Endorsed reasons for not drinking alcohol: a comparison of college student drinkers and abstainers Jiun-Hau Huang • William DeJong • Shari K. Schneider • Laura G. Towvim Received: November 8, 2009 / Accepted: June 7, 2010 / Published online: June 18, 2010 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 Abstract Little is known about how the reasons that college student drinkers and abstainers have for choosing not to drink might differ. The present study examined this issue among a sample of 2,500 U.S. college students from 18 colleges and universities. Abstainers endorsed signifi- cantly more reasons for not drinking than drinkers, and among drinkers, light drinkers endorsed more reasons than heavy drinkers. Abstainers’ decision not to drink appeared to be a lifestyle choice that was supported by multiple reasons, including personal values, religious beliefs, not wanting the image of a drinker, and beliefs about alcohol’s effect on behavior. Heavy drinkers were more likely to endorse situational reasons such as having to drive home later or being concerned about school work or weight gain from drinking. Implications of these findings for alcohol prevention work on college and university campuses are discussed. Keywords College students Á Reasons for not drinking Á Drinkers Á Abstainers Á Alcohol consumption Á Alcohol abstention Introduction Most college and university administrators state that alco- hol-related problems are their chief concern about student life (DeJong and Langford 2002). By one estimate, approximately 1,825 students (18–24 years old) enrolled in 2- and 4-year institutions die each year from alcohol-re- lated causes, mostly due to motor vehicle crashes; nearly 700,000 students are hit or assaulted by another drinking student each year, while 97,000 are victims of alcohol- related sexual assault or date rape (Hingson et al. 2009). Researchers concerned about this social problem have examined a variety of individual-level factors associated with student drinking, including drinking motives and alcohol expectancies (Baer 2002). Drinking motives are related to the psychological function that alcohol use fulfills. Research suggests that drinkers consume alcohol for three distinct reasons: social—to facilitate affiliation with other people; mood enhancement—to induce positive emotions; and coping—to mitigate or avoid negative emotional states (Cooper et al. 1992; Cronin 1997; Stewart et al. 1996). Some researchers studying college student drinking have added a fourth factor, conformity to social norms (Cooper 1994). Other research has examined a related concept: alcohol expectancies, defined as the expectancy-value beliefs that people have about alcohol’s behavioral, emotional, and cognitive effects (Baer 2002). In general, positive alcohol expectancies are consistently related to heavy alcohol consumption and problem drinking among both adults and adolescents (Brown 1985; Brown et al. 1987; Carey 1995; LaBrie et al. 2007; Werner et al. 1995). Factor-analysis research on alcohol expectancies has identified domains similar to those for drinking motives—namely, social lubrication, activity and performance enhancement, and tension reduction (Sher et al. 1996). J.-H. Huang (&) Institute of Health Policy and Management, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, 17 Xu-Zhou Road, Taipei 10055, Taiwan e-mail: jhuang@ntu.edu.tw W. DeJong Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02118, USA S. K. Schneider Á L. G. Towvim Center for College Health and Safety, Education Development Center, Inc., Newton, MA 02158, USA 123 J Behav Med (2011) 34:64–73 DOI 10.1007/s10865-010-9272-x