Binge Drinking and Alcohol-Related Problems Among Community ...

Journal of American College Health

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Binge Drinking and Alcohol-Related Problems Among Community College Students: Implications for Prevention Policy Felicia D. Sheffield PhD , Jack Darkes PhD , Frances K. Del Boca PhD & Mark S. Goldman PhD To cite this article: Felicia D. Sheffield PhD , Jack Darkes PhD , Frances K. Del Boca PhD & Mark S. Goldman PhD (2005) Binge Drinking and Alcohol-Related Problems Among Community College Students: Implications for Prevention Policy, Journal of American College Health, 54:3, 137-141, DOI: 10.3200/JACH.54.3.137-142 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JACH.54.3.137-142

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JOURNAL OF AMERICAN COLLEGE HEALTH, VOL. 54, NO. 3

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Binge Drinking and Alcohol-Related Problems Among Community College Students: Implications for Prevention Policy Felicia D. Sheffield, PhD; Jack Darkes, PhD; Frances K. Del Boca, PhD; Mark S. Goldman, PhD

Abstract. Binge drinking and alcohol-related problems among students at traditional 4-year universities have been well documented. However, little is known about the frequency of their such behaviors and its consequences among community college students, who comprise roughly 44% of all undergraduate students in the United States. The present study examined binge drinking and alcohol-related problems in 762 (61% female) ethnically diverse (65% Caucasian, 20% Hispanic, 9% African American) community college students (mean age = 26.23, SD = 7.81). Based on gender-specific criteria, 25% engaged in binge drinking. As compared to nonbingers and current abstainers, bingers had higher rates of drinking-related problems. The implications of these findings for research and for prevention/intervention programs are discussed.

classified as binge drinkers.3 Considerable variability, however, has been observed both across and within institutions. Consumption levels vary widely during the academic year (eg, binge drinking is especially prevalent during spring break),4 and a variety of factors (eg, fraternity or sorority membership, living on campus vs. off campus) have been shown to influence binge drinking estimates.5–8 The heightened interest in this pattern of alcohol use among college students stems from its association with a variety of alcohol-related problems, including poor academic performance, physical fights, unintentional injuries, and deaths1,3,9 as well as other substance abuse.10 Compared to nonbingers, drinkers who binge frequently are 4 to 15 times as likely to experience problems such as missing class and getting hurt or injured due to their alcohol use. This study also found that heavy drinking on college campuses also negatively affects nonbingers, with 77% of non-binge drinking students reporting experiencing at least 1 secondhand effect of others’ misuse of alcohol.3 Although researchers have focused considerable attention on alcohol use among college students, most research and prevention efforts have been geared directed towards students attending traditional 4-year institutions. Research on students in nontraditional settings has typically combined samples from vocational, technical, junior, and community colleges.11,12 Surveys of this broad range of 2-year institutions suggest a binge rate of approximately 34%.12 Although very few studies have specifically examined drinking patterns and alcohol-related problems among community college students, the existing data suggest that community college students exhibit many of the same problems seen in traditional college student samples. In one study, roughly 1 in 3 (31%) reported driving after drinking, 19% were in physical fights as a result of their alcohol use, and 15% had missed class due to a hangover.13

Key Words: binge drinking, college students, community college students, drinking problems, prevention policy

A

lcohol-related deaths and other negative consequences of alcohol use have caused increased scrutiny of “binge drinking” on college campuses. Some degree of controversy surrounds the use of the term “binge” to describe the pattern of heavy episodic drinking that typifies problem use among college students.1* Binge drinking in this population has typically been defined as the consumption of 5 or more drinks in 1 sitting. In some studies, gender-sensitive criteria (5 or more drinks for men, 4 or more drinks for women) have been adopted to take into account gender differences in alcohol metabolism.2 Using these criteria, surveys have found that prevalence rates have remained relatively stable over time with 2 in 5 students

Felicia D. Sheffield is a project director, Jack Darkes is the Associate Director of the Alcohol and Substance Research Institute, Frances K. Del Boca is an associate professor, and Mark S. Goldman is a distinguished research professor, all in the Department of Psychology at the University of South Florida, Tampa. 137

