Binge drinking for women is considered to be four or more drinks, while binge drinking for men is five or more drinks.

Male college students drink MORE OFTEN than female college students, but females consume more alcohol when they do drink.

Gender Differences with Alcohol Use in College Students

According to The Reason For Drinking Scale (Cronin, 1997) there are three areas of reasoning for drinking.

Mood Enhancement, Tension Reduction, and Social Camaraderie

Reason for Drinking

Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH-2021-DS0001) public use data file. Past-month alcohol use: a drink of an alcoholic beverage (a can or bottle of beer, a glass of wine or a wine cooler, a shot of distilled spirits, or a mixed drink with distilled spirits in it), not counting a sip or two from a drink in the past 30 days. Past-month binge alcohol use: five or more drinks on the same occasion for males or four or more drinks on the same occasion for females on at least 1 day in the past 30 days. Available from: https://www.datafiles.samhsa.gov/dataset/national-survey-drug-use-and-health-2021-nsduh-2021-ds0001. Accessed July 28, 2023.

Alcohol Use with College Students Study Reference

Heavy drinking among college students is associated with an increased risk of physical, mental, social, and legal consequences.

Heavy drinking is binge drinking once a month or more over the span of a year.

Consequences of Alcohol Use

Alcohol consumption among college students is highly correlated with social settings such as bars and parties. Research involving 2,646 college students found that one in four reported an aggressive incident in these locations. Furthermore, more severe aggressive altercations were correlated with higher levels of alcohol consumption.

Correlation Between Alcohol Consumption and Aggression in College Students

Alcohol consumption and binge drinking are highly prevalent among college students. Binge drinking is defined as consuming four or more alcoholic beverages for women, and five or more for men, on the same occasion (Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, 2021).

Creighton University

Google

The most commonly used substances by college students in the United States is reported to be alcohol, marijuana, psychedelic drugs, painkillers, and stimulants. Most of these substances become widely available to students upon entering college, and along with the independence creates an increase in use.

Substance Use in College

5% to 35% of college students use unprescribed Adderall while in their time at school. 20% of college students abuse prescription stimulants, including Adderall. 

Prescription Stimulants and College Students

44% of college students reported having used marijuana while in school. This number has been increasing since the 80s. Furthermore, 8% of college students reported to intake marijuana on a daily basis. Administration of marijuana has increases to with the use of vaping devices.

Marijuana Use in College Students

Although not considered to be classified as a substance use disorder, caffeine is the most commonly used psychoactive substance in the world, with 92% of college students consuming beverages with caffeine every day. Beverages can range from tea, coffee, energy drinks, and more. The average amount of caffeine consumed by that 92% is around 173mg.

Caffeine Use with College Students

Mahoney, C. R., Giles, G. E., Marriott, B. P., Judelson, D. A., Glickman, E. L., Geiselman, P. J., & Lieberman, H. R. (2019). Intake of caffeine from all sources and reasons for use by college students. Clinical nutrition (Edinburgh, Scotland), 38(2), 668–675. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clnu.2018.04.004

Reference for Caffeine Use with College Students

Kennedy S. (2018). Raising Awareness About Prescription and Stimulant Abuse in College Students Through On-Campus Community Involvement Projects. Journal of undergraduate neuroscience education : JUNE : a publication of FUN, Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience, 17(1), A50–A53.

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