Study: College binge-drinkers happier than non-bingers

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(LiveScience) DENVER -- The allure of the beer funnel for college students may have less to do with the need for a buzz and more to do with a desire for social status, new research finds.

College students who binge drink report being happier with their social lives than their non-binging counterparts, according to a new study presented here today (Aug. 20) at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association. And the higher a student's social status, the more likely they were to binge drink.  

The study looked at students at just one liberal arts college in the Northeast, but it could help explain why schools tend to have consistent levels of binge drinking over time, said study researcher Carolyn Hsu, a sociologist at Colgate University in New York.

"I would guess it has to do with feeling like you belong and whether or not you're doing what a 'real' college student does," Hsu told LiveScience. "It seems to be more about certain groups getting to define what that looks like." [Adolescent Angst: 10 Facts About the Teen Brain]

Reluctant drinkers

Binge drinking is defined as downing four or more drinks at a sitting for women and five or more for men. For the purposes of this study, students were classified as binge drinkers if they binged once every two weeks or more.

Hsu and her colleagues surveyed 1,595 students at a small Northeastern liberal arts college. (As part of the conditions for doing the study, Hsu could not reveal the college's identity.) In initial research, Hsu said, the researchers noticed a theme of students complaining about high levels of binge drinking.

"One thing that was a recurrent comment were students who said, 'Everyone drinks here. ... I don't want to get drunk, but I feel like I don't belong here if I don't.' ... Then the next person would write, 'I don't really want to drink, but this is what everyone else does.' And the next person would write, 'You know, I don't mind drinking a little, but I don't want to get smashed, but everyone does that,'" Hsu said.

"I look at this and I think, 'Why don't you guys just have a party without drinking? None of you want to be doing this!'" Hsu added.

The reluctant drinkers raised the question of why students felt so obligated to binge drink, Hsu said, so she and her colleagues decided to take a closer look. A number of comments further linked binge drinking to wealthy students on campus, particularly fraternity and sorority members; the researchers also wanted to find out if those perceptions were accurate.

Getting smashed for social satisfaction

To do so, they compared students' social status to their rates of binge drinking and to their satisfaction with their social lives. At this particular school, whites are the majority, so white students were considered to have more social status, along with wealthier students, men, straight students and fraternity or sorority members.

The first finding was that the students' anecdotal perceptions about who drinks were right. Higher-status students had higher rates of binge drinking, whether status was defined as race, wealth, class, sexual orientation or Greek life participation. These same high-status students also had the highest satisfaction with their college social lives.

But binge drinking actually seemed to contribute to this satisfaction. High-status binge drinkers were happier with their social lives than high-status students who didn't binge drink. And low-status students who binge drank had higher social satisfaction than their non-binging peers.

"They almost seemed to move themselves up a little bit, or to put it in more efficient language, they now have higher levels of social satisfaction," Hsu said.

Hsu was quick to note that binge drinking is not the smartest way to improve your chances of college happiness. Binge drinking was also associated with higher rates of sexual victimization and academic troubles, among other nasty consequences, she said. [7 Ways Alcohol Affects Your Health]

"We think this is a terrible thing," Hsu said.

Eradicating binge drinking

Hsu hopes to expand the research to other schools, but said the findings could explain how campus culture fosters binge drinking. Even though student bodies turn over every four years and universities go through many changes in demographics over time, binge-drinking rates remain remarkably stable, she said. It's possible that the association of binge drinking with status explains why the practice is so hard to eradicate.

At the university studied, "this behavior is so associated with being higher status that if you don't do it, you don't have as high levels of social satisfaction," she said.

One glimmer of hope, Hsu said, was that students in religious organizations who did not binge drink were more socially satisfied than other low-status non-bingers.

"If you're in a community that's big enough that creates its own social life, you might actually get to not care what the mainstream campus message is," she said. She added that she hopes the findings encourage students to back away from the booze.

"Maybe this is a fantasy, but I do honestly hope that some college students will actually react to this by saying, 'Okay, I want to rebel against this, I don't even like those people, I don't want them to define the college experience for me.'"

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas or LiveScience @livescience. We're also on Facebook & Google+.

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[jolieo]

Just a thought. Bingeing might be tried by non social status college students, and because they are not " cool" , they are rebuked and shunned after the episode. Then they binge less, and are unhappy because they aren't cool. Also, drinking takes money, so those that can blow money would be happier. People who can be made happier by social standing and money are not deep thinkers, which would allow for less conflict, which gives one easier access to "happy". Binge Drinking=Happiness is naive, otherwise there would be happy drunks everywhere. I work in a bar for 17 years, plenty of drugs around too. I am sober for 29 years. Believe me , I rank "happier" than majority of regulars or my bingeing coworkers. Also that particular college my have a culture that supports this reaction. I have worked places that create an atmosphere that encourages not only a brand of behavior, but also emotional reactions to behaviors. Bigger study with a broader view would be more enlightening.

