Alcohol expectancies and drinking behaviors among college students with disordered eating

ABSTRACT

Objective: The authors investigated binge drinking, alcohol expectancies, and risky and protective drinking behaviors in relation to disordered eating behaviors in male and female college students. Participants: The full sample consisted of 7,720 undergraduate students, 18 to 22 years of age. Drinking behaviors were analyzed in 4,592 recent drinkers. Methods: Participants anonymously completed a survey as part of a universal alcohol abuse prevention program between September 2007 and April 2008. Results: Co-occurring disordered eating behaviors and binge drinking characterized 17.1% of males and 19.0% of females. Rates of binge drinking were higher in those with disordered eating behaviors. Students with disordered eating behaviors also had more positive and negative alcohol expectancies and engaged in more risky and fewer protective drinking behaviors than their counterparts. Conclusions: Students with disordered eating behaviors have outcome expectancies and behavior patterns associated with problematic drinking. These findings may enhance prevention and intervention programs.

KEYWORDS:

• Alcohol expectancies
• college students
• disordered eating
• drinking behaviors

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express gratitude to Outside the Classroom and Everfi for allowing us to add questions to their program and providing us with the data. In particular, we wish to acknowledge the help provided by William DeJong and Todd Wyatt at EverFi.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of Duke University.

Funding

We thank the Cotswold Foundation for a grant in support of this study.