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One of these things is not like the others: Testing trajectories in drinking frequency, drinking quantity, and alcohol-related problems in undergraduate women
Abstract
Alcohol misuse is an increasingly common problem in undergraduate women. Building upon research suggesting that maturing out of risky patterns of alcohol use can occur, our study tested how three facets of alcohol use change differentially over time in undergraduate women. A sample of 218 undergraduate women (M age = 20.6 years) participated in a four-wave, 18-month longitudinal study measuring frequency of alcohol consuming occasions, quantity of alcohol consumed per occasion, and alcohol-related problems. Growth curve analyses showed that alcohol frequency remained stable over 18 months, whereas alcohol quantity and problems decreased over time. Results indicate undergraduate women are drinking with similar frequency over time, but they are drinking a smaller quantity of alcohol per drinking occasion and they are experiencing fewer alcohol-related problems. Findings help clarify the maturity principle by showing a different pattern of drinking as undergraduate women age that involves lower quantities of alcohol per drinking occasion and less problematic alcohol use, but not necessarily less frequent drinking.
... Alcohol may represent one of the most widely used substances for a poly-abuser. Studies have shown that drinking frequency continues to remain stable also in young and adult people, while the quantity drinking alcohol has been shown to decrease over time, especially binge drinking, [84,85], in relation to demographic characteristics such as age, or the amount of use of other substances [83]. Indeed, considering the motivational models' perspective [83], alcohol dependence satisfies heterogeneous reasons, such as coping with threats to self-esteem, minimizing negative emotions, self-medication, socializing and so on, in cultural and social contexts in which drugs and other drugs (i.e., alcohol) are accepted or justified by the expectations of individuals in terms of positive outcomes related to substance uses [86][87][88][89]. ...
Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) pose significant challenges to both individuals and society at large. The primary focus of existing research with clinical SUD populations has been on individual substances, but research is required to better understand the profiles of individuals who use different substances simultaneously. The purpose of the current study was, therefore, to identify patterns of use among subjects (n = 1025) who reported using multiple substances by adopting a Latent Class Analysis (LCA) methodology. The Addiction Severity Index (ASI-lite) was included as a measure of substance misuse, we performed LCA to identify patterns of substance use through the administration of the ASI-Lite. Responses were collected from the following substances: alcohol, cannabis/cannabinoids, opioids and heroin, and cocaine. Results identified two latent classes: (1) alcohol use dominant, and (2) poly-abuser use dominants. Class 1 represented 60.0% of the sample and refers to individuals with the dominant use of alcohol, of those a higher proportion (47%) reported low-frequency use (1 to 7 days per month) and 26% reported a frequency of use of 24 to 30 days per month. Furthermore, 18% used alcohol in combination with cocaine. Class 2 represents 40.0% of the sample. This class is characterized by low-frequency and high-frequency users of several substances. The results obtained highlight the importance of deepening the study of the concomitant use of substances in individuals with SUDs to better understand the health risk of the combined use of two or more substances.
... Few differences in alcohol, cigarette, and cannabis use frequency were noted between 18-24-year-olds and 25-34year-olds, which corroborates prior research. Indeed, drinking frequency has been shown to remain stable during young adulthood while drinking quantity, particularly binge drinking, has been shown to decrease over time (Arria et al., 2016;Nealis et al., 2017;O'Neill & Sher, 2000). Therefore, we might expect to see agerelated differences if alcohol, cigarette, and cannabis quantity, rather than frequency, were included as latent class indicators. ...
Substance use in young adulthood and polysubstance users (PSU), in particular, pose unique risks for adverse consequences. Prior research on young adult PSU has identified multiple classes of users, but most work has focused on college students. We examined PSU patterns by age and college attendance during young adulthood in two nationally representative samples. Using National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) Wave 1 and NESARC-III data sets, multigroup latent class analysis (MG-LCA) was employed to examine PSU patterns based on age (18-24 vs. 25-34) and determine whether solutions were similar (i.e., statistically invariant) by college attendance/graduation. Classes were estimated by binary past-year use of sedatives, tranquilizers, opioids/painkillers, heroin, amphetamines/stimulants, cocaine, hallucinogens, club drugs, and inhalants, and past-year frequency of alcohol, cigarette, and cannabis use. PSU patterns are largely replicated across waves. Model fit supported 3-class solutions in each MG-LCA: Low frequency-limited-range PSU (alcohol, cigarettes, and cannabis only), medium-to-high frequency limited-range PSU (alcohol, cigarettes, and cannabis only), and extended-range PSU (ER PSU; all substances). Apart from one model, MG-LCA solutions were not invariant by college attendance/graduation, suggesting important differences between these groups. Except for alcohol, cannabis, and cigarette use frequency, results showed that probabilities of illicit and prescription drug use declined in the older age group. Findings also supported examining college and noncollege youth separately when studying PSU. ER PSU may be uniquely vulnerable to coingesting substances, particularly for nongraduates, warranting future research to classify patterns of simultaneous PSU and identify predictors and consequences of high-risk combinations (e.g., alcohol and opioids). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
... Risky alcohol use (e.g., inebriation, binge drinking), as the most critical predictor of injury and death among university students, has become a public health concern and an important focus for researchers and educators (Hoeppner et al., 2012;Nealis, Collins, Lee-Baggley, Sherry, & Stewart, 2017). Coping theory (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) could provide insight to the role of family economic hardship as a predictor of risky alcohol use. ...
