Drink and Be Merry? Gender, Life Satisfaction, and Alcohol Consumption Among College Students James G. Murphy and Meghan E. McDevitt-Murphy Auburn University Nancy P. Barnett Brown University This study examined the impact of alcohol use and alcohol-related problems on several domains of life satisfaction (LS) in a sample of 353 college students. Alcohol use was associated with lower general satisfaction and anticipated future satisfaction among women. Female abstainers reported higher general and anticipated future satisfaction than did female heavy drinkers. Female students’ alcohol use was unrelated to their academic, family, dating, or social satisfaction. Drinking among men showed a positive, curvilinear relation to social satisfaction but was unrelated to other domains of LS. Alcohol-related problems were associated with decreased LS among both men and women. These findings suggest that alcohol use by young adults is associated with both positive and negative outcomes that may be gender specific. Large numbers of college students drink frequently and in a manner that can result in adverse health and psychosocial conse- quences (e.g., Hingson, Heeren, Zakocs, Kopstein, & Wechsler, 2002; O’Malley & Johnston, 2002; Wechsler, Dowdall, Maenner, Gledhill-Hoyt, & Lee, 1998). Although 20% of college students abstain from alcohol, 20% drink frequently (i.e., 10 or more of the past 30 days), and 28% report being drunk three or more times in the past month (Wechsler et al., 1998). The impact of alcohol consumption on college students is generally measured by the frequency of high-risk behavior while drinking (e.g., driving after drinking, risky or unplanned sexual behavior, fights, etc.), the presence of negative outcomes or impairment resulting from drink- ing (e.g., getting arrested, falling behind in school, getting injured, etc.), and early symptoms of alcohol dependence (e.g., increasing tolerance, consuming more alcohol than intended, withdrawal symptoms, etc.). Alcohol-related problems have been found to vary directly (Wechsler et al., 1998), although not perfectly (e.g., Borsari, Neal, Collins, & Carey, 2001; Gruenewald, Johnson, Light, Lipton, & Saltz, 2003), with rates of alcohol consumption. Drinking more than three (for women) or four (for men) drinks in an occasion, for example, is predictive of missing class, falling behind in school, having unprotected sex, getting injured, driving after drinking alcohol, and requiring medical attention for an alcohol overdose (Wechsler et al., 1998). The focus on identifying specific risky behaviors or adverse events associated with college student drinking is consistent with the traditional emphasis within medicine and psychology on symp- toms as the primary variable of interest (Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999; Rudolf & Watts, 2002). Although appropriate for many purposes, this focus has recently been criticized for reducing psychosocial functioning to the presence or absence of symptoms (e.g., problem behaviors, negative affective states) while ignoring more global and subjective assessments of functioning (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Valliant, 2000). As opined by advo- cates of “positive psychology,” for example, the emphasis on symptoms does not allow for careful study of positive outcomes, including good relationship and work functioning, happiness, and satisfaction (Myers, 2000; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). In response to this shortcoming, there has been an increased interest in studying psychosocial functioning more globally, and measures of life satisfaction (LS) have proliferated (Diener et al., 1999). Life satisfaction is a subjective quality-of-life index that reflects the extent to which individuals find aspects of their lives to be satis- fying or fulfilling. It can be evaluated globally or divided into various domains, including satisfaction with self, job, family, school, relationships, leisure, and so forth (Alfonso, Allison, Rader, & Gorman, 1996; Diener et al., 1999). Most studies suggest that LS is influenced by both temperament and life circumstances and that goal-directed activity, participating in close social rela- tionships, and experiencing physical and mental pleasure are as- sociated with greater LS (Diener et al., 1999). Although several studies indicate that adults with severe alcohol dependence report low satisfaction in multiple life domains (Mc- Kenna et al., 1996; Rudolf & Watts, 2002; Volk, Cantor, Stein- bauer, & Cass, 1997), many adults who drink moderately report salutary effects (Peele & Brodsky, 2000). A population survey from Australia (Dear, Henderson, & Korten, 2002), for example, found that male and female abstainers reported lower LS than moderate drinkers and that daily drinkers reported low levels of LS that were similar to abstainers. Additionally, there is some evi- dence that alcohol use by younger adolescents is associated with decreased LS. One study (Newcomb, Bentler, & Collins, 1986) found that alcohol use in Grades 7 through 9 was associated with lower concurrent peer and environmental satisfaction and that James G. Murphy and Meghan E. McDevitt-Murphy, Department of Psychology, Auburn University; Nancy P. Barnett, Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, Brown University. James G. Murphy and Meghan E. McDevitt-Murphy are now at the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, Brown University. This research was supported in part by a U.S. Department of Education Model Programs Grant awarded to Polly Dunn, Rudy E. Vuchinich, and James G. Murphy. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to James G. Murphy, Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, Brown University, Box G-BH, Providence, RI 02912. E-mail: james_murphy@brown.edu Psychology of Addictive Behaviors Copyright 2005 by the American Psychological Association 2005, Vol. 19, No. 2, 184 –191 0893-164X/05/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/0893-164X.19.2.184 184