Changes in college students' use and abuse of alcohol,and in their attitudes toward drinking over the course of their college years

Using a November 1987 random sample of 526 undergraduate students attending a midsized, private, midwestern university, this study examines changes in students' alcohol use, alcohol abuse, and attitudes toward drinking over the course of their college careers. This research provides an empirical examination of the supposition that people begin college in an adolescent-like phase in their development and graduate from college in a decidedly more adult-like developmental phase. The data suggest that women appear to mature throughout the college years, gradually progressing toward an adult-like developmental state, at least insofar as their drinking patterns and alcohol-related attitudes are concerned. Men, on the other hand, demonstrated no significant changes over the course of their college careers, suggesting that college may represent little more than a period of protracted adolescence for them.Received Ph.D. in sociology from Washington University in St. Louis. Research interests include alcohol and other drug studies, sexual behavior, HIV/AIDS, and mass media.