A number of epidemiological and etiological studies suggest that college attendance increases the likelihood of heavy drinking and related health and social problems in young adulthood. However, the research literature has not adequately addressed the extent to which the relationship between college attendance and heavy drinking and relatedproblems may be attributable to pre-existing factors in adolescence (e.g., parent drinking/alcoholism, alcohol availability at home, peer drinking), rather than factors more directly linked with college attendance. Further research is also needed to better understand the role of various contextual and individual factors in young adulthood (e.g., adult roles/responsibilities, living arrangement, local alcohol availability) in helping to explain the relationship between college attendance and heavy drinking/related problems. This study will address these issues using two waves of longitudinal data from a national probability sample of adolescents and young adults. It will also examine racial/ethnicdifferences in the relationship between college attendance and heavy drinking/related problems, as some research suggests that college attendance increases the likelihood of alcohol misuse among whites, but not African Americans. Secondary aims of this study are to examine and explain the possible moderating effects of gender, and differences in heavy drinking/related problems across young adult subgroups (e.g., 2-year versus 4-year college students). This study will utilize two waves of interview data collected for the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). In-home interviews were conducted in 1995 with 20,745 adolescents and their parents and siblings, and these individuals are being re-interviewed in young adulthood (2001-2002). The Add Health study uses state-of-the-art audio computer-assisted interviewing technology and geocodes respondent addresses to support contextual analyses. This study will geocode alcohol outlet addresses available from State Alcohol Beverage Control and local government offices and will link measures of local alcohol outlet density with the geocoded addresses of Add Health subjects to assess the explanatory value of local alcohol availability measures. The Add Health study provides an excellent opportunity to address important questions about the relationship between college attendance and heavy drinking/related problems with longitudinal data from a large nationally representative sample, and without the cost and time required to initiate a new prospective cohort study. Findings of this study will help to inform prevention strategies targeting college students and other young adults at high risk for alcohol-related problems.
