An Individual in Context: Predictors of Alcohol Use and Drinking Problems Among Greek and Residence Hall Students

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Abstract

Fraternity, sorority, and residence hall residents were compared on drinking rates and patterns, drinking-related problems, family history of alcohol problems, alcohol outcome expectancies, and high school drinking patterns. Results indicated residence in a fraternity was related to more frequent alcohol consumption and greater negative consequences even after accounting for family history, expectancies, and high school drinking rates. Family history of alcohol problems was only related to negative consequences for men. Only high school drinking rates were related to amount of alcohol consumed per occasion, for both men and women. Fraternity residence was found to be related to more negative consequences even after accounting for current drinking habits. However, sorority residence was found to moderate the relationship between current drinking and negative consequences. Both high and low drinkers in sororities indicated similar rates of alcohol-related negative consequences, whereas high frequency female drinkers in the residence hall sample reported significantly more problems.

Section snippets

Participants

Participants were 288 students from a large West Coast public university. One hundred five sorority women, 56 fraternity men, and 127 residence hall residents (74 males, 52 females) participated in the survey. Residence hall participants were recruited through the Resident Advisors of several randomly chosen residence hall floors, who made announcements to their members regarding participation. Contacts established as part of a larger research program at the university were used in order to

Drinking Rates and Problems

Means and standard deviations for drinking variables and alcohol-related problems are displayed in Table 1. Between-groups comparisons using a series of 2 (gender) by 2 (residence) ANOVA's were conducted on prior and current drinking rates and alcohol-related negative consequences, in order to describe the sample and aid in interpretation of later analyses. A Bonferonni correction was applied to each set of related analyses, yielding a significance level of .0125. Results for average drinks per

Discussion

In the current study, members of college fraternities and sororities were compared to students living in residence halls in terms of their current drinking rates and alcohol-related problems, as well as family history of alcohol consumption, alcohol outcome expectancies, and high school drinking rates. Regression analyses were then utilized to evaluate the relative contribution of residence type to the prediction of current drinking rates and problems after accounting for family history,

Acknowledgements

This research was supported in part by NIAAA Grant #5 R37 AA05591 awarded to G. Alan Marlatt and by a grant from the Alcoholic Beverage Medical Research Foundation awarded to Mary Larimer and G. Alan Marlatt.

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