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标题：Watering Down the Drinks: The Moderating Effect of College Demographics on Alcohol Use of High-Risk Groups
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作者：Henry Wechsler ; Meichun Kuo
期刊名称：American journal of public health
印刷版ISSN：0090-0036
出版年度：2003
卷号：93
期号：11
页码：1929-1933
语种：English
出版社：American Public Health Association
摘要：Objectives. This study examined whether colleges with larger enrollments of students from demographic groups with lower rates of binge drinking exert a moderating effect on students from groups with higher binge drinking rates. Methods. The study analyzed data from 114 colleges included in the 1993, 1997, 1999, and 2001 College Alcohol Study surveys. Results. The binge drinking rates of White, male, and underage students were significantly lower in schools that had more minority, female, and older students. Students who do not binge drink in high school are more likely to start binge drinking at colleges with fewer minority and older students. Conclusions. Student-body composition and demographic diversity should be examined by colleges wishing to reduce their binge drinking problems. Heavy episodic or “binge” drinking has been recognized as a major public health problem on many American college campuses. A study sponsored by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism estimated that 1400 college students die each year from alcohol-related injuries. 1 Several national studies have found that approximately 2 of every 5 college students are binge drinkers. 2– 7 Binge drinking has been associated with harms to the drinker as well as to others on campus through secondhand effects, including physical assaults, property damage, unwanted sexual advances, and disruptions of sleep and study. 5, 7– 10 In recent years, much emphasis has been placed on normative influences on college student drinking behavior. 11 Social learning theories 12– 14 stress the importance of the interaction and identification with as well as the imitation of the behavior of others in acquiring new and reinforcing old behaviors. Although various interventions have been attempted to lower the level of binge drinking, 11, 15, 16 to our knowledge, colleges have not yet examined housing and admissions policies and student demographics to that end. Yet binge drinking rates vary among student subgroups. African American and Asian, female, and older students have lower rates of binge drinking than do White, male, and younger students. 5, 8, 17 Johnson and Hoffmann 18 examined the relationship of cigarette smoking rates to the proportion of minority students. They found that as the percentage of racial/ethnic minority students increases, rates of smoking decrease among African American students, but rates do not decrease among White students. However, the schools studied were primarily composed of minority students. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether an increased presence of students from groups in which alcohol is less heavily consumed tends to moderate the level of binge drinking in high–binge drinking demographic subgroups. Having more minority students, older students, and women should provide more models of abstention and responsible drinking and should lower the overall binge drinking rate. In the present study, we hypothesized that (1) binge drinking rates of White, male, and underage students would be lower at schools with higher enrollments of minority, female, and older students; (2) White, male, and underage students who did not binge drink in high school would be less likely to take up binge drinking at schools with more minority, female, and older students; (3) White, male, and underage students who were binge drinkers in high school would be less likely to continue binge drinking at schools with more minority, female, and older students.