Binge drinking down among youth — except for college kids

Young people in America aren’t binge drinking like they used to — at least those who aren’t in college.
Although there has been a reduction in binge drinking among young adults, this trend has not reached those enrolled in college, according to a study conducted by the Washington University School of Medicine published in the July issue of Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry .
The study analyzed data from 1979 to 2006, a time period that includes the federally mandated transition to the minimal legal drinking age of 21 years in all states. Researchers were interested in factors such as gender and ethnicity, as well as student status.
According to the National Institute of Health, college-bound 12th graders drink less than those not heading to college, but their binge drinking rates eventually catch up to and pass those of their peers in the workforce.
The study shows that over the last several decades, the decrease in binge drinking may be attributed to the higher minimum legal drinking age of 21 years. The increase in college drinking, however, leaves other sources to disagree.
Boynton Health Services spokesman David Golden said he’d like to ask the authors how they can attribute this information to the higher drinking age.
“How do they isolate that variable?” he said. “Just because this happened at this point and things followed afterwards does not mean that you can really attribute it to that variable.”
In 2008, more than 100 college presidents and chancellors asked for the drinking age to be reconsidered , arguing that the law had consequently made binge drinking more excessive and difficult to monitor.
Toben Nelson, assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota, said he sees reluctance by college administrators across the country to enforce some of the drinking laws on campus.
“College students are in this protected environment that allows heavy alcohol use to grow and continue,” Nelson said. “Students are quite insulated from those laws and from enforcement of those laws. College administrators to some extent bear some responsibility for that.”
University Deputy Police Chief Chuck Miner said the high amount of binge drinking in college could have to do with the freedom that comes with the new experience.
“New students are away for the first time,” Miner said. “They don’t have a curfew imposed on them so they’re going out and learning about life.”
Pierre Larsen, 20 , works at Burger King on Washington Avenue and will be starting college for the first time this fall. He said there are a few reasons he chooses not to binge drink, including a history of alcoholism in his family.
“I see a lot of drunk college students in here, it gets pretty packed,” Larsen said. “My dad and step-dad were alcoholics and I don’t want to get out of order like that.”
Miner said the use of the party patrol, a combination of University, Minneapolis and Hennepin County police, has been successful in reducing the amount of binge drinking and underage citations near campus.
Miner said in the fourteen years he’s been at the University he’s seen a change in the drinking culture.
“At the University of Minnesota, the number of underage citations has been steadily decreasing for the last decade,” Miner said. “Most of the time we’re coming across freshmen and sophomores.”
Golden said that binge drinking data at the University has stayed pretty flat over recent years, but citation information does not tell us anything about the levels of heavy drinking.
“Citation information has to do with how many police you have out doing it,” Golden said. “They’ve lost funding for things like party patrol and programs like that.”
Last year, Boynton found that 18 to 20-year-olds have a binge drinking rate of more than 36 percent, and it increases to more than 46 percent for 21-25-year olds.
The question still remains, why are college students doing this and not their counterparts who are not in school?
Rae Green , 21, a fourth-year student at the University, said studies like this aren’t capable of reaching enough people for accuracy.
“I doubt people who aren’t in school and who participate in binge drinking would participate in this study,” Green said. “Maybe it’s that college students have the opportunity to get away with drinking more.”
The Washington University study refers to binge drinking as consuming five drinks in one sitting, but Boynton therapist Mary Roske-Groth , who specializes in chemical health services, said it is more important to focus on the individual and the people they surround themselves with, rather than a standard number.
“We tend to associate with people that are like us,” Roske-Groth said. “If I’m a heavy drinker, chances are I’m going to associate myself with other heavy drinkers because then my heavy drinking won’t be called into question. It’s very different to have a 40-hour-per-week, 9 to 5 job where I need that job to support myself, versus, what’s the big deal if I don’t make it to class?”