Person- and Context-Level Moderators of State Alcohol Policy Environment Effects on Binge Drinking Among U.S. 4-Year College Students, 2008–2019

Background

Binge drinking remains a serious issue among college students. While prior works showed more restrictive state alcohol policy environments are associated with less binge drinking in college students, the association may depend on individual, contextual, and institutional factors specific to this population.

Objectives

Data were from repeated cross-sectional surveys among 902,486 college students ages 18–24 years from 591 four-year institutions in 47 states during 2008–2019. Time-varying, state-level Alcohol Policy Scale (APS) scores and fourteen moderators were examined in relation to students’ past 2-week binge drinking (5+ drinks in a sitting).

Results

Associations between higher APS scores (more restrictive state policies) and lower odds of binge drinking were moderated by several factors representing contextual features of college. For example, higher APS scores were associated with lower odds of binge drinking among students living on campus or with their parents and by those unaffiliated with the Greek system, but not among students in off-campus or Greek housing or members of the Greek system. Negative associations between APS and binge drinking were stronger for dating and cohabitating than single students. Additionally, APS scores were significantly more negatively associated with binge drinking for Asian than for non-Asian students. At the institution level, APS scores were negatively associated with students’ binge drinking at institutions in medium to large, but not small population centers.

Conclusions

The identification of factors that moderate effects of alcohol policy environment on college binge drinking informs potential prevention approaches that are more culturally tailored and targeted to subgroups of interest.