Although researchers have long known that membership in Greek organizations is often linked to heavy drinking, a new study indicates that Greeks are no more likely than their unaffiliated peers to consume alcohol following graduation.
The study, which was conducted by faculty and student researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia, also seeks to explain what drives many Greeks to heavy drinking during their undergraduate years.
Kenneth Sher, professor of Psychology at the university and author of the study, suggested that social attitudes and perceptions of drinking are the primary factors.
"There seem to be perceived norms of heavy drinking, related to how much people you know drink, and how much they think about drinking, and these seem to be very potent," he noted.
Recent Dartmouth alumni tended to agree with Sher's assessment of college drinking behavior as applied to the College.
"Especially in the all-male houses there's an environment where you can drink and it's OK and in fact encouraged," said Kenneth Harker '95.
Randall Dottin '94, a former member of Kappa Alpha Phi fraternity, attributed alcohol consumption to easy availability and to a school culture that encouraged it.
Despite the prevalence of heavy drinking among Greeks during college years, the study found that alcohol use drops off among most students after college, and that Greek members drink no more than nonaffiliated students in the years after graduation.
"There's a powerful socializing effect that is pretty much gone by three years afterwards," Sher said. "They're in a setting that presents barriers to heavy drinking, such as holding a job or being a parent."
Matt Guenther '95, who was unaffiliated during his time at Dartmouth, agreed. "In the real world, you have to have a job and maintain a certain focus ... the rigors of life, growing up, being responsible, make it so that you drink less."
Dottin added that most of the students he knew decreased their alcohol consumption after leaving Dartmouth. "I would say it does drop off. By the time we graduate, it's kind of a been-there done-that," he said.
Sher said the findings were consistent with the need for norms-based prevention approaches on campus, such as the recent poster campaign at Dartmouth that seeks to inform students of the amount an average partygoer drinks on a Saturday night.
The study, which was coauthored by Bruce Bartholow, Ph.D. and Shivani Nanda, an undergraduate at the University of Missouri-Columbia, surveyed hundreds of students, both freshmen and graduates, and involved extensive diagnostic interviews of the participants.
