Journal o! Studieson Alcohol, Vol. 3g, No. 11, 1977
DrinkingPatterns andDrinkingProblems of CollegeStudents Ruth C. Engs,R.N., Ed.D.• SUMMARY. Compared with the findingsof previousstudies,a recentsurve•tof
students at 13 U.S.colleges foundthatmorewomen aredrinking, )•ewer Blackmen areheav•tdrinkers, therearefewerdi#erences in the drinkingpatterns of freshmen and seniors, and therehasbeenno increase in the incidence of drinking-related problems.
DUCATORS, parents and the general public have recently become concerned aboutthe apparent increase in drinking
andundesirable drinking-related behavioramongyouth.To encourage collegesto examinedrinkingattitudesand behaviorand
to develop alcohol awareness programs ontheircampuses, theNationalInstituteon AlcoholAbuseandAlcoholism (NIAAA) andits NationalClearinghouse for AlcoholInformationbeganthe "50 + 12 Project" (1).
As part of this programstudentsand staff from 62 selected universitiesaround the countrywere invited to a conferencein
thefall of 1975to discuss campus drinkingproblems andto share ideasaboutalcohol awareness andeducation programs. Theseparticipantsexpressed concernabouta dramaticincreaseduringthe precedingi or 2 yearsin drinkingand drinking-related behavior, suchas damageto universityproperty,troublewith the law and hangovers.However, few recent studies have either refuted or
validatedthisgeneralopinionof the drinking-related behaviorof university students. • Department of Health and Safety Education, HPER Building, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47401. ACKNOW;.•SDGM•.NTS.--Appreciation is expressedto the National Institute on Alco-
hol Abuse and Alcoholismand the National Clearinghousefor Alcohol Information for informationand helpful suggestions that aided completionof this study. R. F. Borkenstein,H. C. Jones,J. H. Serferin,C. R. Weber and S. C. Wilsnackhelped develop the Student Alcohol Questionnaire,and T. A. Baumgartner assistedin researchdesign and computer programming. Receivedfor publication:18 August1976. Revision:6 April 1977. 2144
DRINKING BY COLLEGESTUDENTS
2145
Studiesof colIegestudentsover the past25 yearshave indicated that the prevalenceof drinkinghas increasedamongwomenwhile increasingonly slightlyamongmen. In a nationalstudy of 17,000
students during1949-50,Strausand Bacon(2) reportedthat 80% of the men and 615 of the women-745
of all the students-consid-
ered themselves to be drinkers.Accordingto Rogers's study (3) of 725 studentsat a midwesternuniversityin 1955-56,56%of the sample, or 615 of the men and385 of the women,reportedthat they usedalcohol.At a privateliberal arts collegefor men, Gusfield (4) in 1955foundthat 955 of the 185 studentssurveyeddrank. At a predominantIy Blackcollege,Maddoxand Williams(5) found that 785 of 262 male students considered themselves to be drinkers.
During the late 1960sPollock(6) reportedthat of 465 freshmen
and sophomores at a westernuniversity,685 of the womenand 62• of the men drank;Dvorak (7) found that 58%of the freshmen and 885 of the seniorsat a midwesternuniversityused alcohol;
Hope (8) foundthat 685of the students he surveyed at a southern universitydrank; and Milman and Su (9), studyinga sample of over 6000 studentsin a large eastern state university system, found that about 91% of the students used alcohol. In a national
study conductedfrom 1969 to 1972, Robinsonand Miller (10) foundthat the percentage of collegestudents who drankhad creased from 90% in 1969 to 83• in 1972.
During the 1970s,Hanson'snational study (11) of over 2000
collegestudentsreportedthat 80%of the men and 73%of the women consideredthemselvesto be drinkers. In a 1971 study,
Glassco(12) found that 85%of the men and 825 of the women studentsin a southernuniversitywere drinkers.At a northwestern university in 1973,Penn(13) foundthat 765 of the students drank wine and beer and 68%consumed distilledspiritsat leastoncea
year, and the percentages of men and womenwho drankwere aboutequal.At a midwestern universityin 1975,Engs (14) found that 86%of the studentssampleddrank beer, 82%spiritsand 69go wine at least once a year.
Althoughmostof thesestudiesuseddifferentsamplingproceduresand statisticalanalyses, they indicateonly a slight increase
between1950andthe 1970sin the percentage of men,but an appreciable increase in the percentage of women,whodrink. Many of thesestudiesalsoexamined the demographic variables that are importantin influencingdrinkingpatternsand behavior.
2146
•. c. wNgS
When year in schoolwas examined,seniorsduring the 1950sand 1960sappearedto drink significantlymore than did freshmen(2, 3, 7). However,in the past few yearssomestudieshave reported little differencein the drinking patternsof the four collegeclasses (11, 12, 15), exceptamongwomen (8).
Studiesof Blackstudents haveindicatedthat the percentage of Black men who drink is about the same as that of White men, though Black men are inclined to be heavy drinkers (2, 5, 16)
and Blackwomendrink significantlylessthan do Black men (2). Somestudieshave indicatedproblemsresultingfrom drinking,
suchas hangovers and troublewith the law and in interpersonal relationships (5, 9, 17, 18). Whenthe relationship betweengrade pointaverage(c•'A)anddrinkingbehavior hasbeenexamined, some studieshave found that drinkersand heavy drinkershave lower cr.•s, (9, 19) and others have shown no significantdifferences betweenthe eras of drinkersand nondrinkers(20).
