Factors in college students' drinking

Associations of age, membership in a sorority or fraternity, and whether a family member had an alcohol-related problem with the number of alcohol-related problem behaviors were examined by asking 160 people on campuses and one Board of Education in the northeastern United States to complete anonymously a 17-item questionnaire reporting the number of drinking-related problem behaviors. A 2 x 2 x 3 factorial analysis of variance with unequal ns yielded significance for age, type of family membership, and the interaction between age and membership in a sorority or fraternity. Younger subjects reported more alcohol-related drinking behaviors as did those with members of their family having drinking problems. Finally, younger members of a Greek organization reported the greatest number of problem behaviors.