A developmental study of heavy episodic drinking among college students: the role of psychosocial and behavioral protective and risk factors.

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Objective: A theory-based protection/risk model was applied to explain variation in college students' heavy episodic drinking. Key aims were (1) to establish that psychosocial and behavioral protective factors and risk factors can account for cross-sectional and developmental variation in heavy episodic drinking, and (2) to examine whether protection moderates the impact of risk on heavy episbdic drinking. Method: Random-and fixed-effects maximum likelihood regression analyses were used to examine data from a three-wave longitudinal study. Data were collected in fall of 2002, spring of 2003, and spring of 2004 from college students (N = 975; 548 men) who were firstsemester freshmen at Wave 1. Results: Psychosocial and behavioral protective and risk factors accounted for substantial variation in collegestudent heavy episodic drinking, and protection moderated the impact of risk. Findings held for both genders and were consistent across the three separate waves of data. Key predictors of heavy episodic drinking were social and individual controls protection (e.g., parental sanctions for transgression and attitudinal intolerance of deviance, respectively); models risk (peer models for substance use); behavioral protection (attendance at religious services); and behavioral risk (cigarette smoking and marijuana use). Changes in controls protection, models risk, and opportunity risk were associated with change in heavy episodic drinking. Conclusions: An explanatory model based on both psychosocial and behavioral protective and risk factors was effective in accounting for variation in college-student heavy episodic drinking. A useful heuristic was demonstrated through the articulation of models, controls, support, opportunity, and vulnerability to characterize the social context, and of controls, vulnerability, and other behaviors to characterize individuals. (J. Stud. Alcohol 67: 86-94, 2006) P ROBLEM USE OF ALCOHOL among college students is a serious public health problem in the United States (Goldman, 2002;Keeling, 1998;Wechsler et al., 2000Wechsler et al., , 2002. Nearly half of college students surveyed reported "getting drunk" as a reason for drinking, and 39%-44% have reported heavy episodic drinking (so-called "binge drinking") (Johnston et al., 2004;Wechsler et al., 2002). Excessive alcohol use adversely affects not only student drinkers, but their peers as well (Abbey, 2002;Hingson et at., 2002Hingson et at., , 2005 Meilman, 1993;Perkins, 2002;Wechsler et al., 1998aWechsler et al., , 2002.This study tests an explanatory model of both proximal and distal psychosocial and behavioral protective factors and risk factors as an account of heavy episodic drinking in a college student sample. It also investigates whether developmental change in these protective and risk factors is related to change in heavy episodic drinking over the first 2 years of college. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the role of protective factors and risk factors in influencing adolescents' involvement in pr...

Parents Do Matter: A Longitudinal Two-Part Mixed Model of Early College Alcohol Participation and Intensity

“…our findings provide tangible evidence that this important context remains a salient one for alcohol use into the college years. second, although we did not directly investigate the importance of risk and protective factors, our findings can also be interpreted within this framework (hawkins et al, 1992;Jessor et al, 1995;Jessor et al, 2006). our findings are distinct in that this is the first study to apply an emerging data analytic approach well suited for substance use outcome data to the study of parent and peer influences on collegiate alcohol use.…”

“…abar and turrisi (2008) found that parental monitoring assessed at prematriculation predicted first semester alcohol use, with indirect effects on second semester drinking mediated by close friends' drinking. parental disapproval of drinking has also been negatively associated with college student alcohol use and consequences both cross-sectionally and longitudinally (boyle and boekeloo, 2006;Jessor et al, 2006). however, there has been mixed support for parents' discouragement or disapproval of drinking in predicting drinking status among nondrinking college students (lo and globetti, 1993;Weitzman et al, 2003).…”

Correlates of Binge Drinking in a Sample of Canadian University Students

“…This trend has also been documented internationally, in countries such as Italy (DiGrande, Perrier, Lauro, & Contu, 2000), Spain (Caamaño-Isorna, Corral, Parada, & Cadaveira, 2008), the United Kingdom (Davoren, Demant, Shiely, & Perry, 2016), France (Tavolacci et al, 2016), Sweden (Vaez & Laflamme, 2003), New Zealand (Kypri et al, 2009), and, most extensively, in the United States (e.g. Fenzel, 2005;Jessor, Costa, Krueger, & Turbin, 2006).…”

“…Binge drinking has been defined in the literature as consuming five drinks or more in one sitting or outing (e.g., Gliksman et al, 2003;Jessor et al, 2006;Pascarella et al, 2007;Schaffer, Jeglic, & Stanley, 2008). However, other researchers have elaborated upon this definition, and have further operationalized and supported the need to consider binge drinking as a gendered concept (e.g., Balodis et al, 2009;D'Alessio, Baiocco, & Laghi, 2006;Delucchi, Matzger, & Weisner, 2008;Simons, Christopher, & Mclaury, 2004;Wechsler, Dowdall, Davenport, & Rimm, 1995).…”

“…Finally, contradictory results have been noted in the literature with regard to the relationship between self-esteem and heavy alcohol consumption among college students. For example, Jessor et al (2006) found that low self-esteem acted as a risk factor for students who had low social support, while Valliant and Scanlan (1996) found that higher levels of alcohol consumption were associated with high levels of self-esteem, but neither Luhtanen and Crocker (2005) nor Poikolainen, Tuulio-Henriksson, Aalto-Setälä, Marttunen, and Lönnqvist (2001) found evidence of a significant relationship between self-esteem and binge drinking.…”