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ABSTRACT
This study investigated the high risk drinking practices of unaffiliated college students who are not involved in formal athletics, fraternities, or sororities. Using a qualitative research design, the investigators interviewed students at a northeast public college in fall 2010 to learn about unaffiliated students' drinking experiences and their related consequences. Five major themes emerged from the interviews: Unaffiliated students engage in high risk drinking practices consuming a range of 5 to 18 drinks per episode; they participate in "pre-gaming" or drinking before going out to party; they participate in drinking games over the course of a drinking episode; they experience negative health and social consequences including: vomiting, hangovers, confusion, memory loss, medical and law enforcement involvement, and strained interpersonal relationships; and some use psychoactive substances while drinking. The major finding is that unaffiliated college students engage in high risk drinking and experience a variety of negative consequences.
Key words: High risk drinking, unaffiliated college students, neg- ative consequences
INTRODUCTION
Although recent findings from the Monitoring the Future study (Johnson, O'Malley, Backman & Schulenberg, 2011) indicate a modest decline in binge drinking among high school students, alcohol consumption among college students remains relatively unchanged. Moreover, high-risk drinking con- tinues to be a serious problem on college campuses. From 1999 to 2005, the proportion of college students ages 18-24 who reported consuming five or more drinks on at least one occasion in the past month (high risk drinking) increased from 41.7% to 44.7% (Hingson, Zha, & Weitzman, 2009). High risk drinking has seri- ous consequences for students and those around them. "Among college students ages 18-24 alcohol-related unintentional injury deaths increased 3% per 100,000 from 1,440 in 1998 to 1,825 in 2005" (Hingson et al., 2009, p.12). The proportion of students who reported driving under the influence of alcohol between 2001 and 2005 increased from 26.5% to 28.9%. In 2001, nearly 600,000 (10.5%) full-time 4-year college students were injured because of drinking; 696,000 (12%) were hit or assaulted by another drinking college student; and 97,000 (2%) were victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape.
There are other negative consequences to college students' high risk drinking. It is associated with high risk sexual behavior including decreased condom use, little or no discussion of sexual risk...