Running head: ALCOHOL AND COLLEGE STUDENTS

Effects of Alcohol on College Students Academic performance and Behavior

DeAndre Grider
University of Central Arkansas

Running head: ALCOHOL AND COLLEGE STUDENTS

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Effects of Alcohol on College Students

Many people have studied how alcohol affects college students grades, class behavior, or
their overall attendance, these factors make up the general factor of academic performance.
Alcohol consumption has many negative effects on its users, especially young people including
college students whom tend to commit high-risk behaviors while under the influence (Ham &
Hope, 2003). Heavy drinking increase tremendously among college-bound high school students
as they make the transition to college, whereas very little change in heavy drinking occurs among
high school graduates who do not attend college (Bachman et al., 1997, 2002; Paschall et al.,
2005). This idea alone is enough to have a tremendous effect on students academic performance
especially if they tend to drink on school nights. Alcohol can have a great number of
psychological effects that can lead to poor academic performance and eventually, dropout. In this
paper I will discuss the negative effects of alcohol, and how it effects the different genders and
races in terms of their performance in college.
Students who report more frequent heavy drinking also report more frequent alcoholrelated academic problems and lower grades than students who engage in heavy drinking
infrequently or not at all (Perkins, 2002; Wechsler et al., 1994, 1995). Although alcohol has
many negative effects on students all over the college setting, it plays a much bigger role in some
students more than others, specifically younger students or freshmen. College students that are
1822 years old consume more alcohol than students that do not attend college that are in the
same age range, putting them at an earlier risk of alcohol abuse and dependence during their
college years (Johnston, OMalley, & Bachman, 2003). Some students may not drink all of the
time which makes them more likely to consume more alcohol when they drink at parties or at
clubs. Many college students engage in heavy or binge drinking, which is defined as the

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consumption of at least five standard drinks in one sitting for men or four drinks for women
(Wechsler, Dowdall, Davenport, & Rimm, 1995). This pattern of heavy episodic drinking is
associated with a variety of problems ranging from hangovers and missing classes to more
serious consequences, such as risky sexual behaviors and fights (Wechsler, Lee, Nelson, & Lee,
2001; Wechsler, Lee, Kuo, Seibring, Nelson, & Lee, 2002).
Many college students who consume alcohol on a regular basis face some type of
adversity throughout their college career, whether it be getting bad grades or doing bad things
that get them in trouble while under the influence, some students face more adversity than others
because of their ethnic backgrounds. African American students are more likely to come from
families with lower socioeconomic status (Sibulkin & Butler, 2005). It is possible that for
African American students drinking may be associated with poorer academic outcomes
(dePyssler, Williams, & Windle, 2005). On the other hand, European students may be at a greater
risk of suffering from more severe consequences from their drinking because they drink more
often and more heavily, while African American students will have a greater level of problems
(Skidmore, Murphy, Martens, & Dennhardt 2012).

Not only does race play a big role in how academics are affected by alcohol, but so does
gender. When consuming alcohol men usually consume more alcohol than women. Although
women may consume fewer drinks, they can typically reach similar blood alcohol concentrations
as men, putting them at risk for experiencing negative consequences of their drinking (Ham &
Hope, 2003). College men may experience more problems related to public deviance and harm to
others, whereas the problems women experience may be more private and involve self-harm
(Ham & Hope, 2003; Perkins, 2002).