Few studies have examined factors that might explain or affect the relation between family economic hardship and university students’ risky alcohol use. To address this, the current study tested a moderated mediation model with perceived discrimination as the mediator and impulsivity as the moderator. A sample of 513 university students (48.6% males, 17–22 years old) completed anonymous questionnaires regarding family economic hardship, perceived discrimination, impulsivity and risky alcohol use. Gender, age and parents’ education level were controlled for in the analyses. Structural equation models showed that perceived discrimination fully mediated the association between family economic hardship and risky alcohol use. Meanwhile, impulsivity moderated the second stage of the indirect effect (perceived discrimination → risky alcohol use); the association between perceived discrimination and risky alcohol use was only significant for university students with a higher (not lower) level of impulsivity. The findings suggest that perceived discrimination is one mechanism by which family economic hardship may be associated with university students’ risky alcohol use, and impulsivity affects this mechanism.
... Movere researcher suggest that a broader http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2017.08.016 Received 26 January 2017; Received in revised form 2 July 2017; Accepted 17 August 2017 investigation of alcohol-related problem among college women may more accurately capture problematic alcohol use that does not met the alcohol use disorder criteria (Nealis, Collins, Lee-Baggley, Sherry, & Stewart, 2017). Given the escalation of problem drinking among women, and the disproportionate consequences at similar levels of consumption, there is a critical need to examine the gender-relevant and motivational factors contributing to binge drinking and related problems within this population (Brady, Iwamoto, Grivel, Kaya, & Clinton, 2016;LaBrie et al., 2009). ...
Alcohol consumption among women has steadily increased over the past 30years, and women's drinking behavior is now similar to that of men's. The escalation of alcohol use among women highlights the critical need to examine gender issues and motivational factors that contribute to binge drinking and related problems within this population. Feminine norms or the socially constructed beliefs, messages and attitudes about what it means to be a woman may contribute to within-group differences in drinking patterns among women. The current study examined the relationship between multidimensional feminine norms and binge drinking and alcohol-related problems among 1910 college women. Participants completed a self-report measure of binge drinking, alcohol-related problems, conformity to feminine norms, alcohol expectancies and descriptive norms. Controlling for the covariates descriptive norms, positive alcohol expectancies, and sorority membership, adherence to feminine norms related to sexual fidelity and belief that one needs to be sweet and nice were negatively associated to binge drinking, while adhering to investment in appearance was positively associated to binge drinking and alcohol-related problems. Distinct feminine norms also had a significant indirect effect on alcohol-related problems through binge drinking. This study significant contributes to the literature by elucidating the theoretically gender-relevant risk and protective aspects of feminine norms in relation to binge drinking and related problems, and provides important information that might be used in clinical and prevention efforts to reduce alcohol-related harm among a vulnerable group: college women.
... Regarding demographics, a finding from the limited research of college students supports that male sex is indeed associated with alcohol sleep aid use (Taylor & Bramoweth, 2010). Given that full-time college students are homogeneous in terms of age (typically 18-25 years old; National Center for Education Statistics, 2016), and increases in alcohol frequency are not observed over time among college students (Nealis et al., 2017), age or legal drinking status may not be associated with substance use for sleep; however, these associations have yet to be tested empirically. Empirical evidence from insomnia and alcohol studies of college students suggests that negative mood and sleep-or alcohol-related characteristics may be associated with self-medication for sleep. ...
Objective/background:
College students are at an increased risk for poor sleep and associated sleep problems. Emerging evidence suggests that a substantial subset of college students self-medicate with alcohol, marijuana, and/or over-the-counter medications to help sleep. The current study identified demographic, psychosocial, and sleep- and alcohol-related correlates of self-medication for sleep, and assessed its concurrent and prospective associations with insomnia symptoms, alcohol drinking and negative drinking consequences.
Participants:
Undergraduate students (N = 171; mean age = 19 years [SD = 1.35], 32% male, 74% White) enrolled in a four-year university in the northeastern United States.
Methods:
Data were drawn from a short-term two-wave longitudinal study. Participants completed two online surveys, separated by an average interval of 68 days (SD = 10.22).
Results:
At Time 1, 25% of students reported using at least one substance (alcohol, marijuana, and/or over-the-counter medications) for sleep aid in the past two weeks. Male and older students were more likely to report using substances for sleep. Sleep aid use at Time 1 was concurrently associated with greater levels of alcohol frequency, negative drinking consequences, and insomnia symptoms. Further, sleep aid use at Time 1 was associated with an increase in negative drinking consequences from Time 1 to Time 2, but not with changes in alcohol frequency or insomnia symptoms.
