Binge Dricking

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BINGE DRINKING
Binge drinking is defined as drinking "five or more drinks in a row one or more times during a two-week period for men, and four or more drinks in a row one or more times during a two-week period for women . . . and a drink is defined as a 12-ounce can or bottle of beer, a four ounce glass of wine, a 12-ounce bottle or can of wine cooler, or a shot of liquor taken straight or in a mixed drink" (Wechsler, 1996). In 1993, Henry Wechsler of the Harvard School of Public Health, conducted a nationwide study of almost 18,000 college students and their alcohol use, behaviors and opinions. This study provided the first comprehensive view of the widespread abuse of binge drinking by college students (Wechsler, 1996). There are several key findings about binge drinking from the study:
*Eighty-four percent (84%) of students surveyed drank alcohol during the school year with almost half, 44% categorized as binge drinkers and 19% as frequent binge drinkers.
*Thirty-three percent (33%) of schools surveyed qualified as high-binge drinking campuses. To be qualified for a high-binge drinking campus, more than half of the students responding to the survey had to indicate that they were binge drinkers.
*The strongest predictor for binge drinking was living in a sorority or fraternity house. Eighty percent (80%) of sorority women and 86% of fraternity men living in Greek housing qualified as binge drinkers.
CHARACTERISTICS OF BINGE DRINKERS
According to Wechsler (1996), typical characteristics of binge drinkers include: male, fraternity and sorority members, white, under 24 years of age, involved in athletics, and students who socialize a great deal. White males were found to be the most likely group to binge drink and African-American females were the least likely to binge drink (Wechsler, 1996). Historically black colleges, women's colleges, commuter schools and schools in the western United States have less binge drinking (Philp...