Alcohol Front-Loading among College Students: Exploring the Need for Prevention Intervention

Abstract

Dear Editor: College life is often described as the most tumultuous yet liberating experience of one's life. With the high prevalence of alcohol use among collegians, it is likely this particular age group will experience the negative consequences of at-risk drinking. Thus, this at-risk population is a critical target for alcohol-related research. Survey research indicates that 80% to 90% of college students consume alcoholic beverages, and almost half of these are high-risk drinkers (Wechsler, Lee, Kuo, & Lee, 2000). Field research has shown that many students drink alcohol with the explicit intent of becoming intoxicated (Glindemann, Geller, & Ludwig, 1996). This is disturbing when paired with the finding that 35% of all traffic fatalities in 2002 occurred in crashes with at least one legally intoxicated driver, resulting in a total of 15,019 fatalities (NHTSA, 2003). Further, the rate of alcohol involvement in fatal crashes is more than three times higher at night than during the day (63% vs. 19%). Much research has assessed students' overall alcohol consumption (Perkins, 1992), as well as the impact of the context in which this drinking occurs (Glindemann & Geller, 2003; Senchak, Leonard, & Greene, 1998). Such alcohol consumption can be classified into three categories: a) what one drinks while in the party or bar setting, b) what one drinks before arriving in this environment, and c) what one drinks after leaving this environment. The focus of this study was on alcohol consumption before arriving in a downtown bar setting (i.e., front-loading). Reasons for front-loading range from saving money to not being of legal age to purchase alcohol (i.e., being 21 years old in Virginia). Expanding on the latter, Turrisi, Padilla, and Wiersma (2000) found that traditional Freshmen (those who enter college immediately following high school graduation) are more likely to drink to higher levels of intoxication than non-traditional Freshmen (those who defer entering college by more than one year) or college Seniors. This suggests that age is more predictive of at-risk drinking than class rank. Under-age students may try to match their legal-age counterparts in levels of intoxication. However, because these students cannot legally purchase alcoholic beverages, they do not have as many opportunities as those of legal drinking age to reach higher levels of intoxication. Thus, front-loading serves as one way to compensate for this imbalance. Glindemann, Geller, Clarke, Chevaillier, and Pettinger (1998) examined the alcohol consumption of 1,590 individuals in a downtown environment over a three-year period and found actual BAC levels to be highest on Thursday evenings and to get higher as a given night progressed. In a field study of designated drivers (DDs), Timmerman, Geller, Glindemann, and Fournier (2003) found that women claiming to be DDs were less intoxicated (M = .022) than men claiming to be DDs (M = .068), although both probably experienced impaired motor skills, typically beginning at a BAC of .05. These field studies demonstrate the utility of studying alcohol consumption and BACs in naturalistic settings beyond the experimental laboratory. For the current study, it was hypothesized that: 1) those who front-loaded and consumed alcohol in a bar setting would reach higher levels of intoxication than those who engaged only in frontloading or bar drinking, and 2) those participants who were under 21 would front-load significantly more alcoholic beverages than those who were 21 years old (the legal drinking age in Virginia) or older. Other variables explored in this paper included effects of gender and Greek-life status on front-loading behavior. All data were collected from pedestrians in the downtown area of a rural college town in Blacksburg, VA. A total of 1,528 participants (1,104 men, 424 women) completed a brief survey on their alcohol consumption for the evening and then had their BAC level assessed. …