Many college entrants’ parents do not have college degrees. These entrants are at high risk for attrition, suggesting it is critical to understand mechanisms of attrition relative to parental education. Moderators and mediators of the effect of parental education on attrition were investigated in 3,290 students over 4 years. Low parental education was a risk for attrition; importantly, college GPAs both moderated and mediated this effect, and ACT scores, scholarships, loans, and full-time work mediated this effect. Drug use, psychological distress, and few reported academic challenges predicted attrition, independent of parental education. These findings might inform interventions to decrease attrition.

Student attrition at colleges across the United States poses a significant problem for students and families, higher educational institutions, and the nation's workforce competing in the global economy. Heavy drinking is a highly plausible contributor to the problem. However, there is little evidence that it is a reliable predictor of attrition. Notably, few studies take into account indicators of collegiate engagement that are associated with both heavy drinking and persistence in college. Event-history analysis was used to estimate the effect of heavy drinking on attrition among 3,290 undergraduates at a large midwestern university during a 4-year period, and student attendance at a number of college events was included as covariates. Results showed that heavy drinking did not predict attrition bivariately or after controlling for precollege predictors of academic success. However, after controlling for event attendance (an important indicator of collegiate engagement), heavy drinking was found to predict attrition. These findings underscore the importance of the college context in showing that heavy drinking does in fact predict attrition and in considering future intervention efforts to decrease attrition and also heavy drinking. Keywords college attrition; heavy drinking; suppression; event-history College attrition is prevalent and is also quite problematic, both for individuals who attempt college and subsequently leave without a degree and for society overall. For example, 19.5% of the U.S. population (25 years and older) attempted college but did not obtain a degree (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006a). These individuals earn far less than do college graduates ($31,936 as opposed to $45,221; U.S. Census Bureau, 2006b) yet would still be responsible for any loans made toward failed college attempts (Horn, Berger, & Carroll, 2004). Thus, attrition is financially disadvantageous for individuals (Horn et al., 2004). The disadvantages of attrition extend to the nation and to society-at-large, which subsidizes education for the purpose of promoting degree attainment (Cunningham & Carroll, 2005) and subsequent economic growth and national progress.Thus, identifying risk factors for attrition is important for developing interventions to decrease attrition rates. Heavy drinking is one such possible risk factor. First, it is highly prevalent in college-age youths (Johnston, O'Malley, Bachman, & Schulenberg, 2005 ) and thus is a public health concern in its own right. It is also associated with deficits in long-term neurocognitive functioning, which could affect academic performance and later vocational success (Zeigler et al., 2005). Thus, it is not surprising that a nationally representative sample of college administrators reported believing that alcohol (specifically) was involved in 21% of all cases of student attrition (Gadaleto & Anderson, 1986). Furthermore, a nationally representative sample of students rated alcohol use as one of the top 10 impediments to students' academic performance (American College ...

RESUMEN Los importantes cambios demográficos producidos en los últimos años en la sociedad española están teniendo un especial impacto sobre los servicios públicos: sanitarios, educativos, de bienestar, etc. El incremento de la diversidad cultural de los usuarios de estos servicios debe corresponderse con una mejora de la competencia cultural de sus profesionales para garantizar una atención pertinente y de calidad. En este trabajo se abordan las distintas dimensiones de la competencia cultural y su práctica en los distintos niveles de la intervención social.

There is some evidence that college student drinkers may continue drinking in the face of adverse consequences. We examined 2 hypotheses: (a) that this seemingly pathological behavior is a phenomenon of university life, occurring with consistency throughout the entirety of college, and (b) that individuals accumulate these consequences over multiple semesters in college. A sample of 3,720 students from a large Midwestern university was asked to complete surveys the summer before college and every semester thereafter for 4 years. Results showed that certain drinking-related consequences (e.g., blackouts, regretted sexual experiences) consistently predicted continued frequent heavy drinking in the following semester, even after controlling for sex, race, age, and previous-semester frequent heavy drinking (range of odds ratio = 1.17 to 1.45 across semesters, p < .01). Such potent consequences may predict subsequent drinking for a number of possible reasons that may be examined and addressed as they would pertain to specific protective behavioral strategy-related and cognitive interventions. Furthermore, consequences were accumulated over multiple semesters by notable proportions of students. For example, 13.8% of students reported blacking out 5 time-points or more—describing a full half or more of their college careers. Experimental studies which aim to modify students’ perceptions of norms associated with these consequences may aid in developing interventions to reduce the burden of harm to students. In the broader context, and given the prevalence of students’ accumulation of consequences, future study might aim to determine how and in what ways these findings describe either pathological or normative processes.

The authors examined the ownership of false identification (fake ID) for the purpose of obtaining alcohol and the relation of fake ID ownership to heavy drinking in a longitudinal sample of college students under 21 years of age. A sample of 3,720 undergraduates was assessed the summer prior to college entrance and during the 4 semesters comprising freshman and sophomore years. Regression analyses were used to estimate bidirectional relations between consumption and fake ID ownership. Sex, Greek membership, and prior drinking were controlled. Results showed that fake ID ownership increased over time (12.5% precollege to 32.2% fourth semester) and that Greek members were more likely than others to own fake IDs. Fake ID ownership predicted concurrent and next-semester heavy drinking with increasing strength over time. Also, the acquisition (onset) of fake ID ownership at each time point was predicted by previous-semester consumption. When traditional, robust risk factors of consumption are controlled, fake ID ownership meaningfully relates to heavy drinking in college. It thus presents a significant public health problem, addressable through training for alcohol servers and retailers, punitive measures toward fake ID owners, and other possible interventions.Keywords false identification; heavy drinking; alcohol access; longitudinal Heavy drinking is pervasive in college, with 42% of students in a nationally representative sample reporting having had five or more drinks in a sitting within 2 weeks in 2004 (Johnston, O'Malley, Bachman & Schulenberg, 2005), a prevalence rate that has not much changed over the last 25 years. Students experience a wide range of negative short-and long-term personal consequences from heavy drinking (Jackson, Sher & Park, 2005; Task Force of the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2002), and heavy drinking also presents significant second-hand effects on other individuals and the larger community (Wechsler, Moeykens, Davenport, Castillo, & Hansen, 1995). Compounding the problem of heavy drinking in college is the fact that many heavy drinking college students are below the age of 21 years, the current legal drinking age in the United States, presenting significant enforcement challenges for college campuses and the communities in which they are situated. Indeed, illegal purchase and possession of alcohol is a problem in its own right, as violations of liquor laws accounted for 15% of all arrests among youth aged 18 to 20 years in 2003 (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2003 Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2004) Although underage college students are less likely to be drinkers than their college peers aged over 21 years of age (77% vs. 86% past-year consumption of any alcohol, odds ratio [OR] = . 56), they were more likely to report that they typically engaged in binge drinking on occasions when they did consume alcohol (58% men and 32% women vs. 42% men and 21% women; men OR = 1.93, women OR = 1.85), where binge drinking was defined as five or more drink...