SAN DIEGO – Researchers at San Diego State University (SDSU) and University of Michigan (UM) have conducted the first on-the-scene study of college drinking. After reviewing the data, researchers said college “themed” parties encourage women to drink more heavily than men, and parties with drinking games result in higher blood alcohol levels.
The team of researchers went to 66 college parties and studied 1,304 young adults (751 men, 553 women) over the course of three semesters. Each party was held in private residences close to public universities in southern California.
According to J.D. Clapp, director of the Center for Alcohol and Drug Studies and Services at SDSU, the study differs from most because in other survey methods, people are asked to remember their drinking behavior several days, weeks or even months after the event, which can lead to inaccurate recalls of behavior. Instead, the team collected blood-alcohol concentrations (BAC) after talking to the party guests.
During the study, researchers discovered that having a personal history of binge drinking, playing drinking games, attending themed parties and attending parties with other intoxicated people resulted in higher blood-alcohol levels. Researchers were also surprised to see women who attended themed parties drank more heavily than the male partygoers.
Some speculated that women out-drank men at themed events, such as toga or costume parties, where women were scantily clad, helped them to lower their inhibitions, which in turn, makes it very dangerous in such permissive surroundings. Julie Ketchie, a doctoral student researcher, likened the parties to a “Girls Gone Wild” video.
Clapp and his team of investigators also discovered that 32 percent of partygoers had played drinking games. More than 70 percent said they had access to illegal drugs, although researchers could only confirm the use of illicit drugs at 12 percent of the parties examined.
The surveys conducted at the parties revealed that 61.3 percent of the attendees came to the parties to socialize, 45 percent said they go to the parties to have fun, while roughly 40 percent of people said they attended the parties to get drunk. More than 21 percent of respondents said they were trying to meet a sexual partner.
Those who attended larger parties or only attended parties for social reasons drank less alcohol, the results showed. However, the livelier the party, the more researchers discovered students put their lives at risk. After performing Breathalyzer tests on partygoers, the team found that most blood-alcohol levels would be defined as legally drunk with nearly 90 percent of those tested with a BAC level on 0.08 or higher.
The team plans to research bars and other alcohol-related areas.
The study was published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
