Research has consistently underscored the pivotal role peer influence plays in shaping the drinking behaviors of young adults (Borsari & Carey, 2001). Consistent with social learning theory (Bandura, 1991), this influence can manifest through modeling of behaviors, peer encouragement to drink, and social norms (Borsari & Carey, 2006). These factors have been found to contribute around 17 % to the explained variance in drinking in young adults (Dijkstra, Sweeney, & Gebhardt, 2001).

Interventions focused on peer influences have demonstrated their efficacy in influencing health behaviors at large (Hunter et al., 2019) and, more specifically, in mitigating alcohol consumption among older adults with alcohol dependence (Litt, Kadden, Kabela-Cormier, & Petry, 2007). However, research on young adults is predominantly restricted to college students and often focuses only on changing perceived drinking norms, without consistently demonstrating a reduction in drinking behaviors (Foxcroft, Moreira, Almeida Santimano, & Smith, 2015). There is a clear need for studies targeting non-collegiate young adult populations and identifying innovative methods to harness peer support for alcohol consumption reduction.

To address this gap, we developed a text message intervention, named ASPIRE: Accountability Support through Peer-Inspired Relationships and Engagement, which centers on coaching young adults to cultivate peer support to aid in adhering to weekend drinking limit goals. We chose the text messaging modality given that it is a near-ubiquitous communication modality among young adults (Pew Research Center, 2021) and prior meta-analyses indicating effectiveness of text-message alcohol interventions for young adults (Mason, Ola, Zaharakis, & Zhang, 2015). Drawing on the dyadic health influence model (Huelsnitz, Jones, Simpson, Joyal-Desmarais, Standen, Auster-Gussman, & Rothman, 2022) and social learning theory (Bandura, 1991), we posited that ASPIRE participants would be more likely to (1) enlist friends to help them meet their drinking limit goals, serving as an “accountability partner” (Shaffer et al., 2020), a role previously associated with reduced drinking days and fewer negative consequences among young adults (Lau-Barraco & Linden, 2014) and (2) avoid close peers who typically pressure them to drink.