Conclusions:
These findings indicate that substances are widely used among college students for sleep aid. Sleep aid use is associated with greater concurrent drinking and insomnia symptoms, and increases in negative drinking consequences over a short time period.
Objective: The current study investigated how tipping points, a phenomenon in which an individual's threshold for perceiving a change has been exceeded, may be asymmetrical between self-tipping points and those applied to others and how experiences with alcohol affect these judgments. Participants: Undergraduates (N = 300). Methods: Participants reported their drinking frequency, quantity, and parental alcohol use, and evaluated tipping points by assessing how many drinks over the course of how many days they would perceive as problematic alcohol use in an online survey. Results: Participants, on average, reported lower tipping points indicative of problematic drinking behaviors for themselves, as compared to their peers. Results also revealed that quantity of alcohol consumption as well as parental alcohol use and participant age contributed to determining problematic consumption tipping points. Conclusions: Considerations should be given to how these tipping point judgments may affect drinking behaviors. Additionally, there is evidence that current consumption may cloud these judgments.
Purpose:
The purpose of this study was to examine the awareness of alcohol use during pregnancy and factors influencing the intention to abstain from alcohol during pregnancy by drinking levels.
Methods:
Utilizing a comparative descriptive design, a total of 359 female college students were recruited. Measurements were Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) variables related awareness of alcohol use during pregnancy, Korean Version of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, knowledge about alcohol use during pregnancy, and socio-demographic factors. Main variables were compared by drinking levels. The factors influencing the intention to abstain from alcohol during pregnancy were identified using hierarchical regression analysis.
Results:
Non-problematic alcohol behavior group (n=185) had higher the intention to abstain from alcohol during pregnancy than problematic alcohol behavior group (n=174) (t=3.13, p=.002). The significant TPB variables influencing the intention to abstain from alcohol during pregnancy were that attitudes (β =-.44, p<.001), subjective norms (β =.14, p=.026), and perceived behavior control (β =.19, p=.002) in non-problematic alcohol behavior group, whereas the corresponding variables in the problematic alcohol behavior group were attitudes (β =-.51, p<.001) and subjective norms (β =.21, p=.006).
Conclusion:
It is necessary to increase the intention to abstain from alcohol during pregnancy for the female college students having problematic alcohol behavior. The following strategies are recommended for them; decreasing acceptable attitudes toward alcohol use during pregnancy and reinforcing the influence of social pressure toward to abstain from alcohol during pregnancy.
Objective: to determine the relationship between knowledge of consequences and drug use in undergraduate students of a university in San José, Costa Rica. Method: the cross-sectional study examines the demographic profile of the sample and the relationship between knowledge of consequences, drug use and academic performance. The study focuses on three types of drugs: alcohol, marijuana and cocaine. Three variables will be analyzed: demographic data, knowledge of consequences and use of drugs. Results: the relationship between knowledge of consequences and use of drugs was made using of the T-test. The sample had 272 students, 28.2% (n=77) of them were men and 71.4% were women (n=195). They were selected from the areas of social sciences (n=137, 50.2%), and from the area of health sciences (n=136; 49.8%). Alcohol was the most used drug (n=217, 79.8%), followed by marijuana (n=72, 26.6%) and finally cocaine (n=3, 1.1%) in the last 12 months. Conclusion: the results shown indicate that there is no significant relationship between such variables. The findings are important at the level of drug policies to support the development of new preventive strategies for drug use.
Perfectionism is a transdiagnostic risk factor for mental health and interpersonal difficulties, but research on perfectionism and alcohol use in emerging adults remains equivocal. Qualitative research methods are underutilized in this area, and inductive analysis of drinking narratives in undergraduate perfectionists may help clarify conflicting results and support novel approaches to quantitative inquiry in this area. We interviewed 20 undergraduates high in perfectionism (6 adaptive perfectionists and 14 maladaptive perfectionists) using a narrative interview, with analyses focusing on a situation involving alcohol use. We coded interviews for emergent themes using thematic analysis. Five themes emerged as follows: (1) drinking as a social experience, (2) suffering consequences, (3) learning from alcohol, (4) alcohol use as escapism, and (5) reluctance and moderation. Our results add to existing literature by highlighting the interpersonal conflict in perfectionistic people’s experience in relation to alcohol use during emerging adulthood. Results also suggest perfectionistic people may use alcohol and intoxication as a way to facilitate a “release” from unpleasant situations or emotions. Perfectionists reported both positive and negative experiences, which lends support for using a narrative perspective to help overcome preexisting assumptions about adaptive and maladaptive qualities of perfectionism.
