Day Drinking Among College Students: Is it Common and is it Risky?
Research Society on AlcoholismDrinking in the daytime, colloquially known as “day drinking”, is characterized by heavy alcohol consumption and is linked to other risky substance use behaviors in college students, according to a report in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. Despite a lack of research on student day drinking, there is evidence that certain types of daytime drinking – such as social drinking before major sporting events, sometimes called tailgating – are characterized by particularly heavy alcohol use. However, it was unclear how prevalent and risky the broader behavior of day drinking is. The current study aimed to assess how many, and how often, students engaged in day drinking, and whether “day-drinking days” – defined as days when drinking started before 4pm - were linked to heavy drinking, negative alcohol consequences, and risky substance use behavior.