College Binge Drinking and Social Norms: Advancing Understanding Through Statistical Applications

摘要

The extent to which social norms (injunctive and descriptive) are associated with collegiate alcohol use-including binge drinking-has been examined at length, but studies examining the efficacy of interventions derived thereof have reported mixed outcomes. This study examines data from 5,124 college students at 13 different colleges collected by the 2010 Indiana College Substance Use Survey in order to further elucidate the relationship between social norms and binge drinking. We apply seven different regression models to the data, finding the zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) model to fit best, likely due to the unique characteristics of the binge-drinking variable; individuals who do not consume any alcohol do not binge drink, inflating the frequency of zeroes for the variable. We contrast key findings from this model to those from other regression models as well as information from the literature and provide preliminary suggestions as to future directions for social norms research as it relates to collegiate binge drinking.