Gender, Ethnic, Age, and Relationship Differences in Non-Traditional College Student Alcohol Consumption: A Tri-Ethnic Study

Abstract

Group differences in four aspects of alcohol consumption behaviors were examined in non-traditional college students (N = 1092; 828 women and 264 men) attending a large, non-residential, urban university. Findings demonstrated several differences between traditional and non-traditional students' drinking behaviors. Specifically, non-traditional students are more likely to abstain; Caucasians are more apt to drink in isolation and experience negative social consequences of drinking; Hispanic and African American women control their alcohol consumption better; and African American men are more likely to experience antisocial consequences due to drinking. These findings have implications for education and prevention efforts targeting non-traditional college students.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms

“…Alternatively, most ethnic minority women in the present study were recruited from meetings of campus organizations (e.g., the Mexican-American Student Association). African American and Latina female college students have been shown to better control their alcohol consumption relative to European American female college students (Babb, Stewart, & Bachman, 2012), thus it is conceivable that participants from those organizations may have been less active in drinking and social activities associated with sexual assault risk. Further, due to small cell sizes, we were unable to examine differences in sexual assault risk between women from different ethnic backgrounds.…”

The cost of minority stress: Risky alcohol use and coping-motivated drinking behavior in African American college students

“…Several factors have been linked to the drinking behaviors of Black emerging adults including peers, discrimination, Greek life involvement and university environment (Meilman et al, 1995;Presley, Meilman, & Leichliter, 2002). Much of the data on the alcohol use behaviors of Black emerging adults is conducted on students attending predominantly white institutions (Ames & Bennett, 2011;Babb, Stewart, & Bachman, 2012;Pedersen & McCarthy, 2013;Zapolski et al, 2014); Black students attending historically Black colleges and universities ( HBCUs) are a nontrivial demographic often overlooked in our understanding risky alcohol use behaviors and related problems. While HBCUs make up 3% of all higher education institutions in the country, they enroll over 10% of all Black college students and award 15% of all undergraduate degrees awarded to Black college students (NCES, 2013;Rhodes, Peters, Perrino, & Bryant, 2008).…”

Comments on “Gender, Ethnic, Age, and Relationship Differences in Non-Traditional College Student Alcohol Consumption: A Tri-Ethnic Study”

“…The article by Babb, Stewart, and Bachman (2012) asserts that the majority of studies on college drinking have been conducted at residential universities with traditional students. Unfortunately, this assumption ignores the substantial body of literature dealing with students at other types of institutions of higher education.…”

“…Further, the field has largely moved beyond the use of alcohol use surveys of relatively small samples from single institutions as sufficient enough to generalize to larger segments of college students, such as non-traditional college students that Babb, Stewart, and Bachman (2012) indicate represent 75% of students currently enrolled in universities. Accordingly, presenting findings based on hypothesis testing, even if statistical significance is achieved, does little to expand our understanding of college student alcohol consumption, let alone of broader substance abuse issues.…”