Drinking behavior of high risk college men: contradictory preliminary findings

Seventeen high risk and seventeen low risk college-aged men were compared with respect to drinking behavior/problems and certain implicated personality characteristics. The low risk subjects were, surprisingly, found to drink and become intoxicated more frequently than high risk subjects. They also reported significantly higher sensation seeking scores. This latter variable accounted for the greatest amount of variance in both risk status and frequency of drinking. By contrast, high risk subjects reported somewhat more lifetime alcohol-related symptomatology and significantly more preadult antisocial symptoms. Preadult antisocial symptoms, alone, explained 39% and 29%, respectively, of the variance in alcohol-related symptoms and the amount consumed on a typical drinking day. The implications and limitations of the findings with respect to the development of alcoholism are discussed.