Does attending a college with more heavy drinking peers increase risk of heavy drinking and consequences? A...

Heavy drinking in college increases risk for negative consequences. Among a national sample of high school abstainers and moderate drinkers, we hypothesized that the extent of heavy drinking among students on campus would be among the strongest predictors of first semester heavy drinking and consequences, relative to personal approval of alcohol use and sociability and impairment outcome expectancies. We expected these psychological factors to moderate effects of campus heavy drinking. Data from 90,455 abstainers and 97,168 moderate drinkers matriculating at 245 and 242 universities, respectively, were drawn from AlcoholEdu (EverFi, 2013), a web-based intervention completed by most first-year students at participating universities. Students reported alcohol use, approval, expectancies, and covariates prior to enrollment (Time 1). During the first semester (Time 2), abstinence, moderate drinking, or heavy drinking, and negative consequences experienced were reassessed. Campus heavy drinking reflected the percentage of other students attending the same school who engaged in heavy drinking at Time 2. In multilevel multinomial logistic regression models, campus heavy drinking was consistently among the strongest predictors of heavy drinking and consequences: It predicted an 83% and 82% increase in risk of heavy drinking and a 106% and 91% increase in risk of consequences among students who were abstainers and moderate drinkers at Time 1, respectively. There were few interactions among campus heavy drinking and psychological factors. Post hoc analyses supported that students did not self-select into heavier drinking environments. Campus heavy drinking is a key predictor of first semester alcohol use and an important intervention target. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).