Study: Campus diversity may cut binge drinking (from CNN)

LXAAlum · #1 10-30-2003, 06:45 PM

BOSTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) -- Greater diversity on college campuses significantly lowers rates of binge drinking among high-risk students, according to results of a Harvard University study released Thursday.

The research may enable college administrators to fine-tune their admissions and housing policies to cut rates of binge drinking, study authors said.

"If you have younger white males together to the exclusion of other groups, you're going to have fewer role models for lighter or nondrinking behavior," Henry Wechsler, the study's lead author, told Reuters. "That may explain why fraternities have had such a high level of drinking problems."

Blamed for a range of ills from poor grades, vandalism and sexual violence to full-scale campus riots, binge drinking remains a major problem at U.S. colleges despite years of prevention efforts.

Wechsler said 44 percent of students at four-year colleges can be described as binge drinkers. For men, this means they have consumed five or more alcoholic drinks in a row at least once in a two-week period; for women, it means they consumed at least four drinks in a row over the same period.

Previous studies have shown that binge-drinking rates vary greatly among certain student subgroups. For example, African- and Asian-American, female and older students have lower rates of binge drinking than do white, male and younger students.

To come up with new ways of tackling the problem, Wechsler and his colleagues decided to look at demographics on college campuses.

They found that the greater presence of groups at lower risk of binge-drinking seemed to have a moderating effect on the high-risk groups.

The binge rate among white students was about 54 percent at a school with little racial diversity; it dropped 10 percentage points at schools with more differences in racial makeup. At schools with more older students, the rate of underage binge drinking was about 37 percent compared to nearly 50 percent at other universities.

The study, which appeared the November issue of the American Journal of Public Health, was based on data from 52,312 college students at 114 predominantly white colleges from the 1993, 1997, 1999 and 2001 College Alcohol Study surveys.

Honeykiss1974 · #2 10-30-2003, 07:05 PM

Quote:

For men, this means they have consumed five or more alcoholic drinks in a row at least once in a two-week period; for women, it means they consumed at least four drinks in a row over the same period.

I don't know if i would consider this binging (within a two week period), but this is an interesting article.

DZHBrown · #3 10-30-2003, 07:39 PM

I don't really see how having a diverse campus would cut down on drinking. I'm not sure I buy this theory.

33girl · #4 10-30-2003, 11:36 PM

I think Henry mediawhore Wechsler is a few bulbs short of a chandelier on this one.

The "binge" figures shown have pretty much been disproved due to the fact that they are so open-ended (how much time is involved in "in a row" is never stated) and due to the fact that labeling students as binge drinkers actually INCREASES their drinking.

RACooper · #5 10-31-2003, 01:48 PM

I don't think thats true... at least not at my campus. UofT is one of the more diverse campus enviroments you'll find. Drinking on campus grounds has decreased over the past couple of years, but off-campus has actually increased (the bars can't keep up some nights). Also the defeinition of 5 or more drinks in one night, within a two week period would label about 95% of the greeks/athletics and about 60% of the other students as binge drinkers (hell most double the number of drinks). However we haven't had a recorded riot in 175 years (A couple of protests but nothing near a riot); sexual violence and assaults has never broken double digits (student pop. of 65,000), and as for grades, I don't think the drinking has that effect, the difficulty pretty much covers that. Actually I would argue that difficulity of the school actually contributes to the so-called "binge drinkers", in a 2 week period you'll average around 1 quiz/test, and two assignments (essay or lab depending).... and when the students get a breather they hit the clubs/pubs or bars for a night on the town (which almost always pushes them over the binge limit)....

hoosier · #6 11-01-2003, 10:08 PM

Another anti-fraternity/GLO study from Harvard, the most anti-GLO school that exists.

During my ug days, I did a book report on "How to Lie with Statistics" and proved - to my professor's satisfaction - that I didn't have time to read the book.

I do believe that booze will be the death of GLOs, and do hope changes come.

James · #7 11-02-2003, 02:14 PM

Hoosier,

Do you believe that Booze will be the death of GLO's, or that certain segments of the public's social agenda (i.e. the fact they don't approveof alcohol) will be that death?

Because if you want to eliminate drinking in GLO's it won't be through changing the existing culture of members. It will be through drawing members from non-drinking populations.

If you only recruit through religious groups on campus as well as self-confessed teatotalers (sp) then the problem shrinks down to almost nothing.

But at that point you will have lost the mainstream, which might kill GLO's right there because the population they can recruit from has shrunk.

Quote:

Originally posted by hoosier

I do believe that booze will be the death of GLOs, and do hope changes come.