Researchers attempted to analyze data from college students to understand what motivated them to drink.
"It appears that drinking motives, particularly coping motives, have promise of providing a greater understanding of the social anxiety-drinking relationship," University of Arkansas psychologist Lindsay Ham said.
The research is expected to help in identifying and helping college students who are at risk for developing alcohol problems, researchers say. Findings of the study were published in a recent issue of the Journal of Anxiety Disorders.
College drinking has consequences beyond a student developing alcohol problems.
Here are a few of those problems, according to the web site of the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Task Force on College Drinking.
· Death: 1,700 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die each year from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including motor vehicle crashes.
· Injury: 599,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are unintentionally injured under the influence of alcohol.
· Assault: More than 696,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking.
· Sexual Abuse: More than 97,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape.
· Unsafe Sex: 400,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 had unprotected sex and more than 100,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 report having been too intoxicated to know if they consented to having sex.
· Academic Problems: About 25 percent of college students report academic consequences of their drinking including missing class, falling behind, doing poorly on exams or papers, and receiving lower grades overall.
· Health Problems/Suicide Attempts: More than 150,000 students develop an alcohol-related health problem and between 1.2 and 1.5 percent of students indicate that they tried to commit suicide within the past year due to drinking or drug use.