In view of recentopinionsthat drinkingand drinking-related problems haveincreased amongcollegestudents, one purposeof the presentstudywasto surveystudents at institutions participating in the 50 q- 12 Proiectto assess the frequencyand quantityof drinkingand to determinethe frequencyof problembehaviorre-
suitingfrom drinking.Anotherpurposewas to comparethese drinkingpatternswith past trends,and a third purposewas to analyzedrinkingbehavioraccording to selecteddemographic variables. METHODS
Sample Selectionand Limitations o/ the Study. Thirteen of the 62 schoolsin the 50 q- 12 Project agreed to participatein this study during the 1975-76 academicyear. Of the 13 schools,3 were in eastern,4 western,3 north central and 3 southernparts of the country (21). Eleven of the schoolsin the samplewere large universities(10,000 or more students). Five of the schoolswere located in areas with populationsof 500,000or more, 3 in areaswith populationsbetween 100,000 and 500,000and 5 in areaswith populationsunder 100,000.Two of the four predominatelyBlackcollegesin the 50 q- 12 Proiectwere included in the sample,resultingin an overrepresentation of Blacks. However, the proportionatelylarge number of Blackswas includedto provide a samplelarge enoughfor statisticalanalysis. At each of the 13 schools,a personfrom studentpersonnel,the student health serviceor the departmentof health educationwas asked to selecta sampleof 100 undergraduatestudents,preferably a random sample, and administerthe questionnaire.If a random sample could
DRINKING BY COLLEGE STUDENTS
2147
not be obtained, the questionnairewas to be administeredto undergraduate classesin which studentsfrom any major subject of study, college classlevel or ethnic group would have an equal chance of participating.-ø
Severalbiasesmay have been introducedin the sample:(a) the institutionsincludedin the studywere part of a project to stimulatealcohol awareness;(b) the institutionswere not randomlyselected;(c) most of the studentswere not randomlyselected.It is possiblethat, comparedwith studentsin general, the studentsin this sample had more "alcoholawareness."It is also possiblethat only certain types of institutionsor studentsagreedto participatein the studyand that they and their studentsmay not be representativeof collegesor studentsin this country. However, different types and sizes of colleges in communitiesof varioussizesin four geographicregionsof the countrywere represented. The Instrument. An instrument called the Student Alcohol Questionnairecontaining23 questionson drinking-relatedbehavior, 36 on knowledgeof alcoholand its effectsand 11 on demographicvariables was developed. a The data on knowledgeof alcohol will be reported separately.Of the questionson behavior,6 were adapted from Straus and Bacon (2), Jessoret al. (22) and the NIAAA national study (23), and were used to determine the quantity and frequency of drinking. The remainingquestions,concerningproblem behavior resultingfrom drinking,were adaptedfrom other studies(16-18) and from Remssubmitted by a group of studentsat Indiana University. The instrument was constructedso that answerscould be placed on a standardized "five stem" optical-scansheet. Those administeringthe questionnaire were asked to request anonymousresponsesin order to avoid either "faked good"or "faked bad" answers. A panel of individualscurrentlyworkingin the field of alcoholeducation
and research
commented
on various
items under
consideration
for the questionnaire.A preliminary questionnairewas assembledand presentedto a group of studentsfor their commentsand suggestions; the questionnaire was then revisedand resubmittedto the panel. After further revision,the questionnairewas resubmittedto the studentsfor final evaluation.These procedureswere used to determinethe validity of the content of the questionnaire. The 23 items on behavior were submitted
twice to 122 students. For
each item the percentageof studentswhose responsedid not change 2Only i schoolused a random samplingprocedure.At this school,with an undergraduatepopulationof about 13,000, 200 studentswere randomly selected to participatein the study. Of this group, 93 (46•) completedusable questionnaires. The other institutions collected their samples from classroomsin which virtually all studentscompletedthe questionnaire. • Availablefrom the RalphG. ConnorAlcoholResearch ReferenceFiles (CARRF), Center of Alcohol Studies, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08903, and to be listed in the next edition of the CARRF inventory.
2148
n.c.V.