Heavy episodic drinking (HED) is a major health problem for young adults. Rates of HED have remained consistently high among young adults for the past two decades. Though research has identified various intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental contributors to HED, the majority of research focuses on intrapersonal factors. As such, more research is needed to test the role that specific interpersonal relationships play in perpetuating HED. This study tests the partner influence hypothesis that suggests partners in romantic relationships influence one another's HED over time. A sample of 208 young, nonmarried, heterosexual dating couples completed HED measures at baseline and again 28 days later. Actor-partner interdependence modeling revealed significant actor effects, demonstrating stability in HED within each partner over time. Results also showed significant partner effects where HED in both young men and women in dating relationships positively influenced their partners' future HED over a relatively short time frame. Patterns in the results suggest both women and men are more affected by their own than by their partner's prior level of HED. Nonetheless, small partner effects were present for both women and men. Results support the partner influence hypothesis and suggest HED is a self-propagating behavior sustained, in part, by a pattern of interpersonal influence. These results highlight the importance of considering both intrapersonal and interpersonal factors when implementing prevention and intervention programs for young adults' HED.
The chapter ‘Women, girls and alcohol’ reviews evidence for ‘ convergence’, or women’s drinking catching up with that of men, and ‘telescoping’, or how in women the time from initiating drinking to dependence is shorter than in men. Prescription drug misuse, a growing problem in UK clinical practice, is also discussed. It is the one area of substance misuse where problems are as common in women as they are in men and it is frequently associated with dual diagnoses and chronic pain. Disappointingly, however, there is little on new treatment strategies and nothing at all on benzodiazepine misuse. The chapter dealing with pregnancy emphasises alcohol as the most important and most common teratogenic substance and it also discusses methadone as the treatment of choice in opiate users. The authors specifically state that the UK practice of detoxification from opiates in pregnancy is not supported by the evidence and is associated with high levels of relapse and complications of pregnancy.
This article reports the results of a purposive review of the different alcohol survey instruments currently used in survey research. The review was conducted to support the development of a standardized comparative survey methodology for Europe. It examines various types of instruments used to measure alcohol consumption, risky drinking, alcohol abuse and dependence, social consequences and third-party harm. The review of literature provides several insights for a European comparative survey. The beverage-specific quan-tity–frequency measure is recommended for use across countries. A reference period of 1 year for alcohol consumption is considered important if one is to link associated problems with alcohol intake. With regard to risky drinking, objective measures based on the quantity of approximately 60–70 g of ethanol per drinking occasion are preferable to subjective measures of drunkenness. In choosing an instrument for measuring abuse and depen-dence, the key issue is to decide whether the instrument is to serve as a screening or diagnostic tool. In the case of screening, the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test or the Rapid Alcohol Problem Screen-4 appears more appropriate. But if one desires to approximate a diagnostic category, then the Composite International Diagnostic Interview or another operationalization of ICD-10/ DSM-IV criteria would be the better choice. Due to a lack of validated scales for social consequences and third-party harm, no recommendations are justified.
Alcohol use has increased among college women in the past decade, and although event-specific high-risk drinking is common among college students, few studies have focused on Spring Break-specific high-risk drinking and other risk behaviors among female college drinkers. As such, we compared substance use (e.g., alcohol and marijuana use) and engagement in other risk behaviors (e.g., riding with an impaired driver) in the 30 days prior (T1) and during Spring Break (T2) in a sample of 86 female college drinkers (mean age = 19.9, SD = 1.3, 18–23 years). Participants were recruited on a public beach during their Spring Break vacation and were administered a survey that included the TWEAK, a brief screener to identify alcohol use disorder (AUD) risk. Initial results indicated that heavy alcohol use, riding with an alcohol-impaired driver, and marijuana use were high during T1 and increased significantly during T2. The TWEAK results indicated that 78% of respondents were at high AUD risk, yet only 25% felt the need to reduce their alcohol consumption. OLS regression results indicated significant relationships between changes in engagement in risk behaviors at T2 as compared to T1 across a number of sample characteristics and TWEAK indicators (e.g., age at first drink; age at first sex). Implications for prevention programming targeting female college drinkers are discussed.
This study examined differences among distinct types of high school drinkers on their alcohol involvement and psychosocial adjustment during the first semester of college. Participants were 147 college freshmen (66% female; 86% Caucasian) from a large Southeastern public university who reported on high school drinking and college stress, affect, drinking, and parenting. We used person-centered analyses to reveal relative stability in drinker typologies over the college transition and found some support for the lay-theory that restrictive parenting moderates this stability, with abstainers reacting against restrictive parenting in college through alcohol use. Finally, findings supported Block and Block's (1980) theory of ego-control and resilience such that high school experimenters showed better adaptation than abstainers and heavier users on indices of negative and positive affect. We discuss implications for a person-centered approach to the study of alcohol involvement during the college transition and the need to incorporate parenting constructs in college alcohol use research.
