Of the 43% of college students who regularly binge drink, most misuse alcohol throughout their undergraduate careers. Previous research, however, suggests that some students cease drinking heavily while still in college. Wechsler and colleagues (1994), for instance, found that 22% of men and 37% of women who were binge drinkers during their first year on campus stopped bingeing by their sophomore year. Though a large body of literature has described the causes and consequences of college students' binge drinking, little research has considered early cessation from binge drinking. Understanding the natural history of alcohol use among such individuals may offer insights that will be valuable to efforts to curtail binge drinking on campus. Towards this end, the presentation is organized around three objectives: (1) to present prevalence estimates of the percentage of college students who have ceased binge drinking; (2) to identify the beliefs, attitudes, and experiences that contribute to undergraduates' decisions to cease binge drinking; and (3) to discuss how health promotion efforts can be tailored to influence the cessation process. The data for the study are from two independent random samples of undergraduates at a large Midwestern university (n=500). Cessation from binge drinking was assessed by an instrument adapted from Laforge and colleagues (1998) that classified students according to their stages of change in relation to cessation from binge drinking.
Learning Objectives: Describe the prevalence of early cessation from binge drinking among college students; Describe psychosocial variables that are associated with early cessation from binge drinking; Discuss how alcohol misuse prevention efforts on campuses can be tailored to facilitate early cessation from binge drinking
Keywords: Binge Drinking, College Students
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: none
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.