Does Attending College Increase Young People’s Drinking?

By Alan Reifman

"For my first column, I thought I would ask - and attempt to answer - a slightly controversial question: Does attending college increase young people's alcohol consumption, compared to if they never set foot on a university campus? Such a question can be justified on at least a couple of different grounds."

"National college-student surveys conducted mainly in the 1990s by the Harvard School of Public Health found that roughly 44% of students reported recent heavy-drinking episodes. Thus, even before similar data from same-age non-college peers - which we now have - became available, it would have been natural to ask why such extensive heavy drinking was taking place in college. ..."

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http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-campus/201010/does-attending-col...