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Although the aforementioned data suggest that students at 2-year institutions also experience such alcohol problems, the frequency of binge drinking and its association with high-risk behaviors is largely unexplored among community college students. Currently there are more than 1,100 community colleges with roughly 10 million students, comprising nearly 44% of all undergraduate students in the United States.14 We have been unable to document any published studies that have specifically examined binge drinking and its relationship to alcohol-related problems in this population. The present study addresses this knowledge gap by assessing binge drinking and alcohol problems in a large sample of community college students. METHOD Participants This project was reviewed and approved by the University of South Florida Institutional Review Board. Respondents were solicited from 45 classes, representing a variety of disciplines on a single campus of a large urban community college in the southeastern United States. The selected campus was chosen because it was the largest among the regional community college campuses, with an enrollment of 9,127, and the most diverse in terms of age (M = 26 years), gender (55% female), and racial/ethnic composition (10% African American, 20% Hispanic). To further maximize participation and diversity, both day and evening general education classes were randomly selected from lists of available classes. All classes were surveyed during the first week of school when class attendance tends to be highest. This study was open to students who were aged 18 years and older and who spoke English. Permission to enter classes was granted by administrators and classroom teaching staff. All teachers of the selected classes agreed to have their students surveyed, and all students who were invited to participate took part in the study. As an incentive for participation, students who completed the survey were entered into several prize drawings at the completion of the study. A total of 789 participants completed the survey; 27 were excluded due to substantial missing data. The final sample (N = 762) was 61% females, 65% Caucasian, 20% Hispanic, 9% African American, 3% Asian, and 3% other racial/ethnic groups. Eighty-five percent of the sample was born in the United States. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 57 years (M = 26.2, SD = 7.8). Although the percentage of female respondents was slightly higher than that of male respondents in the present study, the sample generally approximates the overall campus population in terms of age (M = 26 years), gender, (55% female) and race/ethnicity (20% Hispanic, 10% African American). Sixty-one percent of participants were employed fulltime, and more than half (59%) attended school full-time. Fifty-nine percent had never been married; roughly equal proportions indicated they were either currently living with a spouse or partner (36%) or with their parents (33%), com138

pared to 12% who lived alone and 11% who lived with a roommate. Twenty-five percent of the students were parents. These data highlight the diverse nature of our community college sample. Procedure All participants provided informed consent before anonymously completing a packet of questionnaires. Researchers provided participants with a debriefing flyer and an educational summary after the students completed the study. The debriefing flyer listed local counseling and mental health facilities to contact should any participants have concerns about their drinking behavior. Measures A wide range of questions was included in the forms administered to participants. Only a subset of the original items is included in the analyses reported here. Questions were organized into 2 separate sections for administration. Participants first completed a personal demographics survey, created for this study and composed of questions about age, race, gender, marital status, parental status, family composition, current living arrangement, employment status, school status (full- or part-time), educational goals, and educational history. Second, participants completed a drinking survey, which was created for this study to measure alcohol use, alcohol-related problems, and other substance use. The survey assessed drinking quantity by instructing respondents to report the number of drinks “typically” consumed on drinking occasions. Participants indicated their frequency of drinking and their frequency of intoxication by indicating how often they typically drank or became drunk using a scale from “never” to “7 or more times a week.” Participants also indicated whether, as a result of their alcohol use, they had ever experienced any problems in each of 4 separate domains: school, relationship, job, and legal. Because it is a measure of lifetime problems, it was possible for current abstainers to answer affirmatively. The occurrence of problems was evaluated within each domain, and a total problems score was also computed by summing across domains. Analyses Participants were classified into 1 of 3 groups based on their alcohol use: “current nondrinkers,” “nonbingeing drinkers,” and “binge drinkers.” Current nondrinkers were those who reported no current quantity or frequency of drinking (although they may have drunk in the past). Nonbingers currently consumed alcohol but did not meet the criteria for binge drinking. Participants were classified as binge drinkers using gender-specific criteria: 5 or more drinks per occasion for men, 4 or more for women, at least 2 to 3 times per month. Chi-square tests and t-tests were used to compare the groups in terms of alcohol consumption patterns and problems related to drinking. JOURNAL OF AMERICAN COLLEGE HEALTH