The current study examined the natural trajectories of alcohol use among women as they transitioned from high school to college, considering changes in drinking for students at initially different levels of drinking. We examined the hypothesis that the association between college drinking and sexual victimization would be stronger for women with less high school drinking experience.
Female, college-bound, high school seniors were recruited from the community at the time of graduation (N = 437). Alcohol consumption and sexual victimization were assessed at the time of high school graduation (Time 0 [T0]) and at the end of the first (T1) and second (T2) semesters of college.
Abstainers and light drinkers increased alcohol consumption from T0 to T1; however, consumption by those already engaging in heavy episodic drinking remained stable. Consumption did not increase for any group from T1 to T2. As expected, maximum consumption in college was strongly associated with experiencing incapacitated rape or other sexual victimization during the same semester; however, prior drinking experience did not moderate the relationship.
Occasions of heavy drinking in college are a significant risk factor for sexual victimization for both experienced and inexperienced drinkers. Findings point toward universal prevention, ideally before college entry, as a strategy for reducing heavy episodic drinking and hence, college sexual victimization.
Individuals with different drinking motives show distinctive patterns of alcohol use and problems. Drinking to cope, or endorsing strong coping motives for alcohol use, has been shown to be particularly hazardous. It is important to determine the unique triggers associated with coping drinking. One limitation of past research has been the failure to contend with the complexities inherent in coping motives. Using the Modified Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised (Grant, Stewart, O'Connor, Blackwell, & Conrod, 2007), which separates coping-anxiety and coping-depression motives, we investigated whether these motives moderated relationships between daily mood and subsequent drinking (statistically controlling for sex, baseline anxious and depressive symptomatology, initial alcohol problems, and additional drinking motives). College students (N=146) provided daily reports of mood and alcohol consumption online for 3 weeks. Multilevel modeling analyses revealed that, as hypothesized, stronger initial coping-depression motives predicted higher daily depressed mood-alcohol consumption slopes. Also consistent with expectation, stronger initial coping-anxiety motives predicted higher anxious mood-alcohol consumption slopes. We discuss how this identification of the unique mood triggers associated with each type of coping drinking motive can provide the basis for targeted interventions.
Problematic alcohol involvement typically peaks in the early 20s and declines with age. This maturing out of alcohol involvement is usually attributed to individuals attaining adult statuses incompatible with heavy drinking. Nevertheless, little is known about how changes in problematic alcohol use during emerging/early adulthood relate to changes in etiologically relevant personality traits that also change during this period. This study examined the relation between changes in problematic alcohol involvement and personality (measures of impulsivity, neuroticism, and extraversion) from ages 18 to 35 in a cohort of college students (N = 489) at varying risk for alcohol use disorders. Latent growth models indicated that both normative and individual changes in alcohol involvement occur between ages 18 and 35 and that these changes are associated with changes in neuroticism and impulsivity. Moreover, marital and parental role statuses did not appear to be third-variable explanations of the associated changes in alcohol involvement and personality. Findings suggest that personality change may be an important mechanism in the maturing-out effect.
Longitudinal data were obtained from a nonclinical sample of 1,308 male and female adolescents covering the age range from 12 to 21. Factor analyses of 52 symptoms and/or consequences of alcohol use yielded three problem dimensions. In addition, a unidimensional, 23-item scale (the Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index, RAPI) was constructed with an internal consistency of .92. Correlations between RAPI and alcohol-use intensity were moderately strong for all age groups at each test occasion (ranging from .20 to .57), yet low enough to suggest that identification of problem drinkers requires both types of measures. The results suggest that the RAPI may be a useful tool for the standardized and efficient assessment of problem drinking during adolescence.
The Alcohol Timeline Followback (TLFB) has been shown to be a psychometrically sound assessment instrument for obtaining retrospective daily estimates of alcohol consumption. These evaluations, however, have been limited to face-to-face paper-and-pencil interviews. As use of the TLFB method has increased, investigators have reported using the method to collect follow-up data by telephone. Also, as with many assessment instruments, a computerized version of the TLFB method has been developed. The psychometric characteristics of the TLFB method under these administration conditions have not been evaluated. This paper presents results from two studies showing that the Alcohol TLFB method can obtain reliable drinking data when administered over the telephone and by computer.
The present study examined relations between dietary restraint and self-reported patterns of alcohol use, including separate assessment of quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption. One hundred seventy-six female university undergraduates completed the Restraint Scale (RS) and measures of their usual quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption over the past year. Quantity and frequency self-reports were scored separately and were also used to calculate 3 additional drinking variables: a composite weekly alcohol consumption score (drinks per week), a binge drinking categorical variable (where participants were classified as either binge drinkers or non-binge drinkers), and a yearly excessive drinking score (number of times in the past year that each participant consumed at least 4 alcoholic beverages per drinking occasion). RS scores were significantly positively correlated with scores on 4 of the 5 drinking behavior measures (i.e., quantity, drinks per week, binge drinking, and yearly excessive drinking, but not frequency). Thus, chronic dieting appears to be related to a relatively heavy drinking pattern that can be characterized as potentially risky, due to its established associations with adverse health and social consequences.