NCS
during the 1-monthintervalwas determined.Thesepercentages ranged from .61 to .92, the mean being .79, and were used as an estimateof reliability. Calculations.The quantity-frequencyindex (Q-r) was usedto determine the drinker classifications.The index was developed by Straus
and Bacon (2), and slightlymodified by Maxwell (24), Mulford and Miller (25-29), Cahalanet al. (30-31), and Maddoxand Williams (5), and used in a number of other studies (23, 32-37). Most of these studieshave restructuredthe "frequency"and "amount"responses for a variety of reasons.In the present study the amount over 6 drinks drunkon any oneoccasion was statisticallycollapsedsinceheavydrinkers have usuallybeen classifiedas individualsconsuming5 or more drinks at least once a month. The addition of separate categoriesfor each drink in excessof 6 was thought to be superfluous. From the beverage (beer, wine or distilled spirits) most frequently used and the amount of beverageconsumedon a typical occasiona q-r level was calculatedfor each subiect, who was then placed in one of six categories:abstainer,drinking lessthan once a year or not at all; infrequentdrinker,drinkingat least once a year but less than once a month; light drinker, drinking at least once a month but not more than i to 3 drinks at any one sitting; moderatedrinker, drinking at least once a month with no more than 3 to 4 drinks, or at least once a week with no more than I to 2 drinks, at any one sitting;moderateheavy drinker, drinking 3 to 4 drinks at least once a week or drinking 5 or more drinks at least once a month; heavy drinker, drinking 5 or more drinksmore than oncea week. The "abstainer"categorywas used
accordingto the procedureoutlinedby Mulford and Miller (28). The same categorieswere used for men and women. For other calculations,such as the cross-tabulationof various demo-
graphic variablesand drinking patterns,chi-squareanalysesfrom the StatisticalPackagefor the Social Sciencesprogramwere used. RESULTS
Demographic Composition. The sampleof 1128students had the t{ollowing demographic characteristics: 48.17o were men and 51.970 women; 79.3goWhites, 17.2goBlacks, and 3.770included Orientals,
SpanishAmericans,AmericanIndiansand otherracial groups;34.670
werefreshmen, 22.2•sophomores, 21.5%iuniors,17.57o seniors, and 3.670were in other levels; 21.9%were fi'om communitiesof under 5000, 28.6%from communitiesbetween 5000 and 50,000, 18.3•ofrom
communitiesbetween50,000 and 500,000 and 12.7go t{rompopulationsof over500,000;71.45reportedthat their parentsbelongedto religiousorganizations whichpermitteddrinkingwhile 14.4%were t{romProtestantbackgrounds which did not allow drinking,and 14.25 indicated"other"backgrounds. Many ot{the studentswho
DRINKING BY COLLEGE STUDENTS
2149
reported"other"describedthemselves as Pentecostal or Southern Baptistor Mormon. Frequenciesand Quantity of Drinking. Most of the students (79qo)drankat leastoncea year,and abouthalf (57%) drankat least once a month or more. Of these students,70%drank beer, 65%drankwine and 755 drankspiritsat leastoncea year, and
57%drankbeer,415drankwineand45%drankspiritsoncea month or
more.
As Table 1 shows,aboutone-thirdoœall studentsappearedto be abstainers or inœrequent drinkers.With regardto wine,thiswas true oœ67• oœthe students;spirits,51•; and beer, 43•. Heavy drinkingwasreportedby 11%of the studentsconsuming beer,2%
of thoseconsuming wineand5• of thoseconsuming spirits-12• of the totalsample. Beerstill appears to be the mostpopular beverageand the beveragemostlikely to be consumed by the heavy drinkers.
Although differentstatistical procedures and sampling methods havebeenusedin studiesof collegestudents overthe past25 years,it appearsthat the percentage of students in this sample whoaredrinking-79•-isaboutthesameasthatin samples studied in the past.In 1950Strausand Bacon(2) found74• of the studentsin their sampleto be drinkers;in 1969Robinson and Miller (10) found 90%,decreasingto 83%in 1972; and in 1971 Hanson
( 11) foundapproximately 77• of hissample to be drinkers. Of those studentswho drink, Strausand Bacon,usingthe Q-F index, found
17• to be heavydrinkers;in the presentstudythe heavydrinkers comprised14%of the studentswho drink. Milman and Su (9), definingheavy drinkersas thosewho drink at least a few times a
week,found20%of the drinkersin theirsampleto be heavydrinkers;Penn(13) foundthat 16%of the drinkersin his sampledrank TABLE1.--Percentages of 1128 Studentsin Q-F Levels,by Type Beverageand AbsoluteAlcohol Absolute
Beer
Wine
Spirits
Alcohol•
Abstainers
30.5
35.0
25.3
20.6
Infrequent drinkers Light drinkers
12.9 11.2
32.2 13.6
25.9 13.6
10.8 11.8
19.2
13.0
17.8
23.8
12.0 5.4
21.5 11.5
Moderate
drinkers
Moderate-heavydrinkers Heavy drinkers
15.0 11.2
4.2 2.0
a Determined by total amount of absolute alcohol contained in the most frequently consumed beverage on any typical occasion.
2150
•. c. •Ncs
at leasta few timesa week. It appearsthat the percentageof heavy drinkersin the sampledescribedin the presentstudy is slightlylowerthan thosereportedin paststudiesthat examined drinking levels.However, theseresultsmust be viewed with caution becauseof differentsamplingand analyticalprocedures.
ProblemsResultingfrom Drinking.Approximately 20• of the students reportedno problemsas the resultof drinking.About29% reportedone or two problems,and about22%reportedthree or fourproblems asthe resultof drinking.It appearsthat it is commonfor aboutone-halfof all students to havehadup to fourproblemsoccuras the resultof drinking.
Moststudents whodrinkreported"hangovers," "nausea andvomiting"and "drivingafter drinking"at somepointin their lives,as theresultof drinking(Table2). Certaintypesof problembehavior suchas "fighting"or "lowergradebecauseof drinking"were likely
to haveoccurred at somepointotherthanthepastyear,suggesting that the behaviorresultedfroin drinkingexperimentation at a younger
age.
