Binge drinking among underage college students: A test of a restraint-based conceptualization of risk for alcohol abuse

The authors tested a restraint-based model that binge drinking is a functio n of being tempted to drink alcohol while also being concerned about avoidi ng excessive alcohol intake. Underage (18- to 20-year-olds, 204 men and 225 women) college student drinkers completed measures that assessed the attra ction to alcohol (e.g., temptation to drink, alcohol expectancies), concern about regulating alcohol intake (e.g., restriction of alcohol intake, reas ons for limiting drinking), and alcohol-related outcomes (binge drinking, a lcohol problems). In separate hierarchical multiple regressions, the attrac tion to alcohol accounted for significant amounts of additional variance in each of the alcohol outcomes. Concern about regulating alcohol intake acco unted for additional variance, above that explained by attraction to alcoho l. The results suggest that interventions for underage binge drinking shoul d include training in the skills for regulating alcohol intake.