When college students consume alcohol to suppress negative affective mood or enhance positive mood.

Mood Enhancement

In a study on college students, for both men and women social camaraderie was the most reported reason for drinking. Therefore, social reasons such as parties, gatherings, and more are a big influence on why college students drink the amount that they do. Social motives are high predictor of alcohol consumption.

Social Camaraderie

Tension reduction is one of the three areas of reasoning for drinking identified by the Reason for Drinking Scale (Cronin, 1997).

Tension Reduction as a Drinking Motive

Cronin C. Reasons for drinking versus outcome expectancies in the prediction of college student drinking. Subst. Use Misuse. 1997;32:1287–1311. doi: 10.3109/10826089709039379.

Reference for Reason for Drinking

The Reason for Drinking Scale (Cronin, 1997) classifies college students' reasons for drinking into three areas: mood enhancement, tension reduction, and social camaraderie.

Creighton University

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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).

Alcohol Use among College Students

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

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.

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