Other investigators have reportedsomeof this problembehavior. Boggand Hughes(18) indicatedthat 74•oof their sampleof
Canadianstudents had experienced nauseaand vomiting,which T.•BL•, 2.--Percentageof the StudentsWho Drink at Least Once a Year (N -- 883) ReportingAlcohol-RelatedProblemsat Least Once in Past Year and in Lifetime
Hangover Nausea and vomiting Driving after drinking Driving after excessivedrinking Driving while drinking Missing classbecauseof hangover Coming to classafter drinking Fighting with someoneafter drinking Being criticizedby date becauseof drinking Missing classafter drinking Damaginguniversityproperty,settingoff false fire alarm, becauseof drinking Knowing of problem with drinking Having troublewith the law becauseof drinking Receivinga lower gradebecauseof drinking Having trouble with schooladministrationbecauseof drinking Being arrestedfor driving while intoxicated Losing job becauseof drinking
Past Year
Lifetime
57.6 37.8 51.0 30.8 25.7 16.8 10.9 9.1 10.0 10.6
73.7 69.7 68.4 50.8 45.7 24.2 21.9 19.4 18.9 18.6
8.8 8.5 3.5
17.6 16.2 9.2
4.1
8.7
1.8 1.8 0.5
3.8 2.5 0.9
DRINKING BY COLLEGESTUDENTS
2151
is similarto the findingof the presentstudy.Orfordet al. (17) reported50%of the Britishstudentsthey studiedhad a hangover at sometime,compared with 74%of thosedescribed in the present study. Since these studieswere conductedin different cultures,
theircomparison with thepresentstudymustbe viewedwith caution. "Troublewith the police"was reportedby 7%of Hanson's students(11), 6%of Maddox and Williams'sstudents(5) and 9%
of Orfordet al.'sBritishstudents (17); 9•oof the sampledescribed in the presentstudyreportedtroublewith the police. Otherproblemssuchas missingschool(17), losinga job (11), getting into a fight (16, 18), and being criticizedby friends for drinking(11) have been reportedby other investigators, whose findingswere similarto thoseof the presentstudy(Table 2). On
the wholeit doesnot appearthat problems resultingfromdrinking haveincreased appreciably in the past 15 years.Again,theseresultsmustbe viewedin light of differentproceduraland statistical methods.
SexDifferentials.Eighty-twoper cent of the men and 75%of the womenstudiedreporteddrinkingat leastoncea year. Strausand Bacon found in 1950 that 79% of the men and 61% of the women
drank; Hanson found in 1971 that 80% of the men and 73% of the
womendrank.The findingsof the presentstudysuggestthat a slightlyhigherpercentage of menaredrinkingnow,compared with 25 and 5 yearsago, and that there has been a steadyincreasein the percentage of womenwhodrink. Beerappearsto be the mostpopularbeverageamongmenand spiritsamongwomen.Of the 508 men, 81.1%drank beer at least oncea year,75.2%drankspiritsand 65.5%drankwine. Of the 610 women,74.1%drank spiritsat least oncea year, 64.6%drank wine and 60.9%drank beer. Chi-squareanalysisindicatesthat men drink
beersignificantly morefrequentlyand in greaterquantities(p < .001) than do women,and that men drink a significantlygreater quantityof wine and spirits(p < .05) thando women.Therewere no significantdifferencesin the frequencyof drinkingwine or spirits.There are significantdifferences(p < .001) betweenthe Q--Flevelsof men and women.As Table 3 shows,about five times
as many men (20%) as women (4%) are heavy drinkers.Straus and Baconreportedthat 21• of the men and 10%of the women they studiedwere heavy drinkers. The greaterincidenceof heavy drinkingamongwomenin the 1950s,comparedwith the findingsof the presentstudy,is interest-
2152
R.c.
•cs
TABLE &-Relationship between Q-F LevelandSex,Race,CollegeClassand Grade Point Average,in Per Cent Q-F
LEVEL
In[re-
Moderate-
N
Never
quently
Light
Moderate
Heavy
Heavy
508 610
16.5 23.9
7.1 13.8
9.1 13.9
20.9 26.6
26.4 17.5
20.1 4.3
887 194
16.0 39.7
11.0 9.3
11.6 13.4
24.6 21.6
24.1 11.3
12.6 4.6
Freshmen Sophomores
380 250
20.8 25.2
11.8 9.6
10.5 12.8
23.7 21.6
21.1 18.8
12.1 12.0
Juniors Seniors
246 199
19.1 15.6
10.6 10.6
12.2 13.1
26.8 20.6
20.7 28.1
10.6 12.1
35.7 22.2 19.1 17.9 23.0 21.4
10.7 12.2 11.1 8.8 11.5 7.1
8.9 13.9 10.8 11.7 9.8 7.1
14.3 23.3 24.7 23.4 26.2 35.7
12.5 23.6 21.2 23.1 16.4 28.6
17.9 4.9 13.2 15.0 13.1 0
Sex1:
Men Women Race•
Whites Blacks College Class
GradePoint Average* 4.0 3.5 3.0 2.5 2.0
DrinkingPatterns andDrinkingProblems of CollegeStudents Ruth C. Engs,R.N., Ed.D.• SUMMARY. Compared with the findingsof previousstudies,a recentsurve•tof
students at 13 U.S.colleges foundthatmorewomen aredrinking, )•ewer Blackmen areheav•tdrinkers, therearefewerdi#erences in the drinkingpatterns of freshmen and seniors, and therehasbeenno increase in the incidence of drinking-related problems.
