College students define binge drinking and estimate its prevalence: Results of a national survey

Data from the 1999 College Alcohol Study were used to examine how students define the term binge drinking, to determine how much binge drinking the st udents think exists on their campuses, and to analyze how students' estimat es compare with aggregated self-reports of student drinking. The findings i ndicate that the median of the students' definitions of binge drinking is 6 drinks in a row for men and 5 for women, I drink higher than the definitio n used by researchers. Students' definitions of binge drinking vary with th eir own drinking levels, suggesting that dissenting views of the research d efinition may represent voices of the heaviest drinkers. At the median, stu dents estimated that 35% of all students were binge drinkers. Half (47%) of the students underestimated the binge drinking rate at their school, 29% o verestimated it, and 13% were accurate. Although programs designed to reduc e the frequency or prevalence of binge drinking by emphasizing healthier no rms would be most useful in addressing binge drinkers who overestimate drin king norms, this group includes only 13% of college students.