Parents of Kids Headed for College: Study Shows that Now's a Good Time to Talk about Drinking at College

Summer Talks Improve College Freshmen Alcohol Habits

So you want to prevent your soon-to-be college freshman from drinking in college. A Penn State study out this year shows that talking about the realities of underage drinking can help - as long as you do it now. 

Freshmen whose parents initiated at least one conversation about drinking during the summer before college were more likely to have healthy college drinking habits than those whose parents waited until fall to have the talk or didn't do it at all. And the freshman who received the most benefit from summer talks were heavy drinkers in high school - in other words, their blood alcohol content surpassed 0.08 several times per week, both on weekends and weekdays, the researchers reported. Four out of 5 of them transitioned to less frequent drinking in college, according to the study.
Parents in the study received handbooks with statistics about college drinking and suggested topics of conversation, including alcohol's effect on the body and why students may choose to drink or abstain. Parents also suggested alternatives to drinking, both for fun and for coping with stress, and shared choices they made about their own drinking habits as teens and as adults. Here are the numbers:

83%

The percentage of heavy drinkers in high school who remained heavy drinkers in college. But students in this category whose parents talked with them about drinking before their first year of college fared far better. Compared with their high school peers, they were 20 times more likely to drink less five months into college. (In most cases, that meant restricting their heavy drinking to weekends.)

57%

The percentage of high school nondrinkers who were still nondrinkers five months into college. And 45 percent of high school students who were light drinkers - one or two drinks on weekends only - remained so in college. Penn State researchers found that summer conversations made high school nondrinkers and light drinkers slightly more likely to stay in these groups in college, but the results were not as pronounced as in the heavy drinking group.

5 or more

The number of drinks the average man would need to consume in two hours to constitute a heavy drinking "binge," according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. For women, it's four or more drinks in two hours.

25%

The percentage of college students who report having experienced academic consequences of drinking, including missing class, falling behind and receiving lower grades.

Click here to view the original article, written by Kathryn Roethel and published on July 16, 2013.