Alcohol use and problems at colleges banning alcohol: Results of a national survey

Objective: This study examines student alcohol use and associated problems, including drinking and driving, at U.S. colleges that ban alcohol for all students on campus. Method: A nationally representative sample of students (N = 11,303, 61% wom en) attending U.S. colleges completed questionnaires regarding alcohol use and related behaviors in the spring of 1999. The responses of 2,252 student s at 19 ban schools were compared with those of 9,051 students at 76 nonban schools. Results: Students at ban colleges were 30% less likely to be heavy episodic drinkers and more likely to abstain from alcohol. The lower rates of heavy episodic drinking apply to students whether or not they were heavy episodi c drinkers in high school. However, among drinkers, students at ban schools engaged in as much extreme drinking as drinkers at schools that do not ban alcohol and experienced the same rate of alcohol-related problems. At scho ols that ban alcohol, fewer students experienced secondhand effects of the drinking of others than did students at nonban schools. Students at ban sch ools were not more likely to drink and drive than were students at nonban s chools. Conclusions: A campus ban on alcohol may support abstention from alcohol us e and reduce heavy episodic drinking and the associated secondhand effects in college. Since this is a correlational study, we cannot determine whethe r the lower rates of heavy episodic drinking are due to the ban or to other factors (e.g., self-selection of students to these schools). Ban schools d o not enroll fewer high school heavy episodic drinkers.