Utility of the Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire to identify college students at-risk for alcohol related problems: Relative Operating Characteristics across Seven Countries

Abstract

The present study examined the utility of the B-YAACQ to distinguish among students at- risk for problematic alcohol use as measured by the AUDIT. A sample of 6382 students (mean age=20.28, SD=3.75, 72.2% females) from seven countries (i.e., U.S., Canada, South- Africa, Spain, Argentina, Uruguay, England) completed the B-YAACQ, the AUDIT and different measures of alcohol use. ROC analyses suggested that a cutoff score of 5 maximized the YAACQ’s discrimination utility to differentiate between students at low versus moderate/high risk in the total sample and across countries (except in Canada, where the cutoff was 4). In addition, a cutoff of 7 differentiated between students at low/moderate versus high risk in the total sample, while cutoffs of 10, 9, 8 and 7 differentiate between students at low/moderate versus high risk in Uruguay, U.S and Spain (10), Argentina (9), England (8), and Canada and South-Africa (7), respectively. Students classified at the three risk levels (i.e., low, moderate and high) differed in age (i.e., a younger age was associated with higher risk) and drinking patters (i.e., higher drinking frequency, quantity, binge drinking and AUDIT and B-YAACQ scores in the higher risk groups). This study suggest that the B-YAACQ is a useful tool to identify college students at-risk for experiencing problematic patterns of alcohol use.