Do college students drink more than they think?
White AM; Kraus CL; McCracken LA; Swartzwelder HS. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 27(11): 1750-1756, 2003. (15 refs.) Rationale: Much of what is known about college drinking comes from self-report survey data. Such surveys typically ask students to indicate how many drinks they consume within a given period of time. It is currently unclear whether college students and researchers use similar operational definitions of a single drink. This information is critical given the widespread reliance on survey data for assessing the correlates and consequences of college drinking. Objectives: This study investigated whether college students define standard drink volumes in a way that is consistent with the operational definitions commonly used by researchers. Methods: Students (n = 106) were administered an alcohol survey and then asked to perform three tasks. The tasks involved free-pouring fluid into empty cups of different sizes and estimating the volume of a single beer, a s
