Engaging Sexual and Gender Minority College Students to Understand Mechanisms of Alcohol-Related Harms Through Complex Systems Science

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) college students experience inequities in alcohol-related harms. Group model building (GMB) is a participatory systems science method useful for identifying complex drivers and intervention points; however, its feasibility for engaging SGM college students to understand mechanisms underlying alcohol-related harms is unclear. We piloted GMB with eight SGM college students through four online sessions. Participants identified which harm was most important to address, brainstormed factors causing and affected by this harm, co-developed a causal loop diagram linking these factors together, and completed a web-based follow-up survey, including measures of feasibility, acceptability, and appropriateness. Participants chose to focus on alcohol-involved sexual violence as the most important harm to address among SGM college students. They identified 22 interrelated factors impacting alcohol-involved sexual violence across multiple social-ecological levels, ranging from distal factors (e.g., advocacy efforts for survivors, drinking environment safety) to proximal factors (e.g., binge drinking behavior). Participants rated methods as highly feasible (M=4.7; 95% CI:4.1,5.0), acceptable (M=4.3; 95% CI:3.8,5.0), and appropriate (M=4.7; 95% CI:4.3,5.0), exceeding a priori benchmarks for success. Implementing GMB is a feasible, acceptable, and appropriate way of engaging SGM college students to identify mechanisms underlying alcohol-related harms and strategies for addressing them.