Fraternity membership and binge drinking
Abstract
This paper examines the relationship that social fraternity and sorority membership has with binge drinking incidence and frequency among 18-24 year old full-time 4-year college students who participated in the 1995 National College Health Risk Behavior Survey. To net out unobserved heterogeneity, several measures of situational and total alcohol use are entered into the regressions as explanatory variables. Fraternity membership coefficients are substantially reduced in size, but remain large and highly significant, suggesting a causal effect on binge drinking. Otherwise, the estimates identify idiosyncratic selection into fraternities and binge drinking across students with similar overall drinking profiles. Particularly notable is that behavior by underage students appears to drive the relationship.
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DeSimone (2007) found even with controls, fraternity membership increased binge drinking.
“Using a nationally representative subsample of data from the 1995 NCHRBS, DeSimone (2007) introduced controls as an attempt to account for high alcohol consumers being predisposition to join.Results suggested, even with these controls, that fraternity membership increased binge drinking.”
From The Influence of Fraternity and Sorority Involvement: A Critical Analysis of Research (1996–2013) (2014) · cites this paper as DeSimone (2007)
DeSimone (2007) found most conservative estimates imply fraternity membership raises prevalence and frequency of binge drinking by 15%-20%.
“Specifically, the most conservative estimates imply fraternity membership raises the prevalence and frequency of binge drinking by 15%-20%.”
From The Influence of Fraternity and Sorority Involvement: A Critical Analysis of Research (1996–2013) (2014) · cites this paper as DeSimone (2007)
Even controlling for predisposition to drinking prior to college, fraternity membership nevertheless raises the prevalence of risky drinking behavior.
“Even controlling for predisposition to drinking prior to college, others (e.g., DeSimone, 2007) have shown fraternity membership nevertheless raises the prevalence of risky drinking behavior.”
From The Influence of Fraternity and Sorority Involvement: A Critical Analysis of Research (1996–2013) (2014) · cites this paper as DeSimone, 2007
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- Authors
- DeSimone, J.
- Venue
- Journal of Health Economics
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2007-09
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 950-967
- ISSN
- 0167-6296 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3024343495
- Cited by
- 53
- References
- 35
- Citations by year
- 2024: 1 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 1.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Health Economics (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Social Sciences › Education › Higher Education Research Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pathology and Forensic Medicine › Alcohol Consumption and Health Effects
- Keywords
- fraternity membership, sorority membership, binge drinking, university students, alcohol consumption, underage drinking
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Alcoholism, Data Collection, Female, Humans, Male, Peer Group, Risk-Taking, Social Conformity, United States, Universities
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