that we are looking at factors that affect alcohol consumption. That’s what sets us apart from other studies that just talk about college student binge drinking. We’re looking at how social support and ethnic identity relate to college student alcohol consumption.”
Williams invites students to stop by her office to receive more information about the survey and for results, as they become available.
Survey results will also be made available to interested researchers and presented at various national conferences, and published in peer journals.
The survey data will inform intervention specialists so that they don’t have to rely only on studies conducted at large universities like UNC.
The data will give insight into HBCU students’ feelings and experiences
with alcohol and may point to the need for different intervention strategies
for African-Americans.