College Students' Knowledge of Alcohol and Drinking

Abstract

Alcohol abuse during the past few years has been seen by college administrators, student health and counseling personnel, and educators to be a major problem. To encourage colleges to examine knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of their students regarding the use of alcohol and to develop alcohol awareness programs on their campuses, the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and its National Clearinghouse for Alcohol Information (NCALI) began a program in 7975 called the University 50 plus 72 Project. (1)

During the initial phase of this program, staff and students from 62 selected universities were invited to a conference at Notre Dame in the fall of 7975 to discuss campus drinking problems and to share ideas about alcohol education programs. Among these participants there was a definite feeling that students adhered to a variety of drinking myths and had a minimal amount of factual information concerning the effects of alcohol on the body. They also felt that students lacked basic objective information for making responsible decisions concerning drinking to become responsible drinkers, if they chose to drink.

This group felt that basic information concerning students' knowledge o f alcohol for comparison and as an aid in developing alcohol awareness and education programs should be determined. It was also felt that various demographic characteristics, which in the past have been related to drinking patterns such as sex, race, and parental drinking, should be obtained so that programs could be developed for particular subgroups if relationships were found between these variables and alcohol knowledge.