Elsevier

Addictive Behaviors

Volume 32, Issue 11, November 2007, Pages 2694-2705
Addictive Behaviors

Drinking before drinking: Pregaming and drinking games in mandated students

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2007.05.003Get rights and content

Abstract

Pregaming, the practice of consuming alcohol before attending a social function, has not received as much research attention as drinking games among college students. This study investigated the prevalence of both pregaming and drinking game participation in a sample of mandated students (N = 334) who had been referred for an alcohol violation. Approximately one-third (31%) of the sample reported pregaming on the night of their referral event. Pregaming was associated with higher estimated blood alcohol content on that night, along with a greater history of pregaming and taking greater responsibility for the incident. A higher proportion of the students (49%) reported playing drinking games on the event night and reported the event to be less aversive than non-players. Neither drinking games nor pregaming was consistently related to recent alcohol consumption or problems, nor did they frequently occur together on the event night. Pregaming was a unique predictor of intoxication on the night of the referral, and drinking games were not. Therefore, pregaming and drinking games appear to be distinct activities. This research suggests methods of prevention for both activities as well as promising research directions for future research.

Section snippets

Drinking before drinking: Pregaming and drinking games in mandated students

More than 2 out of 3 college students report consuming alcohol in the past month (O'Malley & Johnston, 2002). Though daily drinking is quite low (5%), approximately 31% of the 8 million college students in the U.S. meet the diagnostic criteria for alcohol abuse (Knight et al., 2002). The most commonly used indicator of problem drinking is heavy episodic drinking (defined as 5 or more drinks on one occasion in the past 2 weeks for men; 4 or more drinks for women; NIAAA, 2004). College students

Setting

The project was conducted at a four-year, private liberal arts university located in the Northeast. The school has an enrollment of 3300 undergraduates (15% minority, 51% female). Most (79%) undergraduate students live on campus. There are no fraternities or sororities.

Participants and recruitment

Participants for this study were enrolled in a randomized controlled trial of students referred for mandatory alcohol intervention following an alcohol policy violation (see Borsari, O'Leary Tevyaw, Barnett, Kahler, & Monti, 2007

Analysis plan

To learn more about the prevalence of pregaming in mandated students, we first examined the prevalence of pregaming among on the night of their referral. Then, we compared the students who reported pregaming on the night of their referral with those who did not to identify which characteristics were associated with pregaming. Identical analyses were conducted with drinking game participants in order to examine how drinking game participants differed from those who did not participate in

Discussion

To our knowledge, this is the first published research study to examine pregaming in college students, as well as the first to examine the intersection between pregaming, drinking games, and the level of intoxication on the night of an alcohol violation. Of particular interest is that approximately one-third of the students reported engaging in pregaming on the event night. Such a high prevalence of pregaming in a single assessment supports findings of previous research (in which two-thirds of

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    This work was supported by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Grants R01-AA015518 to B. Borsari, R01-AA13970 to N. Barnett, and T32-AA07459 to J.T.P Hustad.

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