College students drink a lot of alcohol. We see this in movies (Animal House) and TV shows (Greek), but real-life data collected via nationwide surveys suggest that these portrayals may have at least some basis in reality. Indeed, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism warns that students view drinking as part of the college experience and many drink large quantities of alcohol despite the risks.
But what are these drinking experiences like? Movies don’t usually center on students sitting in their dorm rooms with a bottle of alcohol. Instead, out of control parties take the spotlight. And, once again, this appears to be fairly true in real life as well. Researchers have found that college students drink more often with others than they do alone and that the larger the party, the more they drink. So, although the drama of your favorite movie or TV show may be over the top, the wild party scene might not be far off.
However, if college drinking is typically a social activity, then students’ perceptions of how much other people are drinking and their desire to fit in may influence their own drinking behavior. In addition, drinking alcohol may influence students’ social experiences and their interactions with others both at parties and the next day. This is what my research focuses on.
What Experiences Motivate Consumption? And How Does Drinking Affect Students’ Social Lives?
My colleagues and I have studied these questions using data collected by the University of Connecticut School of Medicine’s Alcohol Research Center in which college students were asked to report their experiences and behaviors every day for 30 days. Thus, not only can we compare one student to another, but we can also test how daily experiences are related to alcohol consumption that evening or the night before. Recently, we used these data to look at how much stress students were feeling due to conflicts with other people (daily interpersonal stress) and how it was related to both their solitary alcohol consumption and their social alcohol consumption (drinking while interacting with others).
We found that solitary alcohol consumption did not go up when interpersonal stress was greater. In contrast, students did drink more with others on days when they reported more interpersonal stress. However, this was true only if they were around other people who were drinking relatively large amounts of alcohol. If students were in a low-drinking social environment, interpersonal stress was not related to social alcohol consumption. We concluded that students are not using alcohol to avoid hurt feelings or reduce stress in general. If this were their motivation, these students would drink alcohol even when alone or in a low-drinking environment. Instead, we believe that college students who are worried about being accepted are drinking primarily when they view alcohol as an integral part of the social scene and think it will help them fit in.
The next question was about the outcomes of social and solitary drinking. If students are drinking alcohol to be part of the party and fit in with their peers, does it work? Maybe not the way they had hoped. Neither social nor solitary drinking was related to students’ interpersonal stress the next day. However, when students drank with others (but not when they drank alone), they said that they enjoyed the evening more and they thought they were viewed as more social by those around them.
Thus, we can draw an important distinction between drinking alone and drinking with others. Drinking alone is different from drinking with others and it tends to have more unpleasant consequences than social consumption. In our research, we found that the motives for drinking alone and with others may be different and that drinking by oneself is less enjoyable. This distinction may have considerable implications for counselors and administrators who are trying to reduce college drinking and prevent its negative consequences.
There seem to be many downsides to drinking alone, which college students are likely aware of and hopefully want to avoid. In contrast, drinking with others is an important part of many college students’ social lives. Further research is needed to understand this social side of college drinking. Although social drinking can be a positive part of many college students’ lives, it can also lead to negative consequences. It is important to understand both when social drinking has positive outcomes and how to protect students from the downsides that they may not expect.
For Further Reading
Hamilton, H. R., Armeli, S., & Tennen, H. (2021). Cheers together, but not alone: Peer drinking moderates alcohol consumption following interpersonal stress. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0265407521996048
Hamilton, H. R., Armeli, S., & Tennen, H. (2020). Drink (socially) and be merry: Predicting enjoyment and self-perceptions from alcohol consumption among college students. Emerging Adulthood. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167696820949783
Hamilton, H. R., & DeHart, T. (2019). Needs and norms: Testing the effects of negative interpersonal interactions, the need to belong, and perceived norms on alcohol consumption. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 80(3), 340 – 348. https://doi.org/10.15288/jsad.2019.80.340
Hannah R. Hamilton is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UConn Health’s Alcohol Research Center. Her research focuses on the associations between belonging, interpersonal interactions, and health behaviors.