The present study provides further empirical support for the relationship between alcohol use and behavioral, academic, and health-related problems among underage college students. The intentional focus upon underage drinking in a small, private, religious university allows for pursuit of a clearer

picture of the idiosyncratic forces involved in drinking among first-year college students. The results of this study suggest that the process through which drinking alcohol leads to problems may vary across gender. Results suggest gender differences in both the relationship between alcohol-related knowledge and use and the relationship between knowledge and problems.

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Recent studies of alcohol use among college students have measured student drinking behaviors by analyzing large sets of data from private and public institutions (Carlucci, Genova, Rubackin, Rubackin, & Kayson, 1993; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2005; Gross, 1993; Haworth-Hoeppner, Globetti, Stem, & Morasco, 1993). The current study examined underage drinking among a homogenous population of undergraduate university students at a parochial liberal arts institution in the Southeast. The researchers examined the relationships between drinking behaviors among underage students and alcohol knowledge, gender, and problems associated with drinking. The primary purpose of this study was to provide an understanding of underage drinking among first year college students and to examine the need for preventive strategies to counter underage drinking. The researchers hypothesized that male students would drink more than would females, and that males would have more alcohol-related problems than would females. Furthermore, the researchers hypothesized that frequency and quantity of alcohol consumed would be strongly related to alcohol-related problems, that knowledge and alcohol use would be related to one another, and that alcohol-related problems would be concentrated within a relatively small number of heavy alcohol users rather than evenly distributed across students.

Method

Participants

Participants in the study were 129 undergraduate students at a small, private university in the Southeast. All participants were under the age of 21, with an average age of 18.3. The sample gender distribution was nearly even, with 52.7% (n = 68) of the participants being female while 47.3% (n = 61) were male. Nearly 61% (n = 78) of the sample was Catholic, 1.6% (n = 2) of the sample was Jewish, 15.5% (n = 20) was protestant, and 22.5%

(n = 29) reported some other religious affiliation or no affiliation. Sixty-nine percent (n = 89) of sample participants were White, 12.5% (n = 16) were Hispanic, 8.5% (n = 11) were Black, and 10.1% (n = 13) identified themselves as some other race or ethnic group.

Measures

Alcohol use, knowledge of alcohol, and outcomes of alcohol use were measured with the Student Alcohol Questionnaire (SAQ) created by Engs (1975). The SAQ measures drinking patterns and drinking-related problems. Previous research has demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties (Carlucci, et al., 1993; Gross, 1993; Haworth-Hoeppner, et al., 1993; Hughes & Dodder, 1992). Engs and Hanson (1994) reported a test-retest reliability of .79 and an internal consistency reliability of at least .79 with three of four subscale reliabilities in excess of .85 for the original SAQ.

Results

Alcohol Use, Problems, and Knowledge

Alchol use. Nearly half (43.1%) of the sample reported drinking beer at least once per week (including 5.9% reporting drinking beer every day), while over half (53.6%) reported drinking 5 or more beers on average at any one time. Only 4.4% of participants reported drinking wine at least once per week, with no participants reporting drinking wine every day and only 6.3% drinking 5 or more glasses of wine on average at any one time. A mere 2.7% of the sample reported drinking liquor at least once per week, yet 37.5% of the sample reported drinking at least 5 drinks on average when they did drink liquor.

Alcohol-related problems. As expected, hangover and vomiting were the most frequently reported negative outcomes of drinking. The number of problems reported ranged between 0 and 17, with an average of 3.1 and a standard deviation of 3.4.

Knowledge of alcohol. Alcohol knowledge was limited among sample participants, with 41.1% of the sample answering less than 50% of knowledge items correctly. The number of correct responses ranged from 1 to 32, with a mean of 18.7 and a standard deviation of 6.3.

Support for Hypotheses

Gender. As expected, males drank significantly more often and in greater quantities than did females. Group means for males significantly exceeded those of females in frequency of drinking beer (t = 3.3, p < .01), amount of beer drank in one sitting (t = 6.8, p < .01), frequency of drinking liquor (t = 2.7, p < .01), and amount of liquor drank in one sitting (t = 4.2, p < .01). Females drank wine slightly more often than did males, but males on average drank more wine in one sitting than did females. Religion was also significantly less important for males than it was for females (t = 2.3, p < .05). Though males exceed females in knowledge by an average of nearly two points, this difference was not statistically significant.

Age. Age was only significantly related to the amount of beer drank in a sitting (r = .22, p < .05) and not significantly correlated with knowledge of alcohol or problems encountered resultant from its use. Age was also not significantly related to importance of religion.

Importance of Religion. Self-ratings of religious importance were not predictive of alcohol use, problems, or knowledge when examined with a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Practical Implications

The results of this study suggest that the process through which drinking alcohol leads to problems may vary across gender. Data supported gender differences in both the relationship between knowledge and use and the relationship between knowledge and problems. Support for differences in the relationship between use and problems were not as strong. High-risk males primarily drank beer, and the frequency and amount of beer consumption exceeded that of high-risk females. Among high-risk females, the mean frequency and amount of both liquor and wine drank exceeded the mean for high-risk males.

These findings support similar results from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2005) study of 33,379 students, in which 26% of respondents reported driving under the influence, 31% reported getting into a fight or argument after drinking, and 30.7% reported missing class as a result of drinking. The problems associated with alcohol use tend to cluster together within individuals, with the top 25% of males accounting for half of the problems among males and the top 10% of females accounting for half of the problems among females. These high-risk drinkers ought to be the highest priority for targeting alcohol cessation interventions.

Discussion

Comparable to other studies of underage drinking, participants in this study exhibited drinking patterns and behaviors similar to those students in larger institutions. This study suggests that smaller institutions may in fact have similar problems of alcohol use and abuse as do larger state schools (Bachman, Malley, & Johnson, 1984; Presly, Meilman, Cashin, & Lyerla, 1996; Wechsler, Lee, Nelson, & Kuo, 2002)

The process through which underage alcohol use and alcohol-related problems influence social and educational outcomes are somewhat different on a small campus where professors know students by name and expectations of rapport and involvement are high. Building a relationship with students and recognizing behavioral patterns associated with drinking can be important early steps toward a school-wide intervention program. Moreover, understanding that students who are at high risk may miss or skip class because of an alcohol related problem can be an important factor in recognizing and referring students to the appropriate university counseling center.

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Jose E. COLL, PATRICK R. DRAVES, & MARY E. MAJOR

Saint Leo University