Excessive alcohol use among university students is a public health concern affecting not only drinking students, but non-drinking peers who may be subjected to arguments, insults, vandalism, unwanted sexual advancements, disrupted sleep, taking care of severely intoxicated roommates and interrupted study time.
Students who drink excessively are at an increased risk of experiencing accidents, assaults contracting an STD/STI, alcohol poisoning, poor academic performance, and myriad other consequences.
Despite prevention efforts, approximately 42% of first-year students report at least one episode of heavy drinking and a nationwide survey found that college students reported an average 72 drinking days and 44 heavy drinking days.
Research results indicate that the more students reported that their parents knew about the ways in which they spent their free time and the more their parents asked about their free time activities, the less a student tended to associate with heavy drinking peers in college AND the less they drank themselves.