DUCATORS, parents and the general public have recently become concerned aboutthe apparent increase in drinking
andundesirable drinking-related behavioramongyouth.To encourage collegesto examinedrinkingattitudesand behaviorand
to develop alcohol awareness programs ontheircampuses, theNationalInstituteon AlcoholAbuseandAlcoholism (NIAAA) andits NationalClearinghouse for AlcoholInformationbeganthe "50 + 12 Project" (1).
As part of this programstudentsand staff from 62 selected universitiesaround the countrywere invited to a conferencein
thefall of 1975to discuss campus drinkingproblems andto share ideasaboutalcohol awareness andeducation programs. Theseparticipantsexpressed concernabouta dramaticincreaseduringthe precedingi or 2 yearsin drinkingand drinking-related behavior, suchas damageto universityproperty,troublewith the law and hangovers.However, few recent studies have either refuted or
validatedthisgeneralopinionof the drinking-related behaviorof university students. • Department of Health and Safety Education, HPER Building, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47401. ACKNOW;.•SDGM•.NTS.--Appreciation is expressedto the National Institute on Alco-
hol Abuse and Alcoholismand the National Clearinghousefor Alcohol Information for informationand helpful suggestions that aided completionof this study. R. F. Borkenstein,H. C. Jones,J. H. Serferin,C. R. Weber and S. C. Wilsnackhelped develop the Student Alcohol Questionnaire,and T. A. Baumgartner assistedin researchdesign and computer programming. Receivedfor publication:18 August1976. Revision:6 April 1977. 2144
DRINKING BY COLLEGESTUDENTS
2145
Studiesof colIegestudentsover the past25 yearshave indicated that the prevalenceof drinkinghas increasedamongwomenwhile increasingonly slightlyamongmen. In a nationalstudy of 17,000
students during1949-50,Strausand Bacon(2) reportedthat 80% of the men and 615 of the women-745
of all the students-consid-
ered themselves to be drinkers.Accordingto Rogers's study (3) of 725 studentsat a midwesternuniversityin 1955-56,56%of the sample, or 615 of the men and385 of the women,reportedthat they usedalcohol.At a privateliberal arts collegefor men, Gusfield (4) in 1955foundthat 955 of the 185 studentssurveyeddrank. At a predominantIy Blackcollege,Maddoxand Williams(5) found that 785 of 262 male students considered themselves to be drinkers.
During the late 1960sPollock(6) reportedthat of 465 freshmen
and sophomores at a westernuniversity,685 of the womenand 62• of the men drank;Dvorak (7) found that 58%of the freshmen and 885 of the seniorsat a midwesternuniversityused alcohol;
Hope (8) foundthat 685of the students he surveyed at a southern universitydrank; and Milman and Su (9), studyinga sample of over 6000 studentsin a large eastern state university system, found that about 91% of the students used alcohol. In a national
study conductedfrom 1969 to 1972, Robinsonand Miller (10) foundthat the percentage of collegestudents who drankhad creased from 90% in 1969 to 83• in 1972.
During the 1970s,Hanson'snational study (11) of over 2000
collegestudentsreportedthat 80%of the men and 73%of the women consideredthemselvesto be drinkers. In a 1971 study,
Glassco(12) found that 85%of the men and 825 of the women studentsin a southernuniversitywere drinkers.At a northwestern university in 1973,Penn(13) foundthat 765 of the students drank wine and beer and 68%consumed distilledspiritsat leastoncea
year, and the percentages of men and womenwho drankwere aboutequal.At a midwestern universityin 1975,Engs (14) found that 86%of the studentssampleddrank beer, 82%spiritsand 69go wine at least once a year.
Althoughmostof thesestudiesuseddifferentsamplingproceduresand statisticalanalyses, they indicateonly a slight increase
between1950andthe 1970sin the percentage of men,but an appreciable increase in the percentage of women,whodrink. Many of thesestudiesalsoexamined the demographic variables that are importantin influencingdrinkingpatternsand behavior.
2146
•. c. wNgS
When year in schoolwas examined,seniorsduring the 1950sand 1960sappearedto drink significantlymore than did freshmen(2, 3, 7). However,in the past few yearssomestudieshave reported little differencein the drinking patternsof the four collegeclasses (11, 12, 15), exceptamongwomen (8).
Studiesof Blackstudents haveindicatedthat the percentage of Black men who drink is about the same as that of White men, though Black men are inclined to be heavy drinkers (2, 5, 16)
and Blackwomendrink significantlylessthan do Black men (2). Somestudieshave indicatedproblemsresultingfrom drinking,
suchas hangovers and troublewith the law and in interpersonal relationships (5, 9, 17, 18). Whenthe relationship betweengrade pointaverage(c•'A)anddrinkingbehavior hasbeenexamined, some studieshave found that drinkersand heavy drinkershave lower cr.•s, (9, 19) and others have shown no significantdifferences betweenthe eras of drinkersand nondrinkers(20).
