The effect holds true even among traditionally hard-drinking white, male
and underage students on the more diverse campuses.
The moderating effect of a diverse campus may even help convert high school
bingers into more responsible college drinkers, according to Henry Wechsler,
Ph.D., and Meichun Kuo, Ph.D., at the Harvard School of Public Health and
Social Behavior. Their findings are published in the November issue of
the American Journal of Public Health.
Minorities, women and college students age 21 and older tend to drink
less than most college students, while underage, white and male students
usually make up the biggest population of binge drinkers on campus, the
researchers say.
Wechsler and Kuo say that that presence of more moderate drinkers may
increase the number of responsible role models for students from groups
at higher risk for binge drinking.
“Self-selection may also be operating,” Wechsler says. “Colleges
that have larger numbers of minority and older students and women may
attract white, underage and male students with different attitudes about
drinking.”
“The findings may help to explain why fraternities and sororities
and segregated freshmen dormitories that provide the highest concentration
of binge drinkers account for the bulk of alcohol problems on campus,” he
adds.
The researchers analyzed four years’ worth of national
alcohol studies that included 52,312 students at 114 colleges. The average
number of
binge drinkers among the colleges was 44 percent, with binge drinking defined
as five drinks in a row for men and four drinks for women.
“The higher the percentage of minority, female and older students
in a school, the lower the binge drinking rates for all students and for
high-risk subgroups,” Wechsler says.
The researchers also found that students who were binge drinkers in high
school were less likely to continue overindulging at colleges with a larger
percentage of minority and older students. Those who had not been binge
drinkers in high school were also less likely to start bingeing after arriving
on these campuses.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism estimates that
1,400 college students die each year from alcohol-related injuries.