BINGE DRINKING

RESULTS

COMMENTS

Drinking Patterns

Although community college students constitute approximately 44% of all undergraduates students in the United States, the occurrence of binge drinking and alcohol-related problems in this population has received little attention. The present results provide an initial indication of alcohol-consumption patterns, including binge drinking rates, among community college students, although they are limited by the use of only one community college. The rate of binge drinking (25%) in this sample, although high in absolute terms, is lower than national estimates for traditional 4-year students, which range from 34% to 47%, depending on the college survey.3,12,15 This lower rate may be attributable, at least in part, to demographic differences between community and traditional college students. The participants in this study, like community college students in general, tended to be older and more ethnically diverse, and were more likely to be employed full-time and to have children than students on more traditional campuses. All of these are characteristics are associated with decreased alcohol consumption.15 Indeed, the binge-drinking rate of 33% among participants in the current sample who were aged 18 to 21 years (the typical age for students in traditional institutions) was within the range of estimates obtained in national surveys of traditional college students. Binge drinkers in the present study reported more alcohol-related problems than their nonbingeing or currently abstaining counterparts. Thus, although binge drinking was less prevalent in this sample, consistent with prior research using traditional college students, binge drinking was also associated with a variety of negative consequences. Because community colleges tend to be highly variable in terms of student body composition, the results of this study cannot be generalized beyond the present sample. The rates of alcohol use and its related problems at other institutions would be expected to vary as a function of differences in factors that are associated with different drinking patterns, such as gender, racial/ethnic, and age composition of the student body. Despite this limitation, this study provides preliminary and previously unavailable information about a college population that is rarely studied. Binge-style heavy

The largest single group of students (19%) reported drinking “1-2 times a week” and “not drinking” to intoxication in the past year (29%). Eighty-four percent of the sample reported consuming alcohol in the past year. The sample was composed of 16% current nondrinkers, 59% nonbingers, and 25% binge drinkers. The mean quantity per occasion reported by those who drank was 4 drinks (M = 4.0, SD = 3.7), although there was significant variability. Bingers reported a mean typical quantity consumed (M = 7.3, SD = 4.2) that was twice that of nonbingeing students (M = 2.7, SD = 2.4) t(231) = -13.86, p < .001 and, as might be expected, more binge drinkers (46%) reported drinking to intoxication “a few times a week” than nonbingeing drinkers (3%), χ2(3, N = 514) = 195.19, p < .001. Alcohol-Related Problems Table 1 presents comparisons of the 3 groups in terms of lifetime alcohol-related problems. We obtained significant results consistently across the problem indicators. Twentyfour percent of binge drinkers reported school problems compared to only 6% of nonbingers and 3% of current abstainers, χ2(2, N = 694) = 55.92, p < .001. The rate of relationship problems in the binge group was almost 3 times higher than in nonbingers (32% vs 11%) and 8 times higher (4%) than in students who currently abstained from drinking, χ2(2, N = 693) = 52.17, p < .001. Students who binged were 5 times more likely than nonbingers (20% vs 4%) and almost 7 times more likely than current nondrinkers (20% vs 3%) to have reported job problems due to their alcohol use, χ2(2, N = 693) = 49.69, p < .001. Bingers also experienced legal problems more than twice as often as nonbingers (13% vs 5%) and 6 times more often (13% vs 2%) than their non-drinking counterparts, χ2(2, N = 694) = 17.22, p < .001. When the likelihood of ever experiencing any alcoholrelated problem was examined, bingers (47%) were roughly 3 times more likely than nonbingers (16%) and 7 times more likely than current nondrinkers (6%) to report having had at least 1 lifetime drinking-related problem χ2 (2, N = 692) = 87.44, p < .001.

TABLE 1. Comparison of Lifetime Alcohol-Related Problems, in Percentages

Problem domain School (n = 694) Relationship (n = 693) Job (n = 693) Legal (n = 694) Any problem (n = 690) Total problems (n = 690)

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Bingers 25% (n = 183)

Nonbingers 59% (n = 441)

Current abstainers 16% (n = 117)

24 32 20 13 47 M = 1.87 SD = .94

6 11 4 5 16 M = 1.55 SD = .83

3 4 3 2 6

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episodic drinking and alcohol-related problems occur among community college students just as on traditional campuses. Further research is needed to determine the individual and environmental factors contributing to heavy drinking in this population. The differences between community colleges and more traditional institutions suggest that factors associated with problem behavior in these 2 types of settings may be quite different. For example, involvement in fraternities and sororities, which is strongly related to binge drinking on traditional campuses,5 is simply not relevant to understanding the drinking patterns of community college students. Perceived social norms thought to be a major contributor to drinking on traditional campuses7 may be less likely to influence community college students, who spend much less time in campus venues, and who are probably less likely to view themselves as “college students” than as workers, parents, or simply residents of a specific town or neighborhood. Changing the college culture has also been proposed as a way of preventing college drinking.1 However, the community college context in comparison to more traditional campuses is less likely to have an overall college atmosphere. Differences between community colleges and traditional 4-year institutions in campus environment (or lack thereof) and student body composition also have implications for the design and delivery of effective prevention and intervention efforts in community college venues. Programs may need to be targeted toward those students who are more likely to engage in heavier drinking (eg, younger students) and may need to be offered at times that do not compete with employment and family commitments. Such programs should attempt to access community college students in a centralized location, or potentially in the classroom, given their limited time on campus. Prevention strategies will also need to consider the possibility that students attending community colleges, unlike their counterparts in traditional colleges, may not view their fellow students as a peer group. Hence, campus-wide programming aimed at changing students’ perceptions of other students’ behavior may not be as readily applied to this population. Because community colleges generally have limited financial and personnel resources and therefore may not have student health or counseling services available, programs may need to be targeted toward those students who have already been identified as having alcohol-related problems. To make optimal use of limited resources, several different strategies for identifying those at risk for later problem drinking should be tested. In addition, universal prevention efforts may need to focus on high-traffic areas (eg, food courts, libraries) in order to reach the maximum number of students with minimal investment. College administrators should also consider including alcohol skills training and other prevention programs in their student orientation curriculum or basic life skills training, in addition to incorporating such information into other curricula where possible. 140

