Norms of Moderation and Safety: College Students and Alcohol

National College Health Assessment | Core Alcohol and Drug Survey | Monitoring the Future

Overview of Key Findings: Year 2000

The key findings of three national surveys assessing college students experiences with alcohol reveal that, contrary to often sensational portrayals:

Most Students Drink Moderately
Heavy Drinking is Not the Norm
Most Students Drink Safely
Serious Harm as a Consequence of Drinking is Uncommon

For further information about a specific survey, and for a detailed presentation from a social norms perspective of its most recent findings, see:

I. Most Students Drink Moderately

Both the National College Health Assessment (NCHA) and the Core Alcohol and Drug Survey (Core) report similar findings indicating that the majority of students are moderate drinkers:

63% of the Core respondents consume an average of 4 or fewer drinks per week.
61% of the NCHA respondents consumed 4 or fewer drinks the last time they "partied" or socialized.^*

69% of the Core respondents consume an average of 5 or fewer drinks per week.
69% of the NCHA respondents consumed 5 or fewer drinks the last time they "partied" or socialized.^**

^*71% of the NCHA respondents report consuming 4 or fewer drinks no more than once during the past two weeks.
^**84% of the NCHA respondents report consuming 5 or fewer drinks once or at most twice during the past two weeks.

(Note: The Monitoring the Future survey does not attempt to assess the number of drinks consumed either per week or during the last "party" or social occasion.)

Additional national findings confirm the existence of the norm of moderation. For example:

Most Students Consume One Drink per Hour
The NCHA found that 3.9 hours was the average length of time that students drank the last occasion they "partied" or socialized. Given that most students consumed 4 to 5 drinks (mean = 4.43) the last time that they partied, the rate of consumption for the majority of students over a 4 hour period was one drink per hour (1.1 drink/hour = 4.43 drinks/3.9 hours).
Most Students Remain Legally Sober
The NCHA found that 64% of students had an estimated Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) level below .08 the last time they "partied" or socialized. In other words, 64% of students remained legally sober the last time they socialized.

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II. Heavy Drinking is Not the Norm

What is variously described as "heavy drinking," "heavy episodic drinking," or (inappropriately) "binge drinking" is generally measured by the consumption of 5 or more drinks in a sitting during the two weeks prior to completing the survey. All three national surveys find that this is not the norm for college students:

62% of the NCHA respondents are not heavy drinkers.
61% of the Monitoring the Future respondents are not heavy drinkers.
54% of Core respondents are not heavy drinkers.

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III. Most Students Drink Safely

Traditionally, college health assessment surveys have been designed to measure what is wrong among college students, i.e., the health problems they face and the ill effects they experience as a result of certain behaviors. In addition to measuring such risks, however, the National College Health Assessment (NCHA) has begun systematically to measure what college students are doing right in relation to their health. As regards alcohol, the NCHA identifies and measures a broad range of protective behaviors that students use in order to drink safely and thereby demonstrate that they care about themselves and others when they socialize. Among the NCHA findings...

When students "partied" or socialized during the last school year:

73% used a designated driver.
62% kept track of their drinks.

Additionally, 95% of students usually or always employed one or more of the following protective behaviors when drinking alcohol during the last school year:

Alternate non-alcoholic with alcoholic beverages
Determine in advance not to exceed a set number of drinks
Choose not to drink alcohol
Eat either before or while they drank
Have a friend let them know when they've had enough
Pace drinks to one or less per hour
Avoid drinking games
Drink an alcohol look-alike

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IV. Serious Harm as a Consequence of Drinking is Uncommon

Given that the majority of college students are moderate and not heavy drinkers, and that most of them employ a number of protective behaviors in order to drink safely, it is not surprising that serious harm as a consequence of drinking is uncommon. Among the recent national findings, students report that during the last school year:

Core: 98.7% did not experience unwanted sexual intercourse while drinking
NCHA: 98.1% did not have someone use force or the threat of force to have sex with them as a consequence of drinking

Core: 98.1% did not experience actual physical violence while drinking
NCHA: 95.7% were not injured by another person as a consequence of drinking
NCHA: 93.5% were not involved in a fight as a consequence of drinking

Core: 85.7% were not hurt or injured as a result of drinking
NCHA: 83% were not physically injured as a consequence of drinking

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