Despite these limitations, the present study contributes to prevention research for alcohol use and AP among emerging adults and more broadly to evidence-based treatment research. First, the present study sheds new light on predictors of change in the context of a PFI and the efficacy of an in-person PFI delivered within a BMI among mandated students. Based on these findings, we suggest that it may be more cost-effective to deliver a written or web-based PFI for low-risk mandated students while providing an enhanced PFI with an in-person BMI for those who experienced a serious incident or those with higher levels of AP at baseline. A two-session intervention utilizing an in-person motivational interview with personalized normative feedback presents a relatively low-cost psychological intervention. However, even at low cost, findings from the current study suggest that an in-person BMI does not provide an additional benefit over a written PFI for many low-risk mandated students. Therefore, more research that could further identify other important moderators of PFIs among mandated and volunteer students is sorely needed to identify which students require which types of interventions.
