Binge drinking habits are increasingly common among college students in the U.S. and can develop due to contributing factors like societal influences, environmental influences, family history, peer pressure and more. 

According to the Alcohol Rehab Guide, “Roughly 80% of college students — four out of every five — consume alcohol to some degree. It’s estimated that 50% of those students engage in binge drinking, which involves consuming too much alcohol in too little time.”

The amount of alcohol one can consume before they are considered to be binge drinking varies between males and females. 

Anita Sego, an associate professor in the department of health sciences at UCA, said this difference has to do with the amount of water we hold in our bodies. 

Amber Holland, a prevention specialist, said for females, if you have four or more drinks in one occasion, that’s binge drinking; for males, if you have five or more drinks in one occasion, that’s binge drinking. 

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines binge drinking as “a pattern of drinking alcohol that brings blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08% — or 0.08 grams of alcohol per deciliter — or higher.” 

Holland said a person’s liver can usually process one drink an hour. However, a person still needs to avoid consuming too many drinks, even if the drinks are spaced out hourly. For example, Holland said if a person consumes eight drinks in eight hours, that is still considered binge drinking. 

Holland said the age at which people begin consuming substances, like alcohol, affects their likelihood of developing substance abuse issues. 

“When I became a substance abuse counselor, I realized these individuals were starting these substances super early,” Holland said. 

Holland said studies have shown 25% of people who begin drinking at age 17 develop alcohol dependence whereas only 10% of people who begin drinking at age 21 develop alcohol dependence.

Holland said research has shown human brains don’t finish developing until around age 25 or 26, so even once you are of legal drinking age, excessive drinking can negatively affect brain development. 

There are many risks associated with college students’ drinking habits. Students can experience alcohol-related injuries, which can lead to death in some cases. 

College students drinking habits can also affect their performance in school. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, “about one-quarter of college students report having negative academic consequences because of their drinking, including missing class, falling behind in their studies, doing poorly on exams or papers and receiving lower grades overall.” 

The prevalence of binge drinking habits among college students is partly due to influences in American society. 

Sego said binge drinking is normalized in American society through media portrayals of drinking in movies, television shows and more, and American society generally see these habits as more acceptable. 

Holland said frequent consumption of alcohol causes a person’s tolerance to alcohol to increase, thus requiring more drinks in one sitting to achieve the same buzz. This can quickly lead to binge drinking habits because a person who was once able to get drunk off of two or three drinks later requires four to five drinks to achieve that same feeling, and so on. 

Sego said binge drinking is commonly associated with the college experience overall. This makes college students even more likely to binge drink because they are already expecting to do so when they go to college. 

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism found that a mix of strategies targeting students at various levels are the best way to address binge drinking among college students. 

According to the NIAAA, individual-level interventions can include “education and awareness programs,” “cognitive-behavioral skills-based approaches,” “motivation and feedback-related approaches” and “behavioral interventions by health professionals.” 

Interventions targeting the student body as a whole and the broader campus community can include different environmental strategies, according to the NIAAA. This usually involves an effort to reduce the availability of alcohol on college campuses. 

The NIAAA’s website states that “strong leadership from a concerned college president in combination with engaged parents, an involved campus community and a comprehensive program of evidence-based strategies can help address harmful student drinking.”