A new study examined the relationship between binge drinking and academic performance in college. The authors used longitudinal data from three cohorts of first-year U.S. college students in the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education (n = 8,475). Multiple imputation was used to handle missing values. Measures included academic performance, academic involvement (academic motivation, study group participation, relationships with other students, and class participation), and frequency of binge drinking. Ordinary least squares and binary mediation were used to analyze the relationships among variables. Results showed students who engaged in binge drinking at least once per week tended to have lower GPAs than students who did not drink, even after controlling for pre-college characteristics, fraternity/sorority membership, on-campus residence, and other potential confounders. Binge drinking once per week was associated with a 0.139-point decrease in GPA and binge drinking three or more times per week was associated with a 0.218-point decrease in GPA, relative to GPAs of students who did not binge drink. The authors also found 20%-30% of the influence of binge drinking on academic performance was due to changes in students’ academic involvement. Evidence that the mediating effects of academic involvement differ by gender was mixed.
Take away: This study provides additional evidence that binge drinking negatively influences academic performance among first-year students. This is concerning, as first-year GPAs are important for future academic success, graduation, and retention.