The developmental course of physiological dependence on alcohol was investigated by estimating the prevalance, stability, and prognostic significance of individual tolerance and withdrawal symptoms, prospectively over 7 years, in 450 young adults. Different prevalence rates and patterns of stability were observed with alternate tolerance items. Consistently low base rates were observed for all withdrawal items. Person-level stability of tolerance and withdrawal indicators was moderate at test-retest intervals of 1 year and increasingly modest at longer intervals. Reporting tolerance and withdrawal in early adulthood was associated with a substantial risk for later alcohol use disorder. Results suggest that the likelihood of experiencing tolerance or withdrawal symptoms may vary as a function of an individual's stage of development and drinking history. Implications for future assessment and classification of alcohol dependence are discussed.
To examine how membership in fraternities and sororities relates to the prevalence and patterns of substance use in a national sample of full-time US college students.
Nationally representative probability samples of US high school seniors (modal age 18 years) were followed longitudinally across two follow-up waves during college (modal ages 19/20 and 21/22).
Data were collected via self-administered questionnaires from US high school seniors and college students.
The longitudinal sample consisted of 10 cohorts (senior years of 1988-97) made up of 5883 full-time undergraduate students, of whom 58% were women and 17% were active members of fraternities or sororities.
Active members of fraternities and sororities had higher levels of heavy episodic drinking, annual marijuana use and current cigarette smoking than non-members at all three waves. Although members of fraternities reported higher levels than non-members of annual illicit drug use other than marijuana, no such differences existed between sorority members and non-members. Heavy episodic drinking and annual marijuana use increased significantly with age among members of fraternities or sororities relative to non-members, but there were no such differential changes for current cigarette use or annual illicit drug use other than marijuana.
The present study provides strong evidence that higher rates of substance use among US college students who join fraternities and sororities predate their college attendance, and that membership in a fraternity or sorority is associated with considerably greater than average increases in heavy episodic drinking and annual marijuana use during college. These findings have important implications for prevention and intervention efforts aimed toward college students, especially members of fraternities and sororities.
College students are at risk for problematic alcohol use. Few studies, however, have examined alcohol dependence symptoms within a college sample. The current study assesses the prevalence, predictors, and stability of proxy Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) alcohol dependence symptoms among college freshmen. Participants were 3,720 freshmen taking part in a longitudinal study. Participants completed measures of alcohol use, fraternity and sorority membership, and behavioral undercontrol. Results revealed that alcohol dependence symptoms were prevalent and moderately stable among college freshmen. Both membership in a Greek organization and behavioral undercontrol predicted responses to our alcohol dependence proxy. In addition, Greek status interacted with behavioral undercontrol to predict alcohol dependence symptoms, such that Greek members high in behavioral undercontrol were especially vulnerable to symptoms of dependence.
Personality traits show normative patterns of development toward maturity during adolescence. Yet individuals follow these normative patterns to differing degrees. This study used growth mixture modeling to characterize personality development patterns and their associations with outcomes in a population-based sample of 1,537 girls aged 14 to 24. The authors used latent class analysis to identify 3 trajectory groups labeled alright (47%), growing up (42%), and trouble (11%). Alright group members were more likely at age 24 to have completed college, remained involved with their families, and obtained good jobs. Trouble group members were more likely to be involved with drugs and alcohol, to display interpersonal problems, and to behave antisocially. Growing up group members fell in between.
A common concern when faced with multivariate data with missing values is whether the missing data are missing completely at random (MCAR); that is, whether missingness depends on the variables in the data set. One way of assessing this is to compare the means of recorded values of each variable between groups defined by whether other variables in the data set are missing or not. Although informative, this procedure yields potentially many correlated statistics for testing MCAR, resulting in multiple-comparison problems. This article proposes a single global test statistic for MCAR that uses all of the available data. The asymptotic null distribution is given, and the small-sample null distribution is derived for multivariate normal data with a monotone pattern of missing data. The test reduces to a standard t test when the data are bivariate with missing data confined to a single variable. A limited simulation study of empirical sizes for the test applied to normal and nonnormal data suggests that the test is conservative for small samples.