In view of recentopinionsthat drinkingand drinking-related problems haveincreased amongcollegestudents, one purposeof the presentstudywasto surveystudents at institutions participating in the 50 q- 12 Proiectto assess the frequencyand quantityof drinkingand to determinethe frequencyof problembehaviorre-
suitingfrom drinking.Anotherpurposewas to comparethese drinkingpatternswith past trends,and a third purposewas to analyzedrinkingbehavioraccording to selecteddemographic variables. METHODS
Sample Selectionand Limitations o/ the Study. Thirteen of the 62 schoolsin the 50 q- 12 Project agreed to participatein this study during the 1975-76 academicyear. Of the 13 schools,3 were in eastern,4 western,3 north central and 3 southernparts of the country (21). Eleven of the schoolsin the samplewere large universities(10,000 or more students). Five of the schoolswere located in areas with populationsof 500,000or more, 3 in areaswith populationsbetween 100,000 and 500,000and 5 in areaswith populationsunder 100,000.Two of the four predominatelyBlackcollegesin the 50 q- 12 Proiectwere included in the sample,resultingin an overrepresentation of Blacks. However, the proportionatelylarge number of Blackswas includedto provide a samplelarge enoughfor statisticalanalysis. At each of the 13 schools,a personfrom studentpersonnel,the student health serviceor the departmentof health educationwas asked to selecta sampleof 100 undergraduatestudents,preferably a random sample, and administerthe questionnaire.If a random sample could
DRINKING BY COLLEGE STUDENTS
2147
not be obtained, the questionnairewas to be administeredto undergraduate classesin which studentsfrom any major subject of study, college classlevel or ethnic group would have an equal chance of participating.-ø
Severalbiasesmay have been introducedin the sample:(a) the institutionsincludedin the studywere part of a project to stimulatealcohol awareness;(b) the institutionswere not randomlyselected;(c) most of the studentswere not randomlyselected.It is possiblethat, comparedwith studentsin general, the studentsin this sample had more "alcoholawareness."It is also possiblethat only certain types of institutionsor studentsagreedto participatein the studyand that they and their studentsmay not be representativeof collegesor studentsin this country. However, different types and sizes of colleges in communitiesof varioussizesin four geographicregionsof the countrywere represented. The Instrument. An instrument called the Student Alcohol Questionnairecontaining23 questionson drinking-relatedbehavior, 36 on knowledgeof alcoholand its effectsand 11 on demographicvariables was developed. a The data on knowledgeof alcohol will be reported separately.Of the questionson behavior,6 were adapted from Straus and Bacon (2), Jessoret al. (22) and the NIAAA national study (23), and were used to determine the quantity and frequency of drinking. The remainingquestions,concerningproblem behavior resultingfrom drinking,were adaptedfrom other studies(16-18) and from Remssubmitted by a group of studentsat Indiana University. The instrument was constructedso that answerscould be placed on a standardized "five stem" optical-scansheet. Those administeringthe questionnaire were asked to request anonymousresponsesin order to avoid either "faked good"or "faked bad" answers. A panel of individualscurrentlyworkingin the field of alcoholeducation
and research
commented
on various
items under
consideration
for the questionnaire.A preliminary questionnairewas assembledand presentedto a group of studentsfor their commentsand suggestions; the questionnaire was then revisedand resubmittedto the panel. After further revision,the questionnairewas resubmittedto the studentsfor final evaluation.These procedureswere used to determinethe validity of the content of the questionnaire. The 23 items on behavior were submitted
twice to 122 students. For
each item the percentageof studentswhose responsedid not change 2Only i schoolused a random samplingprocedure.At this school,with an undergraduatepopulationof about 13,000, 200 studentswere randomly selected to participatein the study. Of this group, 93 (46•) completedusable questionnaires. The other institutions collected their samples from classroomsin which virtually all studentscompletedthe questionnaire. • Availablefrom the RalphG. ConnorAlcoholResearch ReferenceFiles (CARRF), Center of Alcohol Studies, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08903, and to be listed in the next edition of the CARRF inventory.
2148
n.c.V.
