The role of monthly spending money in college student drinking behaviors and their consequences.

Full Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Alcohol use among college students is pervasive and affected by economic factors such as personal income and alcohol price. The authors examined the relationship among students' spending money, drinking rate, and alcohol-related consequences. PARTICIPANTS: In 2005, the authors conducted a Web-based survey among a random sample of 3,634 undergraduate students from 2 large universities. METHODS: The authors used multiple logistic regression to model drinking behaviors and multiple linear regression to model alcohol-related consequences. RESULTS: The lowest reported levels of average monthly spending money were associated with reduced levels of drinking and getting drunk. Spending money was independently associated with experiencing alcohol-related consequences caused by a student's own drinking, even after the authors controlled for personal drinking behaviors. The effects for consequences caused by others' drinking were significant for students who had gotten drunk. CONCLUSIONS: These findings have implications for alcohol price and marketing, particularly around colleges, and suggest actions for parents to consider.

Author information

Author/s: Martin, Barbara Alvarez (BA); McCoy, Thomas P (TP); Champion, Heather (H); Parries, Maria T (MT); Durant, Robert H (RH); Mitra, Ananda (A); Rhodes, Scott D (SD);

Affiliation: The Department of Social Sciences and Health Policy, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA. bamartin(-atsign-)wfubmc.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Journal of American college health : J of ACH (J Am Coll Health), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: -2009 May-Jun; vol 57 (issue 6) : pp 587-96

Dates: Created 2009/05/12; Completed 2009/06/30;

PMID: 19433396, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 6/30/2009, IMS Date: 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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