2012

This article briefly reviews the research on alcohol use in college students, brief interventions, and the therapeutic relationship in counseling. This information is then integrated to address the primary research question of this study: Can a substance abuse assessment impact problem recognition, ambivalence, and taking steps in college students who complete a brief substance abuse assessment provided with a therapeutic relationship and measured by the change factors from the Stages of Change Readiness and Treatment Eagerness Scale (SOCRATES) scale? The SOCRATES was designed to reflect the stages of change as described by Prochaska, DiClemente, and Norcross (1992). Recognition scores were related to one’s ability to recognize the existence of a problem, ambivalence scores were related to certainty of having a problem, and taking steps scores were related to action taken with change; together the three measures have been reported, although inconsistently, as being related to readiness to change (Bertholet, Cheng, Palfai, Samet, & Saitz, 2009; Harmon, McCormick, Werkner, & Zhang, 2004; Miller & Tonigan, 1996).