Other Factors Affecting Drinking

Numerous other factors affect drinking behavior among college students. These include biological and genetic predisposition to use, belief system and personality, and expectations about the effects of alcohol (Sher et al., 1999; Zucker et al., 1995). In addition to individual student characteristics, the size of a student body, geographical location, and importance of athletics on campus are also associated with consumption patterns as are external environmental variables including the pricing and availability of alcohol in the area surrounding a campus (Chaloupka and Wechsler, 1996; Chaloupka et al., 1998; Leichliter et al., 1998; Nelson and Wechsler, 2001; Presley et al., 1996a, 1996b; Wechsler et al., 1994, 1997, 1998, 2000a, 2000b).

Although some drinking problems begin during the college years, many students entering college bring established drinking practices with them. Thirty percent of 12th-graders, for example, report binge drinking in high school, slightly more report having "been drunk,"and almost three-quarters report drinking in the past year (Johnston et al., 2001a). Colleges and universities "inherit"a substantial number of drinking problems that developed earlier in adolescence.

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Historical document
Last reviewed: 9/23/2005