Excessive alcohol use is risk factor for a wide range of health and social problems including liver cirrhosis, certain cancers, depression, motor vehicle crashes, and violence. Alcohol use during pregnancy can lead to fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) and other adverse birth outcomes . Community studies estimate that as many as 2% to 5% of first grade students in the United States might have an FASD, which include physical, behavioral, or learning impairments. In 2005, the Surgeon General reissued an advisory urging women who are or might be pregnant to abstain from alcohol consumption to eliminate the risk for FASDs or other negative birth outcomes. To estimate current prevalences of any alcohol use and binge drinking (consuming four or more drinks on an occasion) among pregnant and nonpregnant women aged 18-44 years in the United States, CDC analyzed 2011-2013 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data. Among pregnant women, the prevalences of any alcohol use and binge drinking in the past 30 days were 10.2% and 3.1%, respectively. Among nonpregnant women, the prevalences of any alcohol use and binge drinking in the past 30 days were 53.6% and 18.2%, respectively. Among binge drinkers, pregnant women reported a significantly higher frequency of binge drinking than nonpregnant women (4.6 and 3.1 episodes, respectively); the largest amount consumed during binge drinking was also higher among pregnant women than nonpregnant women (7.5 versus 6.0 drinks), although this difference was not statistically significant. Implementation of evidence-based clinical and community-level strategies would be expected to reduce binge drinking among pregnant women and women of childbearing age, and any alcohol consumption among women who are or might be pregnant. Healthcare professionals can support these efforts by implementing alcohol screening and brief interventions in their primary care practices, and informing women that there is no known safe level of alcohol consumption when they are pregnant or might be pregnant.
The developmental course of physiological dependence on alcohol was investigated by estimating the prevalance, stability, and prognostic significance of individual tolerance and withdrawal symptoms, prospectively over 7 years, in 450 young adults. Different prevalence rates and patterns of stability were observed with alternate tolerance items. Consistently low base rates were observed for all withdrawal items. Person-level stability of tolerance and withdrawal indicators was moderate at test-retest intervals of 1 year and increasingly modest at longer intervals. Reporting tolerance and withdrawal in early adulthood was associated with a substantial risk for later alcohol use disorder. Results suggest that the Likelihood of experiencing tolerance or withdrawal symptoms may vary as a function of an individual's stage of development and drinking history. Implications for future assessment and classification of alcohol dependence are discussed.
Background:
Heavy episodic (binge) drinking is common in and problematic for undergraduates. Researchers often assume that an individual's heavy episodic drinking is stable and trait-like. However, this fails to consider fluctuating, state-like variation in heavy episodic drinking. This study proposes and tests a novel conceptualization of heavy episodic drinking as a trait-state wherein the contribution of both trait-like stability and state-like fluctuations are quantified. It was hypothesized that heavy episodic drinking is a trait-state such that individuals have trait-like tendencies to engage in heavy episodic drinking, and state-like differences in the expression of this tendency over time.
Methods:
A sample of 114 first-year undergraduates from a Canadian university completed self-report measures of heavy episodic drinking at 3 time points across 130 days. Hypotheses were tested with repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), test-retest correlations, and generalizability theory analyses.
Results:
A substantial proportion of the variance in heavy episodic drinking is attributable to trait-like stability, with a smaller proportion attributable to state-like fluctuations.
Conclusions:
The heavy episodic drinker seems characterized by a stable, trait-like tendency to drink in a risky manner, and this trait-like tendency seems to fluctuate in degree of expression over time. Findings complement research suggesting that people have trait-like predispositions that increase their risk for heavy episodic drinking. However, despite this stable tendency to drink heavily, the frequency of heavy episodic drinking appears to be at least partly sporadic or situation dependent. These findings serve as a caution to alcohol researchers and clinicians who often assume that a single assessment of heavy episodic drinking captures a person's usual drinking behavior.
: The purpose of this study was to explore college women’s high-risk alcohol use and related consequences. This study employed a qualitative approach to understand and provide visibility for a gender-related perspective on college women’s alcohol experiences and related outcomes. Data were collected from interviews with 10 undergraduate females at a large research university in the northeastern United States. The results of the data analysis generated four major themes, which include a conceptual model, the relational ritual reinforcement (R3), for understanding the recurring high-risk alcohol use and related negative consequences among some university women.
A common concern when faced with multivariate data with missing values is whether the missing data are missing completely at random (MCAR); that is, whether missingness depends on the variables in the data set. One way of assessing this is to compare the means of recorded values of each variable between groups defined by whether other variables in the data set are missing or not. Although informative, this procedure yields potentially many correlated statistics for testing MCAR, resulting in multiple-comparison problems. This article proposes a single global test statistic for MCAR that uses all of the available data. The asymptotic null distribution is given, and the small-sample null distribution is derived for multivariate normal data with a monotone pattern of missing data. The test reduces to a standard t test when the data are bivariate with missing data confined to a single variable. A limited simulation study of empirical sizes for the test applied to normal and nonnormal data suggests that the test is conservative for small samples.
Notes that alcohol abusers' verbal self-reports are likely to be an accurate reflection of drinking behavior and examines possible research strategies for further enhancing the accuracy of self-reports and for predicting inaccurate self-reports. These strategies include (1) determining how response error can be reduced in the question-answering process, (2) developing procedures to enhance accuracy beyond normal recall, (3) determining what amount of response variability is tolerable, (4) examining group vs individual levels of agreement, and (5) investigating whether wording of questions significantly affects response. Challenges to the use of self-reports in the field of alcohol abuse are noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Despite the long recognized importance and well-documented impact of drinking patterns on health and safety, college student drinking patterns are understudied. This study used a daily-level, academic-year-long, multisite sample to identify subpopulations of college student drinking patterns and to describe how these groups differ from one another before, during, and after their first year of college.
