Changes in Binge Drinking and Related Problems Among American College Students Between 1993 and 1997 Results of the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study

Abstract

In 1997, the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study resurveyed colleges that participated in a 1993 study. The findings revealed little change in binge drinking: a slight decrease in percentage of binge drinkers and slight increases in percentages of abstainers and frequent binge drinkers. Two of 5 students were binge drinkers (42.7%); 1 in 5 (19.0%) was an abstainer, and 1 in 5 was a frequent binge drinker (20.7%). As was true in 1993, 4 of 5 residents of fraternities or sororities were binge drinkers (81.1%). Asian students showed a greater increase and White students a greater decrease in binge drinking from 1993 to 1997, compared with all other students. Among students who drank alcohol, increases in frequency of drinking; drunkenness; drinking to get drunk; and alcohol-related problems, including drinking and driving, were reported. Binge drinkers in both 1993 and 1997 were at increased risk of alcohol-related problems, and nonbingers at colleges with high binge drinking rates had increased risks of encountering secondhand effects of binge drinking.

Key Words:

• alcohol and other substance use
• binging
• college students
• correlates of use

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hang Lee

Henry Wechsler is director of College Alcohol Studies at the Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Health and Social Behavior, where Jeana Gledhill-Hoyt is a research analyst. George W. Dowdall is a professor of sociology at St Joseph's University in Philadelphia, where Gretchen Maenner is a research assistant. Hang Lee is with the Center for Vaccine Research at the University of California, Los Angeles.