-Binge and Non-Binge College Students' Perceptions of Other Students' Drinking Habits

We investigated whether there was a relationship between the amount of alcohol students drank themselves and the amount they believed other students drank. We further investigated whether peer relationships affected their perceptions on drinking more than their perceptions of student drinking in general. Three hundred six students at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey were given the Survey of Students' Perceptions of Campus Alcohol and Other Drug Norms (CORE Institute, Carbondale, IL.). Results indicated students who drank more than five drinks at a setting believed other college students drank more than students who drank less. In particular, male college students, on-campus students, and sorority students perceived other college students drinking more than they actually did. ********** Alcohol seems to be the most misused substance on campus (Perkins, 2002). Evidence is not clear on whether a relatively few individuals abuse alcohol on campus or a large number. CORE Institute national surveys have found many negative consequences from excessive alcohol intake. Perkins has divided the damage done by excessive alcohol use into damage done to self, to others, and to the respective institutions. In regards to self, much evidence indicates there is a positive relationship between the amounts of alcohol drunk and grades in college. Males drinking more than five drinks at a sitting and females drinking more than four drinks at a sitting were more than three times likely to get behind in their school work than those who drank less. They were also much more likely to miss class from a hangover, and receive a lower grade because of their drinking. There was an inverse relationship between the amount of alcohol drunk and letter grade received. Other negative results from the student surveys were increases in blackouts or memory losses, physical illnesses, unintended or unprotected sexual activity, and significant increases in impaired driving. Although there were high rates of drinking reported among student athletes, there is no systematic data available on what effect this has on athletic performance. Not only do students do damage to themselves, but they are more likely to do damage to other people and property. They are more likely to do property damage, engage in vandalism, get into fights and interpersonal violence, and otherwise damage institutional property and reputation. Social norms theory suggests that peers have an enormous influence on students in alcohol and other drug use. Perkins and others believe students regularly and grossly overestimate how much their peers drink. They suggested that this inflated norm encourages and pressures students to drink larger amounts and more frequently. On the other hand, Keeling (2000) reports that research from the 1999 College Alcohol study (Wechsler, Lee, Kuo, & Lee, 1999) shows that half of the respondent students underestimated, rather than overestimated, binge drinking on campus, 29% overestimated it, 13% were accurate, and 12% said they did not know. Students were more likely to underestimate at schools with higher rates of binge drinking. Students overestimated binge drinking at only 8% of the schools surveyed. Students who are frequent binge drinkers are more likely to overestimate the drinking norm on a campus, but those binge drinkers who overestimate binge drinking represented only 29% of the binge drinkers (Carter & Kahnweiler, 2000). Half of the binge drinkers underestimated the local college norms. However, this research showed that students generally report that their close friends drink at the same level they do. We were interested in whether there was a relationship between the amount that students drank themselves and the amount they believed their friends drank. We were also interested in whether general social norms played a role in their estimates of other students' drinking. It is possible, as Keeling points out, that local peer acquaintances behave alike, and that students are more sensitive to what their close friends are doing rather than some universal social norm on campus. …