Two cohorts of first-year college students (n = 588; 59% female) reported daily drinking on a biweekly basis using web-based surveys and completed surveys before and after their first year of college.
Cluster analyses based on time series analysis estimates of within-person drinking differences (per weekday, semester, first 6 weeks) and other descriptors of day-to-day drinking identified five drinking patterns: two low (47% and 6%), two medium (24% and 15%), and one high (8%) drinking cluster. Multinomial logistic regression analyses examined cluster differences in pre-college characteristics (i.e., demographics, alcohol outcome expectancies, alcohol problems, depression, other substance use) and first-year college experiences (i.e., academic engagement, alcohol consequences, risky drinking practices, alcohol problems, drinking during academic breaks). Low-drinking students appeared to form a relatively homogeneous group, whereas two distinct patterns were found for medium-drinking students with different weekend and Thursday drinking rates. The Thursday drinking cluster showed lower academic engagement and greater participation in risky drinking practices.
These findings highlight quantitative and qualitative differences in day-to-day drinking patterns and suggest a link between motivational differences and drinking patterns, which may be addressed in developing tailored interventional strategies.
This study addresses binge drinking in college as a risk factor for heavy drinking and alcohol dependence after college. A national probability sample of 1972 college students from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY79) was interviewed in 1984 and reinterviewed again as adults in 1994. The short-term effects of binge drinking in college were assessed as well as the extent to which experiences of negative effects in college predicted patterns of alcohol use across the transition from college into postcollege years. As expected, college binge drinkers were comparatively more likely than nonbinge drinkers to experience one or more alcohol-related problems while in college. In addition, weighted estimates of DSM-IV-defined diagnostic criteria in logistic regression models indicated that the binge drinking patterns exhibited during the college years, for some former college students of both genders, posed significant risk factors for alcohol dependence and abuse 10 years after the initial interview, in conjunction with evidence of academic attrition, early departure from college and less favorable labor market outcomes.
One possible reason for the continued neglect of statistical power analysis in research in the behavioral sciences is the inaccessibility of or difficulty with the standard material. A convenient, although not comprehensive, presentation of required sample sizes is provided here. Effect-size indexes and conventional values for these are given for operationally defined small, medium, and large effects. The sample sizes necessary for .80 power to detect effects at these levels are tabled for eight standard statistical tests: (a) the difference between independent means, (b) the significance of a product-moment correlation, (c) the difference between independent rs, (d) the sign test, (e) the difference between independent proportions, (f) chi-square tests for goodness of fit and contingency tables, (g) one-way analysis of variance, and (h) the significance of a multiple or multiple partial correlation.
This study examined the association between restricting calories on intended drinking days and drunkenness frequency and alcohol-related consequences among college students.
Participants included a random sample of 4,271 undergraduate college students from 10 universities.
Students completed a Web-based survey regarding their high-risk drinking behaviors and calorie restriction on intended drinking days.
Thirty-nine percent of past 30-day drinkers reported restricting calories on days they planned to drink alcohol, of which 67% restricted because of weight concerns. Restricting calories on drinking days was associated with greater odds of getting drunk in a typical week. Women who restricted were more likely to report memory loss, being injured, being taken advantage of sexually, and having unprotected sex while drinking. Men were more likely to get into a physical fight.
These results highlight the importance of considering weight control behaviors in the examination of high-risk college drinking.
Heavy college-student alcohol use and its resulting negative consequences represent a public-health problem on American college campuses. The Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index (RAPI) is a commonly used measure of alcohol problems among college students, but the psychometric properties of this measure never have been comprehensively assessed with the college-student population. The purpose of this research was to conduct reliability and validity analyses, particularly exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, on a dichotomously scored version of the measure.
Data were collected on 4,686 undergraduate students at a large, public university in the Northwest region of the United States and 438 students at a large, public university in the Northeast.
Exploratory factor analysis suggested that a three-factor model provided the best fit to the data. This finding was replicated via confirmatory factor analyses in two separate samples. The three factors were labeled Abuse/Dependence Symptoms, Personal Consequences, and Social Consequences. Each individual factor demonstrated adequate internal consistency and convergent validity.
The results of this study suggest that a dichotomously scored RAPI consists of three subfactors that are reliable and valid in identifying alcohol-related problems among college students.
Canada's low-risk alcohol drinking guidelines
Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (2013). Canada's low-risk alcohol drinking guidelines.
Available at: http://www.ccsa.ca/Resource%20Library/2012-Canada-Low-Risk-Alcohol-Drinking-Guidelines-Brochure-en.pdf (Accessed December 15, 2013)