Drinking Patterns of College- and Non-College-Attending Young Adults: Is High-Intensity Drinking Only a College Phenomenon?
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Young adults report the heaviest drinking of any age group, and many are at risk for experiencing an alcohol use disorder. Most research investigating young adult drinking has focused on single indicators of use. Using multiple dimensions of consumption, such as federal guidelines for daily/weekly drinking and engagement in drinking at twice the binge threshold ("high-intensity drinking") to characterize drinking behavior could illuminate drinking patterns linked with harms. OBJECTIVES: We used a person-centered approach to examine latent classes of drinkers from a national sample of young adults. Further, we compared classes on college status. METHODS: We used 2012-2013 data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC)-III. We included past-year drinkers aged 18-22 years (n = 2213). Latent classes were estimated based on drinking frequency, daily/weekly drinking, frequency of heavy episodic drinking (4+/5+ drinks for women/men), frequency of high-intensity drinking (8+/10+ drinks), and intoxication frequency. RESULTS: Five latent classes were identified: Occasional, Light Drinkers (30%), Regular Drinkers (6%), Infrequent Drinkers with Occasional Binging (10%), Frequent Drinkers with Occasional Binging (22%), and High-Intensity Drinkers (32%). Although membership in the two riskiest classes were more common among college-attenders, odds of being a High-Intensity Drinker relative to the second riskiest class was not significantly different for college- and non-college-attending young adults. Conclusions/Importance: As high-intensity drinking does not appear to be a drinking pattern unique to college-attenders and non-college-attenders are less likely to mature out of heavy drinking patterns, intervention efforts are needed for this at-risk age group.
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There are potential differences in alcohol and cannabis use between students and non-students.
“There are potential differences in alcohol and cannabis use between students and non-students (Carter et al., 2010; Linden-Carmichael & Lanza, 2018)”
From Examining the Prospective Associations Between Mindfulness Facets and Substance Use in Emerging Adulthood. (2021) · cites this paper as Linden-Carmichael & Lanza, 2018
The Discussion compares drinking patterns among college-attending and non-college-attending young adults, supporting the possibility of differences in alcohol use. The paper does not report a comparison of cannabis use between those groups; cannabis appears only in the title of a work listed in the References. Page numbers were not provided in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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Carter, A. C., Brandon, K. O., & Goldman, M. S. (2010) · Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs · doi:10.15288/jsad.2010.71.742 · Cited by 273 · see citing works
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Volpicelli, J. R., & Menzies, P. (2022) · Substance Abuse: Research and Treatment · doi:10.1177/11782218221111832 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Single, A., & Keough, M. T. (2021) · Alcohol and Alcoholism · doi:10.1093/alcalc/agaa112 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
- Authors
- Linden-Carmichael, A. N., & Lanza, S. T.
- Affiliations
- Department of Biobehavioral Health and The Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- ORCID
- Lanza, Stephanie T.
- Venue
- Substance Use & Misuse
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2018-04-19
- Volume
- 53
- Issue
- 13
- Pages
- 2157-2164
- ISSN
- 1082-6084 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-2491
- PMC
- PMC6105386
- OpenAlex
- W2802559496
- Cited by
- 54
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 5
- FWCI
- 4.18
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Substance Use & Misuse (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (P50DA039838, R01DA039854)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pathology and Forensic Medicine › Alcohol Consumption and Health Effects
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health and Lifestyle Studies
- Keywords
- high-intensity drinking, young adult drinking, university students, binge drinking, drinking patterns, latent classes, alcohol use disorder risk, drinking frequency
- MeSH terms
- Alcohol Drinking in College, Latent Class Analysis, Adolescent, Adult, Alcohol Drinking, Alcoholic Intoxication, Alcoholism, Female, Humans, Male, Risk Factors, Students, United States, Young Adult, Self Report, Binge Drinking
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