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Abstract
In the past decade, universities and colleges across the USA have attempted to develop a profile of college student drinkers in order to develop programs and policies for combating high‐risk drinking. Most of these studies have relied on the Core Alcohol and Drug Survey in which students self‐report drinking and behaviors associated with drinking. While the Core survey has undergone multiple validity checks, few researchers have employed official data to validate items in the survey, particularly self‐reported official trouble. The present study employed municipal alcohol‐related arrest reports to determine whether the correlates of arrest resembled correlates associated with self‐reported official trouble from drinking. Overall, group membership patterns from the self‐report item resembled the patterns of alcohol‐related arrest. Further tests using internal Core survey criteria revealed additional validity support for the self‐reported official trouble item.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful for the assistance provided by the municipal court staff in acquiring some of the data used in this study. They are also grateful for the helpful comments offered by several reviewers.
Notes
1. Students who are seeking Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science degrees are collectively referred to as ‘undergraduates’ in the USA.
2. We left analysis of the college variable out due to small values of n in disaggregating the categories.