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Abstract
Background: Hosting non-university guests is common among college students, especially during sports and traditional party weekends. However, the effect of non-university guests – a common social reference group – on host-students’ drinking behaviors is not well understood.
Method: Data were drawn from a cross-sectional survey conducted at a public Midwestern university (N = 2951; mean age = 20 years) from 2005 to 2007.
Results: Participants who hosted non-university guests tended to be younger in age, male, of white racial background, members of athletic teams, had younger ages of drinking onset, and were more likely to reside off-campus as compared to non-hosts. Host students also had significantly elevated risk for engaging in heavy party-related drinking while hosting non-university guests, and were more likely to report similar risky drinking behaviors among other party-attendees.
Conclusions: Preliminary evidence from this study suggests that college-based prevention efforts would benefit from specifically targeting students who are more likely to host non-university guests.
Declaration of interest
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article. This work was supported by NIAAA Grant 5 U18 AA 015101-2.