Alcohol policies on college campuses

Rebecca J. Mitchell, Traci L. Toomey, Darin Erickson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

State and local alcohol policies can minimize opportunities for people to use alcohol, thereby reducing consumption and alcohol-related problems. Little is known, however, about the prevalence of campus policies aimed at reducing college students' alcohol use and related problems. The authors surveyed school administrators in Minnesota and Wisconsin to assess the frequency of alcohol policies and whether institutional characteristics were likely to predict campus policies. They also compared administrators' responses to policies posted on college Web sites. Most schools prohibited beer kegs and provided alcohol-free housing for students. A minority of schools prohibited all alcohol use on campus or at Greek organizations or banned advertisements in school newspapers for alcohol or off-campus bars. The prevalence of policies varied with school characteristics, and agreement was poor between Web-site policy information and that provided by administrators. Further research on the prevalence of college alcohol policies might be useful for assessing trends and future prevention needs on campuses.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)149-157
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of American College Health
Volume53
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2005

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was supported by a student grant award from the Division of Epidemiology, University of Minnesota (R. Mitchell, principal investigator). We thank Nicole Cina for survey interviewing and reviewers for their helpful comments.

Keywords

  • Alcohol policy
  • Colleges
  • Heavy episodic drinking
  • Prevention

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