ACKNOWLEDGMENT This research was supported in part by a grant from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R37AA08333) and was part of Dr. Felicia Sheffield’s doctoral dissertation. The authors extend special thanks to the research faculty and staff at the Alcohol and Substance Use Research Institute for their invaluable feedback and support on this project. NOTE For further information, please address communications to the corresponding author, Jack Darkes, PhD, Alcohol and Substance Use Research Institute, Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, 4202 East Fowler Avenue, PCD 4118G, Tampa, FL 33620-8200 (e-mail: [email protected]). *Our use of the term “binge” in this article does not represent a particular position in this debate. Instead, it reflects a decision to use the term for the sake of brevity and continuity with previously published reports. REFERENCES 1. National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. A Call to Action: Changing the Culture of Drinking at U.S. Colleges. US Department of Health and Human Services; 2002. NIH Publication 02-5010. 2. Wechsler H, Dowdall GW, Davenport A, Rimm EB. A gender-specific measure of binge drinking among college students. Am J Pub Health. 1995;85:982–985. 3. Wechsler H, Lee JE, Kuo M, Lee H. College binge drinking in the 1990s: a continuing problem, results of the Harvard School of Public Health 1999 College Alcohol Study. J Am Coll Health. 2000;48:199–210. 4. Del Boca FK, Greenbaum PE, Darkes J, Goldman MS. Using latent growth curve mixture modeling to investigate college student drinking patterns. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2000;24 (Suppl):133A. 5. Engs RC, Diebold BA, Hanson DJ. The drinking patterns and problems of a national sample of college students, 1994. J Alcohol Drug Educ. 1996;4(3):13–33. 6. Harford MR, Muthen BO. Alcohol use among college students: The effects of prior problem behaviors and change of residence. J Stud Alcohol. 2001;62:306–312. 7. Sher KJ, Bartholow BD, Nanda S. Short and long-term effect of fraternity and sorority membership on heavy drinking: a social norms perspective. Psychol Addict Behav. 2001;15:42–51. 8. Wechsler H, Lee JE, Gledhill-Hoyt J, Nelson TF. Alcohol use and problems at colleges banning alcohol: Results of a national survey. J Stud Alcohol. 2000;62:133–141. 9. Clements R. Prevalence of alcohol-use disorders and alcoholrelated problems in a college student sample. J Am Coll Health. 1999;48:111–118. 10. Gledhill-Hoyt J, Lee JE, Strote J, Wechsler H. Increased use of marijuana and other illicit drugs at US colleges in the 1990s: results of three national surveys. Addict. 2000; 5:1655–1667. 11. McAloon DT. The effect of alcohol abuse on academic achievement on two-year campuses. Community Coll Rev. 1994;22:12–18. 12. Presley CA, Meilman PW, Cashin J. Alcohol and Drugs on American College Campuses; Use, Consequences, and Perceptions of the Campus Environment, Vol IV: 1992–1994. Carbondale, IL: The Core Institute; 1996. 13. Coll KM. An assessment of drinking patterns and drinking problems among community college students: implications for programming. J Coll Student Dev. 1999; 40:98–100. 14. Phillippe KA, Madeline P. National Profile of Community JOURNAL OF AMERICAN COLLEGE HEALTH

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Colleges: Trends and Statistics. 3rd ed. Washington, DC: Community College Press, American Association of Community Colleges; 2000. 15. Johnston, LD, O’Malley PM, Bachman JG. National Survey Results on Drug Use From the Monitoring the Future Study 19751998, Vol II, College Students and Young Adults. US Department

of Health and Human Services; 1999. NIH Publication number 99–4661. 16. Sheffield FD, Del Boca FK, Goldman MS. Alcohol expectancies, adult roles, and drinking: Their relationship during early and mid adulthood. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2000; 24(Suppl):67A.

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