College Student Alcohol Consumption, Day of the Week, and Class Schedule

ABSTRACT. Objective: Despite the long recognized importance and well-documented impact of drinking patterns on health and safety, college student drinking patterns are understudied. This study used a daily-level, academic-year-long, multisite sample to identify subpopulations of college student drinking patterns and to describe how these groups differ from one another before, during, and after their fi rst year of college. Method: Two cohorts of fi rst-year college students (n = 588; 59% female) reported daily drinking on a biweekly basis using web-based surveys and completed surveys before and after their fi rst year of college. Results: Cluster analyses based on time series analysis estimates of within-person drinking differences (per weekday, semester, fi rst 6 weeks) and other descriptors of day-to-day drinking identifi ed fi ve drinking patterns: two low (47% and 6%), two medium (24% and 15%), and one high (8%) drinking cluster. Multinomial logistic regression analyses examined cluster differences in pre-college characteristics (i.e., demographics, alcohol outcome expectancies, alcohol problems, depression, other substance use) and fi rst-year college experiences (i.e., academic engagement, alcohol consequences, risky drinking practices, alcohol problems, drinking during academic breaks). Low-drinking students appeared to form a relatively homogeneous group, whereas two distinct patterns were found for medium-drinking students with different weekend and Thursday drinking rates. The Thursday drinking cluster showed lower academic engagement and greater participation in risky drinking practices. Conclusions: These fi ndings highlight quantitative and qualitative differences in day-to-day drinking patterns and suggest a link between motivational differences and drinking patterns, which may be addressed in developing tailored interventional strategies. (J. Stud.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Daily College Student Drinking Patterns Across the First Year of College

Hoeppner

Barnett

Jackson

et al. 2012

“…For example, increased drinking by college students on Thursdays is infl uenced by whether the student is enrolled in Friday classes (Wood et al, 2007). We speculated that non-college-attending youth may have different responsibilities during the course of a typical week (e.g., full-time employment) and may thus avoid Thursday-night heavy drinking.…”

Section: Current Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of Alcohol Use and Related Consequences in Non-College-Attending Emerging Adults

Cleveland

Mallett

White

et al. 2013

ABSTRACT. Objective: Among emerging adults, those who do not attain postsecondary education are at highest risk for experiencing longterm problems related to alcohol use, including alcohol dependence. The purpose of the current study was to identify latent classes of alcohol users among non-college-attending youth and examine correlates of class membership. Method: Screening criteria were used to select emerging adults between ages 18 and 22 years with no postsecondary education (N = 264) from a prerecruited probability-based Web panel. Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify common patterns of alcohol use. Grouping variables and demographic variables were added to the LCA model, and rates of alcohol-related consequences across the LCA classes were compared. Results: Four classes of drinking patterns were identifi ed: (a) current nondrinkers (34%), (b) weekend light drinkers (38%), (c) weekend risky drinkers (23%), and (d) daily drinkers (5%). Class membership was associated with early onset of alcohol use (age 14 or younger), marital status, employment status, and urban residency (area populated by 50,000 or more people). The number of latent classes did not differ across sex and legal drinking age status, although proportions of subjects within classes varied by age. Weekend risky drinkers were most likely to report sickness and feelings of guilt because of drinking, whereas daily drinkers were most likely to report getting into fi ghts, driving a car after drinking, and missing work. Conclusions: Similar to college samples of emerging adults, most of this noncollege sample belonged to latent classes defi ned by rare or moderate alcohol use. Nevertheless, nearly a quarter of the sample reported high-risk drinking behaviors, and a small number reported drinking alcohol on a daily basis. Both of these classes were at elevated risk for experiencing a number of alcohol-related consequences. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 74, 84-93, 2013)

“…College students' alcohol use is relatively low on Sundays through Wednesdays, is higher on Thursdays, and peaks on Fridays and Saturdays (Del Boca et al, 2004;Maggs et al, 2011). More drinks are consumed on Thursday nights when students do not have Friday classes or when their classes begin after noon on Fridays (Wood et al, 2007). Although researchers have started examining how college students' alcohol use varies in conjunction with the types of activities they participate in on a given day (Mohr et al, 2005;Patrick et al, 2010), there does not appear to be information on how activity/drinking associations may differ by the time of week.…”

Section: Timing Of Alcohol Usementioning

confidence: 99%

Leisure Activities, the Social Weekend, and Alcohol Use: Evidence From a Daily Study of First-Year College Students

Finlay

Ram

Maggs

et al. 2012

111

ABSTRACT. Objective: The aim of this study was to document within-person and between-persons associations between the duration of day-to-day activities (volunteering, spiritual activities, media use, socializing, entertainment/campus events and clubs, athletics, classes, working for pay) and alcohol use (quantity and heavy drinking) and to examine whether these associations differed by gender and the time of week. Method: First-semester college students (N = 717 persons; 51.6% female) provided up to 14 consecutive days of data (N = 9,431 days) via daily web-based surveys. Multilevel analyses tested whether alcohol use was associated with activity duration, gender, and time of week. Results: Between-persons associations indicated that alcohol use was higher among individuals who spent more time involved in athletics and socializing and lower among students who spent more time in spiritual and volunteer activities. Within-person associations indicated that students consumed more alcohol and were more likely to drink heavily on weekends, on days they spent more time than usual socializing, and on days they spent less time than usual in spiritual activities and using media. Conclusions: Select activities and days were linked with less alcohol use at both the between-and within-person levels, suggesting that attention should be paid to both selection effects and social context to understand the mechanisms linking activity duration and student drinking. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 73, 250-259, 2012)