College Students and Binge Drinking: An Evaluation of Social Learning Theory

• NCJ Number: 209767
• Journal: Sociological Spectrum Volume: 25 Issue: 3 Dated: May-June 2005 Pages: 255-272
• Author(s): Keith F. Durkin; Timothy W. Wolfe; Gregory A. Clark
• Date Published: May 2005
• Length: 18 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study evaluated the applicability of social learning theory to the binge drinking of a sample of college students at four universities.

Abstract

There is a growing consensus that binge drinking constitutes a very serious threat to the well being of many of today’s college students and has been characterized as the foremost public health hazard facing them. This study applied one of the leading sociological explanations of deviant behavior, social learning theory, to the problem of binge drinking in a sample of college students. The article discusses the theoretical perspective of social learning theory, examines previous research on alcohol abuse by college students, and provides several hypotheses that were tested by the study. The sample consisted of 1,459 undergraduates, mean age 19.9 years, enrolled at 4 universities. Almost 56 percent of the participants were female and approximately half (50.7 percent) resided on campus. In terms of race, 82.9 were White, 10.6 percent were African-American, and 6.5 percent were from other racial groups. Analyses of the data found that all of the specific hypotheses derived from social learning theory were supported by this research. First, binge drinkers were more likely than other students to associate with peers who also engaged in this behavior. Second, those students with peers who regarded binge drinking positively and would react positively to the respondent’s binge drinking were more likely to engage in this behavior. Third, binge drinkers tended to perceive that alcohol consumption would have more rewarding consequences than negative consequences. Fourth, binge drinkers tended to hold more positive or neutralizing definitions than negative definitions about this behavior. Fifth, those students with strong general beliefs were less likely to binge drink, and finally, the bivariate relationships between the demographic variables were significant, but their effects were greatly reduced in the multivariate model by social learning variables. Implications for programs designed to prevent binge drinking are discussed. References, tables