Is heavy drinking really associated with attrition from college? The alcohol-attrition paradox.

Full Abstract

Student attrition at colleges across the United States poses a significant problem for students and families, higher educational institutions, and the nation's workforce competing in the global economy. Heavy drinking is a highly plausible contributor to the problem. However, there is little evidence that it is a reliable predictor of attrition. Notably, few studies take into account indicators of collegiate engagement that are associated with both heavy drinking and persistence in college. Event-history analysis was used to estimate the effect of heavy drinking on attrition among 3,290 undergraduates at a large midwestern university during a 4-year period, and student attendance at a number of college events was included as covariates. Results showed that heavy drinking did not predict attrition bivariately or after controlling for precollege predictors of academic success. However, after controlling for event attendance (an important indicator of collegiate engagement), heavy drinking was found to predict attrition. These findings underscore the importance of the college context in showing that heavy drinking does in fact predict attrition and in considering future intervention efforts to decrease attrition and also heavy drinking. (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved.

Author information

Author/s: Martinez, Julia A (JA); Sher, Kenneth J (KJ); Wood, Phillip K (PK);

Affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA. jamf22(-atsign-)mizzou.edu

Grants: K05 AA017242-01 (Agency:NIAAA NIH HHS) ; K05AA017242 (Agency:NIAAA NIH HHS) ; P50 AA11998 (Agency:NIAAA NIH HHS) ; R37 AA007231-19 (Agency:NIAAA NIH HHS) ; R37 AA07231 (Agency:NIAAA NIH HHS) ; T32 AA013526-06 (Agency:NIAAA NIH HHS) ; T32AA013526 (Agency:NIAAA NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Journal: Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors (Psychol Addict Behav), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Sep; vol 22 (issue 3) : pp 450-6

Dates: Created 2008/09/09; Completed 2008/10/08; Revised 2009/04/29;

PMID: 18778140, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 4/30/2009, IMS Date: 30 Apr 2009 00:00:00)

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