The Monitoring the Future study revealed that college students were about as likely to abuse alcohol as their same-age peers, with a lifetime prevalence of 84.6 percent of the college students compared to 85.8 percent of their peers, which is a minor difference. The college students were also slightly more likely to choose flavored alcoholic beverages than their noncollegiate peers; 79 percent versus 76.3 percent. (Most of this difference was accounted for by female college students, among whom 82.3 percent had used flavored alcoholic beverages compared to 77.6 percent of the noncollege women)

When considering the 30-day prevalence of various drugs, it is clear that the college students had a higher rate of abuse: 67.7 percent had used alcohol in the past 30 days compared to 59.3 percent of their noncollege peers. The difference was particularly striking among females: 68.2 percent of the female college students had used alcohol in the past 30 days, compared to 56.3 percent of the noncollege females.

In considering binge drinking, college students were more likely to binge drink than their noncollege peers, particularly the female students.

In general, research has shown that students at four-year colleges are more likely to abuse alcohol than are students at two-year colleges. Alcohol abuse is also strongly associated with membership in Greek organizations. In one study, 86 percent of the fraternity members reported that they were heavy drinkers versus 45 percent of the students who were not fraternity members. Surprisingly, the situation was even more pronounced for female members of sororities: 80 percent of sorority residents reported heavy alcohol abuse compared to only 17 percent among nonsorority members.

The researchers James G. Murphy and Meghan E. McDevitt-Murphy studied the impact of alcohol use and abuse on 353 college students and various life satisfaction variables, such as general satisfaction, social satisfaction, and school satisfaction. The majority of the subjects in the sample were females (78.2 percent). The results were reported in Psychology of Addictive Behaviors in 2005.

The researchers found that female abstainers had higher levels of life satisfaction than moderate or heavy drinkers. Abstainers also had higher anticipated future satisfaction than heavy drinkers. (There were an insufficient number of male subjects to draw statistically valid conclusions about the differences between abstainers and moderate and heavy drinkers.) They also found that the male college students had significantly more alcohol-related problems than the female students; for example, the men drank nearly twice as much as the women and had a higher frequency of heavy drinking.

Most of the sample (91 percent) were white but there were sufficient numbers of African Americans to make some comparisons, and the researchers found that the white students were heavier weekly drinkers than the African-American students. They also found that the white students reported higher levels of school and social satisfaction than the African-American students.

Say the authors, "The present findings suggest that college student alcohol consumption (among women) and alcohol-related problems (among both men and women) are associated with diminished LS [life satisfaction] which is yet another reason why prevention and treatment of young adult alcohol abuse should be a priority."

College students who have depression and/or poor mental health have a greater risk of some problems that are related to alcohol consumption, according to a variety of studies. One study by Elissa R. Weitzman reported in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease in 2004 was a survey of more than 27,000 students at 119 colleges in the United States. She found that about 5 percent of the students had poor mental health/depression (PMHD). These students were more likely to be female, nonwhite, and members of families in which their parents had not attended college.

Of the PMHD students, Weitzman found that about 82 percent consumed alcohol: "Compared with their peers, students with PMHD were less likely to report lifetime abstinence; more likely to report drinking but not heavy episodic drinking [binge drinking]; and more likely to report drinking to get drunk."

Perhaps not surprisingly, Weitzman also found that drinking itself was causing problems in the lives of the students who had poor mental health/depression. She states, "Drinkers with PMHD were more likely than drinkers without PMHD to report drinking-related problems, including academic troubles, unplanned and unsafe sex, alcohol overdosing, and experiencing five or more problems from alcohol."

Other studies of general populations have shown a significant relationship between depression and alcoholism or binge drinking, such as a study of more than 43,000 subjects published by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Among nonbingers, the rate of depression was 6.6 percent. Among binge drinkers, the rate of depression was 9.8 percent.

In their report High Risk Drinking in College; What We Know and What We Need to Learn, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and the Alcoholism National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Task Force on College Drinking discuss the problem of the general acceptance of heavy drinking as a normal and accepted condition among many college students.

They state, "The Panel found that on many college campuses, heavy drinking is interwoven overtly or subtly throughout the culture of the institution. As a result, students perceive this drinking pattern as the social norm rather than as unhealthy and potentially destructive behavior."

According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in their report on the culture of campus drinking in their 2002 Alcohol Alert article, "Traditions and beliefs handed down through generations of college drinkers serve to reinforce students' expectations that alcohol is a necessary component of social success." Yet the report also notes that more than 600,000 students are assaulted each year by other students who have been drinking and alcohol consumption is linked to at least 1,400 student deaths and a half-million unintentional injuries each year.

Key factors that the Task Force on College Drinking found to be related to drinking problems were as follows:

- the students' value systems and personalities

- the family background and peers

- the students' expectations regarding alcohol's effects (good or bad)

- a genetic predisposition, often reflected in a family history of alcoholism

- the social integration of drinking into college life

- the context in which drinking occurs (on- or offcampus parties, on- or off-campus bars)

- the economic availability of alcohol (lower prices or two-for-one drinks are linked to higher levels of alcohol use)

- the level of law enforcement

Some college students are away from their home for the first time, and as a result of loneliness, boredom, and other emotions, they may exhibit behavior that they think is daring and exciting, including abusing alcohol and drugs. They may also try to impress or fit in with their new peers by using alcohol and/or drugs. However, many individuals who abuse alcohol and drugs actually began their abuse during high school, and they continue to do so into their college years (and beyond).

References:

Murphy, James G., Meghan E. McDevitt-Murphy, and Nancy P. Barnett. "Drink and Be Merry? Gender, Life Satisfaction, and Alcohol Consumption among College Students." Psychology of Addictive Behaviors 19, no. 2 (2005): 184-191.

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Alcohol Use and Alcohol Use Disorders in the United States: Main Findings from the 2001-2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC). U.S. Alcohol Epidemiologic Data Reference Manual 8, no. 1 (January 2006). Bethesda, Md.: National Institutes of Health, January 2006.

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. "Changing the Culture of Campus Drinking," Alcohol Alert 58 (October 2002).

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Task Force on College Drinking. High-Risk Drinking in College: What We Know and What We Need to Learn: Final Report of the Panel on Contexts and Consequences. April 2002.

Weitzman, Elissa R. "Poor Mental Health, Depression, and Associations with Alcohol Consumption, Harm, and Abuse in a National Sample of Young Adults in College." Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 192, no. 4 (April 2004): 269-277.

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