If more college students were participating in binge drinking, you might expect it to be men at "traditional," co-ed schools. And with universities nationwide waging war on excess alcohol consumption, you actually might expect rates of binge drinking to have fallen in recent years.
You would be wrong on both counts.
According to a study released last week by Harvard researchers, 44 percent of "traditional" college students -- those 18 to 23 years old and attending four-year residential colleges -- engage in binge drinking, a figure that was unchanged since 1993.
Perhaps even more surprisingly, binge drinking at all-female institutions has dramatically increased over the same period. While in 1993 only 24 percent of students at the five women's colleges surveyed engaged in binge drinking, now 32 percent do so.
Women at co-ed schools, however, still drink more than women attending single-sex colleges.
The study, which analyzed data from over 10,000 students at 119 colleges across the nation, defined binge drinking as the consumption of five or more alcoholic drinks in one night for men, or four or more for women.
"If you are a traditional college student and you drink, the odds are seven in 10 that you are a binge drinker," Henry Weschler, the principal investigator for the study, said in a press release.
According to Dartmouth Coordinator of Health Programs Laura Rubinstein, there has been an increase in the number of women admitted to Dick's House with high blood alcohol levels in recent years.
"It is true that of students who drink a lot [that] the percentage of women is increasing," she said. "There are more women who are bingeing, but there are more who are abstaining as well."
Students and health officials point to a variety of explanations for the increase in women's alcohol consumption.
Emily Johnson '03 speculated that women are drinking more to "kind of keep up with the guys, and a lot [of women] want to prove they can be as tough as men."
According to Rubinstein, "Sometimes women need excuses to behave in ways that they want to. In our society it's hard for women to be sexual and to have sexual desires, and there's a mentality that if you say 'well, I was really drunk,' it makes things okay."
"It's not surprising that at the advent of coeducation, as women are entering an environment where the men were already drinking, that women will be drinking as well," Tate LeFevre '04 said. "Let's face it -- college students are notorious for binge drinking. It forms a large part of the social life for both boys and girls."
Women's Resource Center Director Giavanna Munafo senses a more stressful pace of life and drive towards professionalism that both men and women at Dartmouth feel and attempt to alleviate by drinking.
"There's more and more women here who feel more like 'this is my place too' ... and maybe more women who feel like they want to be as much a Dartmouth student as anyone, [which often means] 'I play hard and I work hard,'" Munafo said.
While Dartmouth sponsors educational speakers on alcohol abuse, Rubinstein, who trains the Drug Abuse Peer Advisors (DAPAs), places a high value on large-scale change.
"There's not evidence that shorter interventions don't have an effect, but we need longer interactions and things that can change a community culture, and I do think we're doing just that," she said.
The Harvard survey also examined factors such as state laws restricting alcohol sales and consumption, controls on alcohol in student residences and educational efforts to limit drinking. While several schools showed downward trends in binge drinking, no general decrease was identified in the study.
"Greater attention should be paid to factors that impact the environment around students, which aggressively promotes alcohol use," the study authors said in the press release.
