Study: Binge Drinking College Students Happier Than Their Non-Binge Drinking Peers

<p>I keep hearing Marijuana users are extremely happy.</p>

<p>[Teen</a> cannabis use may damage brain for life, warns major study - Science - News - The Independent](<a href=“Teen cannabis use may damage brain for life, warns major study | The Independent | The Independent”>Teen cannabis use may damage brain for life, warns major study | The Independent | The Independent)</p>

<p>I think maybe some posters on this thread are happier than their - how does it go?- poorer humored peers who resist binging on CC. </p>

<p>So, a study in Dunedin NZ. I swear, Duke has such unusual research projects.</p>

<p>But, wait! There is a pocket of New England that is considered a test bed for new products, advertisig campaigns, etc, based on its balance of educ levels, ethnicity, socioeconomics, whatever- maybe Dunedin is one, too.
Study comparing sociodemographics of Dunedin Bi-polar patients to the general NZ pop. Other studies on asthma and this beaut’ - Socio-economic and behavioural risk factors for tooth loss from age 18 to 26… Sorry, it’s late and I had never heard of Dunedin.</p>

<p>Mini, thanks for the explanation.</p>

<p>The study was in Rhode Island but they changed the location and country to protect the innocent. :p</p>

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<p>Yes, yes, but that doesn’t mean that the poorer, non-frat kids who were binge drinkers were otherwise identical to the poorer, not-frat kids who were not binge drinkers. This was not a randomized trial. The kids who were binge drinkers chose to drink. The kids who were not binge drinkers chose not to drink, for whatever reason.</p>

<p>I’d bet money that the drinkers are more extraverted than the non-drinkers, for example.</p>

<p>Agree. So much they didn’t (and couldn’t) control for. I’d bet frat boys at Colgate have plenty of reasons to start “happier.” I hadn’t found a link to the study itself.</p>

<p>As a semi-regularly binge drinking (according to this study) student soon to graduate, I can safely say that I agree with this study. ;)</p>

<p>And no, my GPA does not suck, and no, I am not an alcoholic.</p>

<p>But when I think back on my favorite moments in college, I don’t think about my classes or my grades. I think about my times with friends, many of which involved alcohol.</p>

<p>Someone mentioned this earlier, but I think this just means “more social life = more happy.” Drinking is one way to be social.</p>

<p>Idk if my school is different from other schools, but I have a hard time believing the average party-going college student only has not even 14 drinks a week. If that’s the case, then how come like every party I go to, even the bars for that matter are full of wasted people stumbling around, yelling and screaming, slurring their words etc. Unless you’re a small girl, most people don’t get like that by having 5 drinks spread out over the night. I more believe the stats about students who don’t binge drink, because I know from work and classes they do exist in large numbers, but they typically aren’t as vocal as the binge drinkers so don’t get noticed as much.
But… I think most kids who binge drink and party hard either have no clue how much they actually drink or lie about it because they are being surveyed by the school or some other person who has big academic credentials, so they feel ashamed telling them the truth. Honestly, if they did some study where they somehow got kids to put a tally mark on their arm for every beer and/or shot they had while pregaming and then every time they went to keg or took a shot once they got to the party, the results would look pretty different.
Now as for the happiness thing… Who knows, it could be just because the nondrinkers includes people already too depressed to ever want to go out. I’m not saying that’s the main reason people don’t drink, but it’s true that the hermits do fall into that group. Also, I will admit that it can seem hard to find other things to do in college as it seems like a lot of people forget how to just hang out with people and talk without having it always be centered around drinking and doing drugs, so I can see how people who aren’t into that may feel left out sometimes.</p>

<p>“Honestly, if they did some study where they somehow got kids to put a tally mark on their arm for every beer and/or shot they had while pregaming and then every time they went to keg or took a shot once they got to the party, the results would look pretty different.”</p>

<p>Actually, there have been multiple videotape studies. That’s how we know that students both underestimate the number of drinks, and the size of drinks, and by how much.</p>