Effective prevention programming for reducing alcohol-related harms experienced by first year college students: Evaluation of the expectancy challenge alcohol literacy curriculum (ECALC)

•Expectancy Challenge Alcohol Literacy Curriculum (ECALC) is a single session program.•ECALC is web-based and can be delivered by teachers with little training.•ECALC produces significant changes in expectancies, and reduces alcohol use and harms.•ECALC is an effective prevention program and can be incorporated into curricula. Prevention programs may have contributed to modest declines in alcohol use among college students in recent years, but negative consequences continue to be pervasive. First year college students (FYCS) are particularly vulnerable, and there is clearly a need for more effective methods to reduce risk. Meta-analyses focused on expectancy challenge (EC) have found this approach to be effective, but “experiential” EC that includes a drinking exercise is not suitable for most FYCS, many of whom are underage. A non-experiential alternative, the Expectancy Challenge Alcohol Literacy Curriculum (ECALC), is practical for widespread implementation. ECALC has been effective with mandated students and members of fraternities, and in the present study, we focused on evaluating effects with FYCS. In a group randomized trial, 48 class sections of a course designed for FYCS received either ECALC or an attention-matched control presentation. ECALC was associated with significant changes on six expectancy subscales of the Comprehensive Effects of Alcohol Scale (CEOA). Structural equation modeling was used to examine the mediated effects of the intervention on alcohol-related harms via alcohol expectancies. There were significant indirect effects from condition to alcohol use (IND = -0.04, p