[phwtb100]

Of course they are happier!! They're DRUNK!

[DarrSwan]

"Reluctant Drinkers"? Well, it really was a liberal arts school...

[Jame-_V]

Ugh, i wish people would understand that youth likes drugs sex and rock-n-roll, and always has since the 70s, in about 70 more years all the old farts will finally be dead and the legal drinking age will be 12 like in mexico.

People aren't sick, there isn't anything wrong with them, they dont have some type of disease, people like getting messed up. Beer, pain killers, tea, coffee, its all some type of drug, what is this obsession with preventing the decay of morality though making sure america is sober..

i have news for the goverment, sober people HATE the goverment, if you want people to pay higher taxes and work more and be broke and accept it, legalize all drugs and then all the money problems will go away.

then in about 5-10 generations all the drug addicts will be dead and gone. stop wasting money on people throwing away their lives, the world is overpopulated as it is already.

dogs like beer, chocolate and antifreeze it doesn't mean its good for them, it doesn't mean they are drug addicts

[tbrookside]

'Why don't you guys just have a party without drinking? None of you want to be doing this!'

Because then you'd be at a party with the other people who posted similar comments.

[John_Merritt]

Is that before or after they get their grades, encounter a date rape, have an unwanted pregnancy, flunk a test, get yelled at by their parents, lose a scholarship, drop out of school, etc.? No you say. Well then maybe you should do followup of all heavy drinking students nationwide after they have encountered those 'unanticipated' anomalies associated with college life. Embiciles.

[Resin-Smoker]

So i take it that John failed class, was raped, preggers, at odds with "her" parents and lost the scholarship.

Joking aside... John, it sounds like you've lived a rather dull and miserable life to become so negative.

[ThinkMcFly]

I was the fraternity 'drinking champion'. I also maintained my scholarship, got no one pregnant, made my parents proud, and graduated with honors. In my experience it was the ones who did not go out to parties that ended up dropping out. Of the ones who were both proficient drinkers and drop outs they seemed to often have bigger problems than the drinking.

You may not like it but drinking is a cornerstone of civilization (western in particular). All great lands have their own alcohol traditions. It is even believed to be the reason why our great ancestors settled down to farm. Perhaps we could do a better job of preparing kids to drink (like lowering the age on non-liquor drinks to 14, or being truthful about any potential problems)but making blanket statements that drinking is bad, period, does no one any good. For a country that has been around over 200 years we sure act like a bunch of pissy infants.

[freeteddy]

Great to see all the money being spent on research in this country is finally producing earth-bending conclusions such as this. Most kids in college drink at social scenes? Never would have crossed my mind. CBS is becoming famous for printing asinine studies like this as real news.

[foo8259]

Some may even eat eggs for breakfast in the college cafeteria too!

[Lakerland]

"*** hoc ergo propter hoc"
Correlation does not imply causation. The conclusions of this article are based upon a fallacious argument. If social status (as defined in the article) correlates with higher levels of drinking, how can one discern which condition causes the other? For example, is it not just as likely that increased social status provides increased opportunities for celebratory imbibing? In simpler terms, popular people not only get invited to more parties, but the parties are larger and more exciting. A wild guess would be that Carolyn Hsu is not on the guest list at too many parties.

My advice: be very skeptical of the American Sociological Association. Truly legitimate scholarly organizations do not endorse faulty research.

[Illydth]

Congratulations Sir (or Mam), you've just proven yourself more qualified to write for the American Sociological Association than those currently writing for the ASA.

How exactly did this get past peer review? If find it either impossible or very very disheartening that an entire sociological organziation couldn't come up with the fact that, perhaps, it was that these people were POPULAR that caused them to be happier with their Social Status and Life in general and that, perhaps, the drinking was simply an effect of BEING POPULAR...and not the other way around. I'm sure I speak for many people when I say that anyone who's been through Junior High and High School could attest to this truth.

I suggest next we study the link between drinking water and crime.

After all, 10 out of 10 criminals drink water...drinking water causes crime! Or maybe it's bread, there's alot of bread eating criminals out there too....

So! Who's giving me the research grant?

[Parkerthon]

I think tight laced people have a hard time grasping this, but alcohol is a blast for most people. Young adults over indluging is partly because of this new, interesting experience being available to them for the first time, and partly because it's a social lubricant in an environment full of new people and awkward new situations. Sure, some folks naturally don't like alcohol because of physiological issues... redness in the face, low tolerance, etc... some because of religious or family background. It's tough being in the minority in that regard, but trying to frame the entire situation as being sheep just following the herd is way oversimplifying the appeal of drinking at that age and in that environment. It doesn't take some small college psych researcher with clear pre-disposed opinions on the topic to demystify why this is happening.

[MrCareless]

Define Happiness, and remember Happiness does not equal getting wasted.

[Resin-Smoker]

Your right but drinking does help loosen people up to being more receptive to the idea of fun.