4-year college students drink more, smoke less than 2-year counterparts

Washington State University researcher Jennifer Duckworth recently led a survey examining differences in alcohol and marijuana use between two- and four-year college students in the Seattle area.

The study, published in April in the Journal of American College Health, found students at four-year schools drink nearly twice as much alcohol as their peers enrolled in community colleges and other two-year institutions.

Two-year students, however, reported using marijuana nearly twice as often.

“I expected differences in both alcohol and marijuana use among two- and four-year college students but was surprised by the magnitude of the differences given that the subjects are the same ages,” Duckworth said.

Data was drawn from students between ages 18-23 at two- and four-year schools in the state of Washington.

The authors found four-year students averaged more than seven drinks per week, and two-year students averaged more than three drinks in the same timeframe, according to a self-reported questionnaire. On average, two-year students used marijuana about eight days a month and four-year students used it more than four days per month.

While additional research is needed to understand the differences in alcohol and marijuana use, Duckworth says peer perceptions may be a factor.

“Two-year students are using marijuana more than four-year students, but they also think their peers are using it more than they probably are,” she said. “If you think your peers are drinking more than they really are, that leads you to drink more.”

Four-year students thought their peers at two-year colleges drank more, and two-year students thought their peers at four-year colleges used marijuana more.

Assessing peer use among two-year students is an important next step in researching the understudied population, according to Duckworth, an assistant professor in WSU’s Department of Human Development.

“We know a lot more about four-year students, at least partly because most of the people doing the research are on four-year campuses,” Duckworth said. “Two-year students are a much harder group to study.”

The group is also more difficult to study because it tends to have more variability when it comes to age, ethnicity and work status.

Duckworth hopes to conduct further research on students at two-year colleges and universities.

She wrote the paper with Devon Abdallah, Michael Gilson and Christine Lee from the University of Washington. The study was funded with grants from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Palermo can be reached at apalermo@dnews.com or on Twitter @apalermotweets.