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Many Students only consume alcohol on the weekend when they are less likely to have
class or a lot of homework, but a lot of other students feel the need to drink on school nights.
Thursday is a very popular day to drinkers known as thirsty Thursday, where drinkers go out and
have alcoholic beverages all night for half price. If the student drinks too heavily then the
probability of them having a hangover and not even attending class is very high. According to
Paschall, M. J., Kypri, K., & Saltz, R. F. (2006) scheduling a Friday morning class is very much
related to the level of alcohol use on Thursday nights. Students who drink more frequently or
heavily may actively seek to give themselves a longer weekend (and more drinking
opportunities) by avoiding a Friday class if at all possible; alternatively, students with no Friday
classes may be more likely to drink on Thursday nights even without having arranged their
schedule for that purpose (Paschall 2006). Students who did not have a class on Friday drank
twice as much alcohol on Thursday nights as students who had a Friday class before 12 p.m.;
Friday classes that began at 12 p.m. or later had no effect on Thursday drinking (Gentile, N. D.,
Librizzi, E. H., & Martinetti, M. P. 2012). Because students have so much free time to party and
drink, school starts to seem less important because all the student starts to think about is how
much alcohol they will consume when given the opportunity.
The relationship between alcohol and how it effects students increases as the number of
alcoholic beverages that the student drinks increases also. Because alcohol is seen as a party
starter to students, they dont really know how to limit themselves when they do consume
alcohol, so they usually drink as much as they can so the effects will be much stronger. Studies
have been done to figure out if the cost of alcoholic beverages correlate with how much alcohol
students consume. The study done by (Murphy & MacKillop, 2006) on low cost drinks and
consumption by students found that eliminating low-cost access to alcohol may reduce alcohol

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abuse. The higher that alcoholic beverages cost, the less students consume, the better their
academic performance will turn out.
There have been many studies that provide evidence of how alcoholic beverages affect
college students performance. Some studies even provide good evidence on how alcohol affects
lowerclassmen more than upperclassmen. The association between heavy drinking and poor
academic performance was stronger for underage students than for students at least 21 years old,
suggesting that heavy drinking may have a particularly strong adverse effect on students'
academic performance in their freshmen and sophomore years (Paschall, M. J., & Freisthler, B.
2003). The purpose of this study is to examine if the effect of alcohol on the performance of
college students is different based on classification, specifically it is hypothesized that alcohol
will have a greater effect on the academic performance of freshmen more than seniors. Alcohol
affects all students performance whether it be bad grades, or their drive to even want to go to
class, but it has an even stronger effect on younger students who are new to the college
experience.
METHOD
Participants
Participants will consist of 150 underclassmen such as freshmen and sophomores and the
other half of the participants will be upperclassmen, such as juniors and seniors that attend
psychology classes at the University of Central Arkansas. The sample of underclassmen will be
chosen from lower division classes made up of younger students such as freshmen and
sophomores while the sample of the upperclassmen will be taken from upper division classes that
consist of mostly older students. It is expected that participants will be 65% male and 35%

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female and 50% African American and 50% Caucasian. Lower level participants will be in the
age range of 18-20 while upper level students will range from about 21-23. Students will be
awarded extra credit for the class.
Measures
Alcohol consumption will be measured by using the Daily Drinking Questionnaire. The
DDQ asks the students to record a typical week of drinking during a certain month and then it
asks them to record about how many alcoholic beverages were consumed during each day of that
week. After all of the information has been recorded the questionnaire is used to estimate the
average number of drinks that each student consumes on a weekly basis. The DDQ has been
found to be a valid measure of alcohol consumption.
Procedure
Students will be asked to report to the testing site where they will then sign in to be
awarded extra credit for the class that they were randomly sampled from. Students will then have
a seat and be asked to sign an informed consent form. Students will then complete the Daily
Drinking Questionnaire and record their age, class level, and race. After students were finished
completing the survey they will be debriefed and awarded their extra credit for their
participation.
RESULTS
During this study the data gathered to determine whether underclassmen academic
performance is affected more by alcohol than upperclassmen performance will be analyzed using
the Pearson correlation coefficient. It is expected that the results will indicate that underclassmen
are affected more by alcohol. Not only would alcohol affect students grades, but also their

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attendance and their behaviors. If the hypothesis in this study is correct then it will show that the
consumption of alcohol positively correlates with poor academic performance in younger
students.
Conclusion
I think that yes the research is correct, and alcohol does effect younger students more but
it also effects upper division students just as much. Younger students get to college and they get
overwhelmed by all of the parties, alcohol, and students of the opposite sex that they just dont
manage their time as well as upper level students who have been through these situations before
and know how to handle them.

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