A review of motivational interviewing-based interventions targeting problematic drinking among college students.
Branscum P., Sharma M. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly: 2010, 28, p. 63–77.

Studies published in the mid-2000s confirm that counselling based on motivational interviewing helps heavy drinking US college students control their drinking and reduce related problems.

Summary:
The Task Force on College Drinking established by the US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) considers motivational interviewing to be one of the few interventions clearly shown to reduce drinking in the college setting. Motivational interviewing is a counselling approach which avoids explicit confrontation and seeks to engender motivation by highlighting the client's own reasons for changing substance use.

This review aimed to summarise new findings for motivational interviewing interventions for college students and derive implications for research and health-promoting interventions. A search was conducted for English-language research articles documenting studies of motivational interviewing in colleges published from 2003–2008.

Eleven such studies were found. In these, five interventions targeted heavy-drinking college students and four 'adjudicated' students who had to attend because they had broken college rules regarding alcohol. The remaining two targeted underage In the USA 21 years of age is the legal drinking age. students and men in their first week of classes. Interventions typically lasted about an hour.