Understanding College Alcohol Abuse and Academic Performance: Selecting Appropriate Intervention Strategies

This article summarizes research linking alcohol abuse to poor academic performance, decreased student retention, and problems for the campus community. It provides an overview of 3 theoretical perspectives on reducing problematic alcohol consumption, discusses brief interventions as the treatment of choice, and offers suggestions to college counselors for alcohol prevention programming on their campuses. ********** College students are at the developmental stage in which experimentation with mood-altering substances often becomes most active (Kagan, 1991; Novacek, Raskin, & Hogan, 1991). Apprehension about college drinking has increased for both parents and college personnel. The impact of alcohol prevention programs is often minimized by the traditional use of alcohol as a "rite of passage," entwined with peer norms that are strongest in the developmental stage between adolescence and adulthood. Wechsler (Wechsler, Dowdall, Maenner, Gledhill-Hoyt, & Lee, 1998), one of the leading researchers in the field, suggested that "students' heavy episodic alcohol use, or binge drinking, is by far the single most serious public health problem confronting American colleges" (p. 57). Short-term consequences of adolescent substance abuse include premature death due to traffic and other accidents, antisocial behaviors and related consequences, suicide (Milgram, 1993), increased risk for HIV infection (P. B. Anderson & Mathieu, 1996; Engs, Diebold, & Hanson, 1994; Milgram, 1993), and school-related difficulties (Engs et al., 1994; Prendergast, 1994). Long-term consequences can include an altered trajectory of the life course, with developmental tasks not being met. If the student becomes alcohol dependent, an addiction cycle may become the dominant paradigm from which life is experienced. Future problems such as chronic unemployment or underemployment, failed interpersonal relationships, dysfunctional developmental transitions, and lower scores on well-being measures may ensue (Greene et al., 1999; Schulenberg, O'Malley, Bachman, Wadsworth, & Johnston, 1996; Wechsler, Davenport, Dowdall, Moeykens, & Castillo, 1994). Studies indicate that increased alcohol consumption is related to poorer academic performance (Durkin, Wolfe, & Clark, 1999; Engs & Hanson, 1999; Milgram, 1993). Substance abuse affects overall student retention rates directly hrough accidents, alcohol-related problems, and misconduct and indirectly through reduced or problematic academic performance (Wyman, 1997). D. S. Anderson and Gadaleto (1984) found that 23% of college administrators agreed that alcohol abuse was involved in more than 40% of their student attrition cases. Because student retention is a gauge for institutional effectiveness and the central criterion for accreditation (Wyman, 1997), it is imperative that both college administrators and college counselors address the substance abuse problems of their students. Substance Use and Academic Performance It is widely known that heavy or binge-drinking behaviors have an adverse impact on school performance. Heavy or binge drinking is defined by Wechsler (1996) as five or more drinks in sequence in a short time by men, four or more by women; however, in some studies it is simply defined as five or more drinks at one sitting. The standard quantity measure of heavy drinking is an overall average greater than two drinks per day. It should be noted that the size of the drink, body weight of the individual, and length of time of the drinking experience could all have effects on the blood alcohol concentration. The Core Survey (Presley, Meilman, & Lyerla, 1994) found that nearly one fourth of the respondents indicated that they performed poorly on a test or project because of alcohol or drugs and that nearly one third had missed a class due to substance abuse, a further indication of the link between substance abuse and school performance. …