Objective: Research has just begun to identify American college students who study abroad as a group at-risk for sexual violence victimization. The purpose of the current study was to examine the context of these incidents. Participants: We utilized a large longitudinal sample of 2,428 United States college students studying abroad for between 4…

Affirmative consent initiatives advocate that college students understand sexual consent and refusal. There has been an influx of research focused on students' definitions or understanding of consent; however, research examining students' definitions of sexual refusals is limited. Additionally, different terminology (e.g., non-consent vs. sexual…

Objectives: International students face increased vulnerability for mental health challenges, but underutilize counseling compared to their domestic peers. We examined beliefs regarding the causes of mental illness, known as attributions, which may impact treatment-seeking and stigma. Participants: Surveys were collected from 680 international…

Tailgating has been associated with both problem drinking and high-risk behaviors. The purpose of this study was to determine if student participation in game day on-campus tailgating activities is associated with increased alcohol consumption. Employing a convenience sample of 567 university students, the authors compared the alcohol use patterns…

The aim of this study was to identify variables that reliably differentiated between 2 groups of students who reported binge drinking at the same rate (6 to more than 10 times within the previous 2 weeks) but who exhibited different distress associated with their behavior. Results indicated that students who received an external expression of…

Objective: Gambling and alcohol use were compared for college and noncollege young adults in the US population. Participants: Participants were 1,000 respondents aged 18 to 21. Methods: Data were analyzed from a representative household sample of US young people aged 14 to 21 years old. Telephone interviews were conducted between August 2005 and…

Analysis of the data from 20 administrations of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health reveal an overall lower trend in the rate of binge drinking for the period from 1979-2006. This period encompasses the transition to a uniform legal drinking age of 21 in the U.S. Little improvement is seen in binge drinking among college students while…

Objective: The present study was designed to assess whether the serving practices of a sample of bartenders in an American university town would vary as a function of the number of behavioral cues of intoxication displayed by apparently real patrons (who were actually experimental confederates). Method: We trained two male and three female…

Heavy drinking and associated negative consequences remain a serious problem among college students. In a secondary analysis of data from two published study, the authors examine the correlation between minimum legal age to purchase and/or consume alcohol and rates of heavy drinking among college students in 22 countries. The published studies use…

Objective: The authors examined whether alcohol use decreased condom use. Participants: The subjects were heavy-drinking students on 5 different college campuses. Methods: A face-to-face interview, administered between November of 2004 and February of 2007, gathered information about condom use, alcohol use, and other behaviors. Multivariate…

Social norms-based interventions targeting college student drinking behaviors have become increasingly popular. Such interventions purportedly modify student misperceptions of fellow student drinking behaviors, which leads to changes in individual drinking behavior. Despite claims of successful interventions, research demonstrating that social…

Objective: Prior research shows that college athletes have higher rates of substance use, especially alcohol, than do college students who are not involved in athletics. To augment the literature, the author sought to determine which sports/teams are at the greatest risk for substance use. Participants: The author used data from the 1999 Harvard…

This study explored the feasibility of a "Composite Drinking Scale" (CDS) designed to capture fully the phenomenon of problem drinking among college students while allowing easy public understanding. A survey conducted at 32 four-year U.S. colleges included four consumption measures: 30-day frequency; average number of drinks per week;…

College drinking behavior is a national public health concern. However, little research has been conducted to test the psychometric validity and reliability of alcohol use measures among Spanish-speaking Hispanic college students. Adopting a translation-back-translation approach, the Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index (RAPI) was translated into Spanish…

This study examines the risk for alcohol and other drug (AOD) problems resulting from alcohol plus marijuana use compared to alcohol-only use. Data are from telephone interviews with 1113 randomly selected college students attending two large urban universities in the southwestern United States. Alcohol and marijuana users (dual users) were more…