ST. CLOUD STATE UNIVERSITY
SURVEY
ALCOHOL STUDY-2001
A SCIENTIFIC TELEPHONE
SURVEY
OF
ST. CLOUD STATE UNIVERSITY
STUDENT DRINKING HABITS
Prepared by Bill Hyers, Senior Student Director,
Mina Johnson, Student Director and Bridget Kearney, Student Director, St. Cloud
State University Survey, Social Science Research Institute, College of Social
Sciences, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota, for the St. Cloud
State University, Student Research Colloquium, April 10, 2001.
Introduction
As many who attend St. Cloud State University know, SCSU has a reputation or image of being a “party school.” Findings reported in this research show that the reputation is not borne out by the facts. Not only do we show that fewer than half of all SCSU students think the party school reputation is deserved, we show that SCSU students do not consume alcohol at higher rates than college and university students do across the country.
According to the Spring 2001 SCSU Survey of St. Cloud State University students, 64 percent of SCSU students believe that SCSU has an unfavorable alcohol image. However, less than half (40%) think the image and reputation is deserved. Two years ago, in the spring of 1999, a similar survey conducted by the SCSU Survey of St. Cloud State University students also showed that SCSU students thought SCSU has an unfavorable “alcohol image” in the state. Of those respondent students, 69 percent asserted that the unfavorable image some have of SCSU is not deserved.
Additionally, we show that SCSU student alcohol consumption today almost pales in comparison to students surveyed at 119 colleges and universities in 39 states by the Harvard University School of Public Policy and is less than what we found two years ago on our campus. For example, we show that 36 percent of SCSU females reported binge drinking (defined in the Harvard study and adopted by the SCSU Survey, as five drinks in a row for males and four drinks for females), compared to 40 percent of SCSU females in 1999, and 40 percent of females in the Harvard study. For males, we found that 44 percent of SCSU males report binge drinking, but that is considerably lower than 58 percent in 1999, and even less than the 51 percent of college and university students who reported binge drinking to the Harvard University researchers.
.
Methodology-See Spring, 2001
Full Report
Summary of Substantive
Findings: SCSU Students Drink Less Alcohol than College Students Nationwide
The perception of
SCSU as a "party school" is not borne out in research discussed in
this paper, in fact, quite the opposite is found. In the annual spring St. Cloud State University student survey
conducted in March 2001, respondents were asked about their drinking habits,
using questions adopted from the 1999 annual spring survey of SCSU students
conducted by the SCSU Survey and Harvard University’s occasional nationwide
survey of undergraduate students drinking patterns.
SCSU students were asked if they have ever consumed alcoholic beverages (defined as beer, wine and liquor). As table 2 shows, of the 520 students interviewed in 2001, 13 percent reported they were total abstainers. This compares to 17 percent of all students interview in 1993 and 19 percent of student interviewed in 1999 by Harvard University[1]* and 16 of SCSU students in 1999. This was the only question that showed more alcohol use, but was still well within the 4.5 percent margin of error for the 2001 SCSU study.
|
Table 2 Abstainers |
||
|
“Do you ever use alcoholic beverages
such as beer, wine or liquor, or are you a total abstainer?” |
||
|
|
Percentage |
|
|
2001 |
1999 |
|
|
Use |
87% |
84% |
|
Abstain |
13% |
16% |
|
Total |
100% |
100% |
The SCSU Survey
also inquired about binge drinking.
Binge drinking is defined as five drinks (for example, 12 oz. size
container of beer) in a row for males and four drinks for females. We asked
male respondents if they have consumed five drinks in a row at least once in
the past two weeks. Females were asked
whether they consumed four drinks in a row at least once in the past two
weeks. The percentage of females who
binge drink at SCSU is slightly statistically below comparable national
data. Table 3 shows that 36 percent of
SCSU females reported binge drinking in 2001, compared to 40 percent of SCSU
females in 1999. The Harvard surveys
show that 39 percent of females binge drank in 1993 and had climbed one
percentage point to 40 percent in 1999.
|
Table 3 Female Binge Drinkers |
||
|
“During the past two weeks, have you
consumed 4 or more drinks in a row?” |
||
|
|
Percentage |
|
|
2001 |
1999 |
|
|
Yes |
36% |
40% |
|
No |
64% |
60% |
|
Total |
100% |
100% |
The percentage of
SCSU males who report binge drinking is down considerably. Table 4 shows that 44 percent of SCSU males
report binge drinking in 2001, compared to 58 percent in 1999, and even less
than the 50 percent of college and university students in the Harvard study who
reported binge drinking in 1993 and the 51 percent who reported similar
behavior in 1999.
|
Table 4 Male Binge Drinkers |
||
|
“During the past two weeks, have you
consumed 5 or more drinks in a row?” |
||
|
|
Percentage |
|
|
2001 |
1999 |
|
|
Yes |
44% |
58% |
|
No |
56% |
42% |
|
Total |
100% |
100% |
When males and
female binge drinkers are combined (see Table 5), 40 percent of SCSU students
in 2001 report binge drinking, compared to 48 percent of SCSU students in 1999
and 44 percent of students across the nation in both 1993 and 1999. When compared to colleges that are
considered “High Binge campuses” in the Harvard study, St. Cloud State
University pales in comparison, with those schools having a 59 percent overall
binge drinking rate, a full 19 percent above St. Cloud State’s Binge drinking
rate.
|
Table 5 Total Binge Drinkers |
||
|
“During the past two weeks, have you
consumed 4/5 or more drinks in a row?” |
||
|
|
Percentage |
|
|
2001 |
1999 |
|
|
Yes |
40% |
48% |
|
No |
60% |
52% |
|
Total |
100% |
100% |
If a respondent
was classified as a "binge drinker," we followed up with 12 questions
pertaining to alcohol-related problems and activities. Again, comparing 2001 findings with 1999, we
find that St. Cloud State University student drinking habits have greatly
reduced.
