Project Summary
Sexual minority women in the United States are more likely to drink alcohol, engage in heavy drinking, and
experience alcohol-related problems than are heterosexual women. Yet, to date, no evidence-based
intervention or prevention efforts have been developed to reduce alcohol consumption in female sexual
minority community settings. The proposed research seeks to narrow the disparity in alcohol intervention
research by examining an innovative gamified personalized normative feedback (PNF) intervention to reduce
drinking among members of a local sexual minority women community found to frequent Facebook and
overestimate norms related to peers’ general alcohol use and drinking to cope with sexual minority stigma. Our
newly developed GANDR (Gamified Alcohol Norm Discovery and Readjustment) PNF format takes the well-
established core components of a PNF alcohol intervention and delivers these components within an inviting,
Facebook-connected, social game. This intervention format is designed to be more appealing, engaging,
believable, positively received, and thus, effective than standard web-based PNF and can be culturally tailored
to appeal to a number of different populations, including those typically hard to recruit into alcohol
interventions. GANDR LA, the version developed for sexual minority women residing in Los Angeles County,
delivers PNF on alcohol use and stigma-coping behaviors within the context of an online game about sexual
minority stereotypes which incorporates users’ Facebook photos to increase believability and a point-based
reward system to increase motivation and engagement. In addition, to decrease defensive reactions and
increase appeal, feedback topics are ostensibly selected by chance in GANDR LA with treatment PNF on
alcohol use and stigma-coping behaviors provided alongside feedback on control topics of high interest to
community members (e.g., activism, relationships, etc.). Additional appeal and credibility are gained through
GANDR LA’s sponsorship and promotion by a collaborating sexual minority community non-profit
organization viewed as a trusted source for health and social information by members of the target community.
After documenting sexual minority community norms (AIM 1) through an initial round of play (N=1275), a
sub-sample of 675 sexual minority female drinkers will be randomized to receive 1 of 3 unique sequences of
feedback (i.e., Alcohol & Stigma-Coping, Alcohol & Control, or Control topics only) during 3 intervention
rounds taking place over a 6-month period. The randomized feedback sequences and multiple rounds of play
will allow us to determine whether PNF on alcohol use corrects drinking norms, and reduces sexual minority
women’s alcohol consumption and negative consequences relative to PNF on control topics (AIM 2: H1),
examine whether providing PNF on stigma-coping behaviors in addition to alcohol use further reduces alcohol
use and consequences beyond standard alcohol PNF (AIM 2: H2), and identify mediators and moderators of
intervention effectiveness (AIM 3).