NCS
during the 1-monthintervalwas determined.Thesepercentages ranged from .61 to .92, the mean being .79, and were used as an estimateof reliability. Calculations.The quantity-frequencyindex (Q-r) was usedto determine the drinker classifications.The index was developed by Straus
and Bacon (2), and slightlymodified by Maxwell (24), Mulford and Miller (25-29), Cahalanet al. (30-31), and Maddoxand Williams (5), and used in a number of other studies (23, 32-37). Most of these studieshave restructuredthe "frequency"and "amount"responses for a variety of reasons.In the present study the amount over 6 drinks drunkon any oneoccasion was statisticallycollapsedsinceheavydrinkers have usuallybeen classifiedas individualsconsuming5 or more drinks at least once a month. The addition of separate categoriesfor each drink in excessof 6 was thought to be superfluous. From the beverage (beer, wine or distilled spirits) most frequently used and the amount of beverageconsumedon a typical occasiona q-r level was calculatedfor each subiect, who was then placed in one of six categories:abstainer,drinking lessthan once a year or not at all; infrequentdrinker,drinkingat least once a year but less than once a month; light drinker, drinking at least once a month but not more than i to 3 drinks at any one sitting; moderatedrinker, drinking at least once a month with no more than 3 to 4 drinks, or at least once a week with no more than I to 2 drinks, at any one sitting;moderateheavy drinker, drinking 3 to 4 drinks at least once a week or drinking 5 or more drinks at least once a month; heavy drinker, drinking 5 or more drinksmore than oncea week. The "abstainer"categorywas used
accordingto the procedureoutlinedby Mulford and Miller (28). The same categorieswere used for men and women. For other calculations,such as the cross-tabulationof various demo-
graphic variablesand drinking patterns,chi-squareanalysesfrom the StatisticalPackagefor the Social Sciencesprogramwere used. RESULTS
Demographic Composition. The sampleof 1128students had the t{ollowing demographic characteristics: 48.17o were men and 51.970 women; 79.3goWhites, 17.2goBlacks, and 3.770included Orientals,
SpanishAmericans,AmericanIndiansand otherracial groups;34.670
werefreshmen, 22.2•sophomores, 21.5%iuniors,17.57o seniors, and 3.670were in other levels; 21.9%were fi'om communitiesof under 5000, 28.6%from communitiesbetween 5000 and 50,000, 18.3•ofrom
communitiesbetween50,000 and 500,000 and 12.7go t{rompopulationsof over500,000;71.45reportedthat their parentsbelongedto religiousorganizations whichpermitteddrinkingwhile 14.4%were t{romProtestantbackgrounds which did not allow drinking,and 14.25 indicated"other"backgrounds. Many ot{the studentswho
DRINKING BY COLLEGE STUDENTS
2149
reported"other"describedthemselves as Pentecostal or Southern Baptistor Mormon. Frequenciesand Quantity of Drinking. Most of the students (79qo)drankat leastoncea year,and abouthalf (57%) drankat least once a month or more. Of these students,70%drank beer, 65%drankwine and 755 drankspiritsat leastoncea year, and
57%drankbeer,415drankwineand45%drankspiritsoncea month or
more.
As Table 1 shows,aboutone-thirdoœall studentsappearedto be abstainers or inœrequent drinkers.With regardto wine,thiswas true oœ67• oœthe students;spirits,51•; and beer, 43•. Heavy drinkingwasreportedby 11%of the studentsconsuming beer,2%
of thoseconsuming wineand5• of thoseconsuming spirits-12• of the totalsample. Beerstill appears to be the mostpopular beverageand the beveragemostlikely to be consumed by the heavy drinkers.
Although differentstatistical procedures and sampling methods havebeenusedin studiesof collegestudents overthe past25 years,it appearsthat the percentage of students in this sample whoaredrinking-79•-isaboutthesameasthatin samples studied in the past.In 1950Strausand Bacon(2) found74• of the studentsin their sampleto be drinkers;in 1969Robinson and Miller (10) found 90%,decreasingto 83%in 1972; and in 1971 Hanson
( 11) foundapproximately 77• of hissample to be drinkers. Of those studentswho drink, Strausand Bacon,usingthe Q-F index, found
17• to be heavydrinkers;in the presentstudythe heavydrinkers comprised14%of the studentswho drink. Milman and Su (9), definingheavy drinkersas thosewho drink at least a few times a
week,found20%of the drinkersin theirsampleto be heavydrinkers;Penn(13) foundthat 16%of the drinkersin his sampledrank TABLE1.--Percentages of 1128 Studentsin Q-F Levels,by Type Beverageand AbsoluteAlcohol Absolute
Beer
Wine
Spirits
Alcohol•
Abstainers
30.5
35.0
25.3
20.6
Infrequent drinkers Light drinkers
12.9 11.2
32.2 13.6
25.9 13.6
10.8 11.8
19.2
13.0
17.8
23.8
12.0 5.4
21.5 11.5
Moderate
drinkers
Moderate-heavydrinkers Heavy drinkers
15.0 11.2
4.2 2.0
a Determined by total amount of absolute alcohol contained in the most frequently consumed beverage on any typical occasion.
2150
•. c. •Ncs
at leasta few timesa week. It appearsthat the percentageof heavy drinkersin the sampledescribedin the presentstudy is slightlylowerthan thosereportedin paststudiesthat examined drinking levels.However, theseresultsmust be viewed with caution becauseof differentsamplingand analyticalprocedures.
ProblemsResultingfrom Drinking.Approximately 20• of the students reportedno problemsas the resultof drinking.About29% reportedone or two problems,and about22%reportedthree or fourproblems asthe resultof drinking.It appearsthat it is commonfor aboutone-halfof all students to havehadup to fourproblemsoccuras the resultof drinking.
Moststudents whodrinkreported"hangovers," "nausea andvomiting"and "drivingafter drinking"at somepointin their lives,as theresultof drinking(Table2). Certaintypesof problembehavior suchas "fighting"or "lowergradebecauseof drinking"were likely
to haveoccurred at somepointotherthanthepastyear,suggesting that the behaviorresultedfroin drinkingexperimentation at a younger
age.
