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Impact of Alcohol and other Drug Use on Academic Performance
FROM BEER, BOOZE, AND BOOKS BY JIM MATTHEWS
(available at the Health & Wellness Center Resource Room)
"I now realize that freshman year I was making some really high risk choices. When I think back to my three nights per week drunken stupors--I'm horrified. I cannot believe I had no clue as to the damage I was inflicting on my body. My grades suffered, I nearly got arrested and I gained twenty-five pounds. I even altered my schedule to accommodate my drinking. It scares me to think I did this."
--Yvonne J., Franklin Pierce College junior
"I used to party throughout the week. After my freshman year I cut down. I'm lucky I didn't get kicked out. My GPA was 1.4 but the forgiveness policy helped get it up to a 2.0. What a shock--I was an honor roll student in high school."
--Mike M., Keene State College senior
"Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights were all I looked forward to. School work wasn't even at the bottom of my list."
--Cindy V., Keene State College junior
Alcohol is implicated in more than 40 percent of all academic problems and 28 percent of all dropouts. Research indicates that, on average, college students who drink the most alcohol earn the lowest grades. Students with D or F grade point averages report consuming an average of 9.5 drinks weekly and A students average 3.1 drinks per week.
The Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention
INFO FACTS/RESOURCES
June 1998
College Academic Performance and Alcohol and Other Drug Use
SEVERAL RECENT NATIONAL STUDIES HAVE documented high rates of drinking on college campuses and a wide range of negative repercussions of student alcohol use.(1,2) Associated with fighting, vandalism, acquaintance rape, and unprotected sex, drinking on college campuses has a clear and damaging effect on campus life.(1,2,3)
Difficulty meeting academic responsibilities is one of the most common consequences of alcohol use. In addition to well-documented consequences such as poor performance on assignments and missed classes, anecdotal evidence suggests that many students who drop out of colleges and universities have alcohol and other drug problems.(4)
A national survey of nearly 37,000 students at 66 four-year colleges and universities found that students with an A average consume a little more than three drinks per week, B students have almost five drinks per week, C students average more than six drinks per week, and students getting Ds or Fs consume nine drinks per week.(1)
A companion survey of 5,000 students from 11 two-year colleges found a similar trend in the association between alcohol and poor academic performance as seen with four-year institutions. Two-year college students with an A average have about two-and-a-half drinks per week, B students average three-and-a-half drinks per week, C students consume about five drinks per week, and students earning Ds or Fs have a little less than six drinks per week.(1)
In the same national surveys of four-year and two-year colleges, 20 percent of all students reported that they had done poorly on a test or assignment, and nearly 30 percent said they had missed class because of their alcohol or other drug use in the previous 12 months.(1)
A national study of binge drinking (defined as five or more drinks in a row for men and four or more for women in the previous two weeks), which surveyed nearly 18,000 students, found that 21 percent of students who binge drank had fallen behind in their schoolwork and 30 percent had missed class because of their drinking since the beginning of the school year. Among frequent bingers-students who had binged three or more times in the previous two weeks-46 percent had fallen behind in school and over 60 percent had missed class because of their drinking. Only a fraction of nonbinge drinkers fell behind in their studies or missed class because of drinking (6 percent and 8 percent, respectively).(2)
An estimated one-third of American colleges can be classified as "high-binge" schools, where more than half the student body are binge drinkers. At high-binge colleges, nine out of ten students living on campus have suffered some ill effect, such as fights, assaults, and property damage, because of others' drinking, and nearly 70 percent have had their studying or sleep interrupted. (2)
More Research Is Needed…
Recent studies have only begun to document the relationship between academic performance and alcohol and other drug use on American campuses. Anecdotal evidence points to a number of research questions needing further examination so that we can understand the full impact of alcohol and other drug abuse on students, colleges, and society. Future studies should examine:
- What proportion of academic warnings and probations can be attributed to alcohol and other drug abuse?
- What proportion of entering students each year end up dropping out due to alcohol or other drug abuse?
- What price is paid in terms of lost wages and job opportunities by student who never complete their college degrees?
- What burden do these dropouts place on society as a result of their lost productivity in the workplace?
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