One area of major
reduction is in how many days per week students drank. An examination of table 6 shows that when
asked about the frequency of drinking in 1999, 33 percent of SCSU students
reported that they drank alcohol three days per week or more. In the Spring 2001 SCSU survey, 22 percent
of the students reported that they drank three days per week or more, an 11
percent decrease. The data is
clear. St. Cloud State University
students are drinking fewer days per week than they have in the past.
|
Table 6 Frequency of Drinking |
|||
|
“How many days during a typical week do
you consume alcohol?” |
|||
|
|
Percentage |
||
|
2001% |
1999 |
||
|
0
Days |
16% |
13% |
|
|
1
Day |
46% |
41% |
|
|
2
Days |
27% |
23% |
|
|
3
Days |
6% |
14% |
|
|
4
Days |
2% |
5% |
|
|
5
Days |
2% |
4% |
|
|
6
Days |
|
1% |
0% |
|
7
Days |
0% |
0% |
|
|
Total |
100.0 |
100% |
|
Table 7 shows a
comparison of drinks per sitting between 1999 and 2001 among SCSU
students. The table shows that along
with drinking on fewer occasions, SCSU students are also drinking less today
than in 1999. When asked how many
drinks that they consume when they drink, 29 percent reported that they
consumed six drinks or more, whereas 36 percent who reported drinking six
drinks or more in 1999. On a whole, students again reported drinking fewer
drinks than in 1999.
Possibly the most interesting and
telling part of the 2001 survey came when respondents who reported binge
drinking were asked about consequences that occurred as a result of
drinking. Again, asking the exact same
questions that we asked in 1999, there was a significant and interesting
downturn. Table 8 shows that the first downturn in consequences of drinking is
that not as many students had problems dealing with drinking. Only 54 percent of the students in 2001
reported that they had any of the repercussions commonly associated with
drinking, a downturn from 64 percent of students who said they had the same
problems in 1999.
A further examination of table 8
shows some very interesting findings. The percentage of cases for each
repercussion from drinking between 1999 and 2001 was almost identical in every
way, except two. The two categories that showed a big change were the academic
related categories, asking, “have you ever missed a class” or “gotten behind in
school work,” showing an 11 percent and 9 increase decrease respectively. Thus, the data clearly suggests that
students, even those that drink, are taking their academic responsibilities
more seriously.
|
Table 7 Drinks Per Sitting |
|||
|
“When you do consume alcohol, how many
drinks do you usually consume? By drinks we mean a 12 oz beer, 7 oz glass of
wine or a 1 oz shot of hard alcohol, either by itself or mixed with something
else.” |
|||
|
|
Percentage |
||
|
2001 |
1999 |
||
|
1
Drink |
8% |
7% |
|
|
2
Drinks |
18% |
11% |
|
|
3
Drinks |
21% |
18% |
|
|
4
Drinks |
12% |
12% |
|
|
5
Drinks |
11% |
16% |
|
|
6
Drinks |
10% |
11% |
|
|
7
Drinks |
|
2% |
5% |
|
8
Drinks |
6% |
7% |
|
|
9 Drinks |
2% |
1% |
|
|
10 Drinks |
4% |
4% |
|
|
11 Drinks |
0% |
2% |
|
|
12 Drinks |
3% |
2% |
|
|
13 Drinks |
0% |
1% |
|
|
15 Drinks |
1% |
1% |
|
|
Total |
100% |
100% |
|
|
Table 8 Consequences of Drinking |
||
|
“Since the beginning of this school
year, as a result of drinking, have you or
have you not?” (multiple responses allowed-categories read) |
||
|
|
Percentage |
||
|
|
2001 |
1999 |
|
|
Blacked out |
13% |
14% |
|
|
Unplanned sexual activity |
6% |
7% |
|
|
Not Use Protection |
8% |
8% |
|
|
Argued With Friends |
35% |
35% |
|
|
Damaged Property |
8% |
4% |
|
|
Got In Trouble With The Police |
5% |
6% |
|
|
Been Hurt of Injured |
8% |
9% |
|
|
Missed a Class |
33% |
44% |
|
|
Gotten
behind in School Work |
17% |
26% |
|
|
Done Something later regretted |
28% |
32% |
|
|
Had
Hangover |
88% |
88% |
|
|
Required
Medical Treatment |
2% |
2% |
|
Conclusions
The
findings reported herein clearly show that St. Cloud State University students
are drinking less than they did in 1999.
Although data from the Harvard University study of student drinking
nationwide from 1993 and 1999 are not perfect comparisons for the data we
report from 1999 and 2001, it does show that SCSU students generally drink less
than their peers do across that nation.[2] An interesting notion related to the survey
is that there are many results expected to be of consequence that are not. Except for gender, many other factors one
might think are associated with drinking are not statistically related. There is no significant difference in
drinking habits related to issues such as dorm life, age, and class
standing. That is, the perception of
certain groups such as freshman, dorm residence, or younger students drinking
heavier and with more reckless behavior did not show up statistically.
We
would like to thank Dr. Stephen Frank, Dr. Steven Wagner and Dr. Michelle
Kukoleca Hammes, faculty directors of the SCSU Survey. They guided the entire research process,
form question research, pretesting the questionnaire and execution of the
survey. Without their assistance and
the use of the SCSU Survey Lab, this project would not have been possible.