Talking Stick - May/June 2014 - 72

reporting out

Text Messages Can Help Problem
Drinkers
A group of researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University in
Richmond recently noted that text messages sent to students prone
to problematic drinking could have a positive effect on their behavior.
Students were asked to complete an online substance abuse and
mental health questionnaire that screened for problematic alcohol
use, and those whose answers indicated problematic drinking habits
were then invited to participate in the study.

&

News

Notes

The National Consortium for Continuous
Improvement in Higher Education is now the
Network for Change and Continuous Innovation.
For more information, see www.ncci-cu.org/pages/
page_content/primary_home.aspx.

The researchers divided the participants into a control group
and an intervention group. The intervention group received four
to six personalized text messages daily for four days that prompted
them to consider and send a response. Some were as simple as
"Hey, [NAME]. How are U feeling; txt back: good, ok, bad." Others
were more specific: "Can U tell me how U see your life in light of
your current drinkin?" After the student responded, a reply might
read, "Ok, thanks for ur response, I really appreciate it. Need some
extra support? Txt: boost." Students who requested it would receive
additional personalized texts.

Students who reported having over-involved
parents also had higher levels of depression and
felt less life satisfaction. In a study on the effects of
over-involved parents, a group of college students
completed assessments of helicopter parenting
versus autonomy-supportive parenting and
completed a depression, anxiety, and psychological
needs questionnaire. The researchers posit that
these students' psychological symptoms are a result
of their unmet psychological and developmental
needs for autonomy and competence.

A month after the last text was sent, all participants completed
a reassessment survey. The students in the intervention group
showed an increased readiness to change and greater confidence in
their abilities to control and manage their drinking behaviors.

Holly H. Schiffrin, Miriam Liss, Haley Miles-McLean,
Katherine A. Geary, Mindy J. Erchull, and Taryn Tashner,
"Helping or Hovering? The Effects of Helicopter Parenting
on College Students' Well-Being," Journal of Child and
Family Studies (2014).

Michael Mason, Eric G. Benotsch, Thomas Way, Hannah Kim, and Daniel Snipes, "Text
Messaging to Increase Readiness to Change Alcohol Use in College Students," Journal
of Primary Prevention (2014). http://www.csc.villanova.edu/~tway/publications/Mason_
et_all_J_Primary_Prev_2014.pdf.

CUPA-HR Salary Survey Released
For the first time in four years, public institutions have
surpassed private institutions in administrator pay increases,
according to the latest salary survey released by the College
and University Professional Association for Human Resources
(CUPA-HR). A total of 1,247 participants were surveyed on
information about executive benefits, salary increases by job
category, and salary increases by Carnegie Classification. To
learn more about the survey, see http://www.cupahr.org/surveys/
ahe.aspx and click on "Executive Summary."
Additionally, CUPA-HR released findings from its 20132014 survey, Faculty in Higher Education Salary Survey by
Discipline, Rank and Tenure Status in Four-Year Colleges
and Universities. From information provided by 178,717
tenured and tenure-track faculty members at 792 institutions,
the data show that there was a higher percentage of salary
increase (2.2 percent) at public institutions than at their
private counterparts. The median salary increase for 2013-14
surpassed inflation for both public and private institutions.
To learn more about the data produced from the survey, visit
http://www.cupahr.org/news/item.aspx?id=10557.

72

Talking STick

Students who don't let their perfectionistic tendencies
overwhelm them by allowing failure to achieve high
standards to result in depression anxiety have better
mental health. With resiliency, perfectionism can be
utilized to motivate high achievement and hard work,
and resilience mitigates the effect of the inevitable
minor hassles and setbacks.
Jeffrey Kilbert, Dorian A. Lamis, Walt Collins, K. Bryant Smalley, Jacob
C. Warren, C. Thresa Yancey, and Carrie Winterowd, "Resilience
Mediates the Relations Between Perfectionism and College Student
Distress," Journal of Counseling & Development (2014).

Parents of college and university students tend to
overestimate other parents' approval of drinking and
underestimate their child's alcohol consumption. As
a result, they don't see the need to discuss alcohol use
with their child. A study population of 144 parents
of college students received Web-based feedback
about students' alcohol use and habits and other
parents' feelings about drinking. After receiving the
normative information, parents were less certain of
their own child's drinking habits, more aware of other
parents' disapproval of alcohol, and expressed stronger
intentions to talk about alcohol use with their children.
Joseph W. LaBrie, Lucy E. Napper, and Justin F. Hummer, "Normative
Feedback for Parents of College Students: Piloting a Parent Based
Intervention to Correct Misperceptions of Students' Alcohol Use and
Other Parents' Approval of Drinking," Addictive Behaviors (2014).
http://www.ncci-cu.org/pages/page_content/primary_home.aspx http://www.ncci-cu.org/pages/page_content/primary_home.aspx http://www.csc.villanova.edu/~tway/publications/Mason_et_all_J_Primary_Prev_2014.pdf http://www.csc.villanova.edu/~tway/publications/Mason_et_all_J_Primary_Prev_2014.pdf http://www.cupahr.org/surveys/ahe.aspx http://www.cupahr.org/surveys/ahe.aspx http://www.cupahr.org/news/item.aspx?id=10557
Talking Stick - May/June 2014

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