The UniVenture program is a wellness program designed for university students, to be tested
at 5 university-based sites (Dalhousie University, St. Francis Xavier University, York
University, Université de Montréal, and University of British Columbia-Okanagan), and based
on an existing, successful, and internationally recognized and -utilized program called
PreVenture (designed for high school students). PreVenture is a selective
personality-targeted approach based on an etiologic model of substance misuse behaviors,
outlined and validated by Drs. Stewart (Project Director [PD]) and Conrod (Co-Applicant
[CA]). PreVenture targets personality-specific motivational pathways to substance misuse, AS,
HOP, SS, and IMP, each associated with different motives for substance use, substance use
profiles, and patterns of emotional distress and risk-taking. Well-controlled studies show
PreVenture reduces or delays teens' binge drinking, illicit drug use, and associated
emotional problems by 30-80% with effects lasting at least 2 years. While PreVenture: (a) was
designed for and is effective for high school students, its efficacy in university students
is untested; (b) is effective for alcohol and cannabis use, its effects on prescription drug
misuse are unknown; and (c) works to reduce student distress, it is untested for preventing
academic struggles and university drop out. These latter academic outcomes are of major
concern to our Student Affairs partners given the current shockingly high university drop-out
rates (18.7-36.9%) and strong ties of student substance misuse and distress with poorer
academic outcomes. The purpose of the UniVenture study is to measure the efficacy the
developmentally adapted program has on primary outcomes of (1) Reduction of alcohol-related
harms in undergraduates (2) Reduction of cannabis-related harms in undergraduates (3) Changes
in the student wellbeing in undergraduates. Secondary outcomes are (1) Differences in
semester GPA between treatment groups. (2) Changes in scores on the undergraduates' Academic
retention measure (3) Changes in scores on the undergraduates' Academic challenges measure
(4) Changes in scores on the undergraduate self-regulated learning (SRL) behaviour measure
and Self-efficacy beliefs for undergraduates' success measures (5) Reduction in score of
hazardous drinkers in undergraduates.
Barriers to accessing evidence-based programs contribute to the ineffectiveness of
campus-based substance misuse prevention. These barriers include students' time commitments,
lack of available services, fear of stigma, and long wait lists which may discourage students
from seeking or engaging in existing programs, leading to more severe problems before
participants receive help. A distance-delivery approach involves using remote communication
technologies (e.g., web-based, email, chat) to link students with a facilitator in place of
face-to-face meetings. This may improve access for those with difficulties getting to
services or increase confidentiality through engagement from a private location. The
investigator proposes a novel randomized controlled study to test the relative effects of our
personality-targeted wellness program on hazardous drinking, cannabis use, and uptake of
prescription drug misuse among high-personality-risk 1st and 2nd year undergraduates and
delivered in 2 formats: traditional face-to-face vs. an innovative and more accessible
technology-assisted distance-delivery by well-trained and supervised program facilitators.
These two active program conditions will be compared to a services-as-usual only control
condition to evaluate how this program compares to what Student Affairs unit partners already
do. Withholding the program from at-risk undergraduates randomized to the services-as-usual
only control group might be seen as problematic; however, the program's efficacy is untested
at the emerging adulthood (EA) developmental stage and in the university context. If the
distance-delivered program is shown effective, control condition participants will be sent a
free link to the relevant personality-matched web-based materials after the 12-month
follow-up.