Other investigators have reportedsomeof this problembehavior. Boggand Hughes(18) indicatedthat 74•oof their sampleof
Canadianstudents had experienced nauseaand vomiting,which T.•BL•, 2.--Percentageof the StudentsWho Drink at Least Once a Year (N -- 883) ReportingAlcohol-RelatedProblemsat Least Once in Past Year and in Lifetime
Hangover Nausea and vomiting Driving after drinking Driving after excessivedrinking Driving while drinking Missing classbecauseof hangover Coming to classafter drinking Fighting with someoneafter drinking Being criticizedby date becauseof drinking Missing classafter drinking Damaginguniversityproperty,settingoff false fire alarm, becauseof drinking Knowing of problem with drinking Having troublewith the law becauseof drinking Receivinga lower gradebecauseof drinking Having trouble with schooladministrationbecauseof drinking Being arrestedfor driving while intoxicated Losing job becauseof drinking
Past Year
Lifetime
57.6 37.8 51.0 30.8 25.7 16.8 10.9 9.1 10.0 10.6
73.7 69.7 68.4 50.8 45.7 24.2 21.9 19.4 18.9 18.6
8.8 8.5 3.5
17.6 16.2 9.2
4.1
8.7
1.8 1.8 0.5
3.8 2.5 0.9
DRINKING BY COLLEGESTUDENTS
2151
is similarto the findingof the presentstudy.Orfordet al. (17) reported50%of the Britishstudentsthey studiedhad a hangover at sometime,compared with 74%of thosedescribed in the present study. Since these studieswere conductedin different cultures,
theircomparison with thepresentstudymustbe viewedwith caution. "Troublewith the police"was reportedby 7%of Hanson's students(11), 6%of Maddox and Williams'sstudents(5) and 9%
of Orfordet al.'sBritishstudents (17); 9•oof the sampledescribed in the presentstudyreportedtroublewith the police. Otherproblemssuchas missingschool(17), losinga job (11), getting into a fight (16, 18), and being criticizedby friends for drinking(11) have been reportedby other investigators, whose findingswere similarto thoseof the presentstudy(Table 2). On
the wholeit doesnot appearthat problems resultingfromdrinking haveincreased appreciably in the past 15 years.Again,theseresultsmustbe viewedin light of differentproceduraland statistical methods.
SexDifferentials.Eighty-twoper cent of the men and 75%of the womenstudiedreporteddrinkingat leastoncea year. Strausand Bacon found in 1950 that 79% of the men and 61% of the women
drank; Hanson found in 1971 that 80% of the men and 73% of the
womendrank.The findingsof the presentstudysuggestthat a slightlyhigherpercentage of menaredrinkingnow,compared with 25 and 5 yearsago, and that there has been a steadyincreasein the percentage of womenwhodrink. Beerappearsto be the mostpopularbeverageamongmenand spiritsamongwomen.Of the 508 men, 81.1%drank beer at least oncea year,75.2%drankspiritsand 65.5%drankwine. Of the 610 women,74.1%drank spiritsat least oncea year, 64.6%drank wine and 60.9%drank beer. Chi-squareanalysisindicatesthat men drink
beersignificantly morefrequentlyand in greaterquantities(p < .001) than do women,and that men drink a significantlygreater quantityof wine and spirits(p < .05) thando women.Therewere no significantdifferencesin the frequencyof drinkingwine or spirits.There are significantdifferences(p < .001) betweenthe Q--Flevelsof men and women.As Table 3 shows,about five times
as many men (20%) as women (4%) are heavy drinkers.Straus and Baconreportedthat 21• of the men and 10%of the women they studiedwere heavy drinkers. The greaterincidenceof heavy drinkingamongwomenin the 1950s,comparedwith the findingsof the presentstudy,is interest-
2152
R.c.
•cs
TABLE &-Relationship between Q-F LevelandSex,Race,CollegeClassand Grade Point Average,in Per Cent Q-F
LEVEL
In[re-
Moderate-
N
Never
quently
Light
Moderate
Heavy
Heavy
508 610
16.5 23.9
7.1 13.8
9.1 13.9
20.9 26.6
26.4 17.5
20.1 4.3
887 194
16.0 39.7
11.0 9.3
11.6 13.4
24.6 21.6
24.1 11.3
12.6 4.6
Freshmen Sophomores
380 250
20.8 25.2
11.8 9.6
10.5 12.8
23.7 21.6
21.1 18.8
12.1 12.0
Juniors Seniors
246 199
19.1 15.6
10.6 10.6
12.2 13.1
26.8 20.6
20.7 28.1
10.6 12.1
35.7 22.2 19.1 17.9 23.0 21.4
10.7 12.2 11.1 8.8 11.5 7.1
8.9 13.9 10.8 11.7 9.8 7.1
14.3 23.3 24.7 23.4 26.2 35.7
12.5 23.6 21.2 23.1 16.4 28.6
17.9 4.9 13.2 15.0 13.1 0
Sex1:
Men Women Race•
Whites Blacks College Class
GradePoint Average* 4.0 3.5 3.0 2.5 2.0
