Drinking Patterns and Problems during Emerging Adulthood

by National Institute of Health

(Page 2 of 4)

Many people begin to use alcohol before they graduate from high school. However, peak use of alcohol occurs during emerging adulthood, and this excessive drinking appears to be normative behavior. In North America and many other industrialized societies, binge or excessive drinking during emerging adulthood is condoned, and perhaps even encouraged, particularly for those attending college. (Binge drinking is defined by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism as consuming five or more drinks for men, or four or more drinks for women in about 2 hours.) Data from the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study across several years indicate that 30-day prevalence (use in the last 30 days) peaks at ages 21-22 (at 85 percent for men and 76 percent for women), and heavy drinking (drinking five or more drinks in a row in the past 2 weeks) peaks at ages 21-22 for men (at 55 percent) and at ages 19-20 for women (at 33 percent) and then declines linearly into young adulthood.

Drinking during emerging adulthood can serve positive functions, such as facilitating friendship formation, but people also experience high rates of alcohol-related problems during this period. For example, people ages 18 to 29 have the highest rates of past-year alcohol abuse and dependence. Alcohol-related problems during emerging adulthood can have long-term effects on physical and psychological well-being and can have implications for the attainment of traditional adult roles (e.g., heavy drinking leads to poor academic outcomes, which in turn lead to less favorable occupational opportunities). Numerous studies have identified problems related to alcohol use, including fatal and nonfatal injuries and overdoses, academic/vocational failures, violence and other crime, unintended pregnancies, and sexually transmitted diseases, although the extent to which alcohol use causes some of these problems (e.g., academic problems) remains unclear. Rather, alcohol use and problems during emerging adulthood may be the result of some common factor (such as lower academic motivation, in the case of academic problems). Impaired driving, another serious problem associated with drinking, is especially prevalent among emerging adults. In addition, about half of college students report past-year hangovers, nausea, and vomiting as a result of drinking, and about one-fourth report blackouts (or memory loss while intoxicated). Furthermore, excessive drinkers can create problems for others, including physical and sexual assaults, insults and humiliation, preventing others from studying/sleeping, and vandalism.

Changes in Drinking During Emerging Adulthood

The transition out of high school may be marked by increases in alcohol use and intoxication. Even men who drank heavily in high school may drink more and become intoxicated more often after high school. Drinking patterns during the senior year of high school generally are useful in predicting post-high school drinking behavior, although research results vary. Some studies have found a high degree of individual stability in problem drinking from the early twenties into adulthood, whereas others have not.

Most emerging adults will outgrow heavy drinking and related problems before adulthood, on their own and without treatment.

Sociodemographic Correlates of Heavy Drinking Among Emerging Adults

Sociodemographic characteristics - including gender, race/ethnicity, marital status, parenthood, college status, and employment - all influence drinking patterns among emerging adults, as discussed in the following sections.

Gender

Research consistently shows that most indexes of alcohol use, and especially heavy drinking, are higher among males than females. Of the 19- to 30-year-olds in the MTF study, 45 percent of men and 26.7 percent of women reported heavy drinking (defined in that study as five or more drinks on one occasion) in the past 2 weeks, and 7.4 percent of men and 3 percent of women reported daily drinking. In addition, the gender disparity in heavy drinking increases between late adolescence (i.e., senior year of high school) and young adulthood. In contrast, the rates of alcohol problems among male and female college students tend to converge, although men still report more problems in the public domain (e.g., public risk-taking, aggression, legal problems, and problems that endanger others) compared with women.

Race/Ethnicity

Racial and ethnic differences in drinking and related problems have been documented in the literature. In general, White and Native American emerging adults drink more than African Americans and Asians, and drinking rates for Hispanics fall in the middle. In addition, in contrast to the peak in drinking among Whites around ages 19-22, heavy drinking among African Americans and Hispanics peaks later and persists longer into adulthood. Caetano and Kaskutas suggest that this ethnic difference results, in part, from the fact that Whites see heavy drinking as part of a youthful lifestyle, whereas Hispanics tend to see heavy drinking as a "right" they earn when they reach maturity.

Marital Status and Parenthood

Bachman and colleagues examined changes in heavy drinking (defined in that study as five or more drinks in one sitting in the last 2 weeks) and in current drinking (defined as use in the past 30 days) from the senior year of high school into the early twenties. These researchers found that being married had a strong effect on changes in drinking behavior after high school graduation even when they controlled for other relevant factors. Married women had the greatest decreases in drinking behavior, and married men, compared with men in all other categories of living arrangements (i.e., cohabiting or living with parents, in a dormitory, alone, or in other arrangements), showed the fewest increases. The data also indicated that becoming engaged (i.e., making a commitment to a relationship) had a similar but less powerful effect on drinking compared with marriage, whereas becoming divorced led to increased drinking behavior. Drinking rates among cohabitants did not decline as much as they did in married people; however, drinking also did not increase as much as it did among those who were unmarried. It should be noted, however, that the cohabitants were the heaviest drinkers in high school.

Being a parent also was related to reductions in alcohol use for both men and women, although a large part of this effect was simply a result of getting married. Most women who became pregnant eliminated their alcohol use, although most of their husbands did not.

About the Author

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