THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 13, 1994 TAG: 9409130312
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
Black college students are less likely to drink than whites - and much less likely to guzzle mass quantities of alcohol - says a new national study co-written by a counselor at the College of William and Mary.
Nearly 69 percent of black students reported drinking alcohol within the last year, compared with 88 percent of whites. Overall consumption was sharply less for blacks: Whites averaged 5.6 drinks a week; blacks drank less than one-third that amount - 1.8 drinks.
``That's an astounding difference when you consider that it's being averaged across thousands of students,'' said Philip W. Meilman, director of William and Mary's counseling center and co-director of the Core Institute of Southern Illinois University, which studies alcohol use among students.
The study surveyed 40,000 students across the country during the 1990-91 school year. About 2,200 were black. The findings were recently released in the latest issue of the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education.
The report offers a ray of hope after a series of studies in recent years showing widespread use of alcohol on campus. In June, a report from the Commission on Substance Abuse at Colleges and
Universities found that the average student drinks 34 gallons of alcohol each year and that the percentage of females who drink to get drunk has more than tripled, from 10 percent to 35 percent, in the past two decades.
``I think it is good news,'' Meilman said of his study. ``We need to look at what the black collegiate community is doing right and learn from that. It seems to me the attitudes and values are pretty healthy with respect to alcohol issues.''
At Norfolk State University, sophomore Monique Leaphart said she thought whites and blacks ``drink the same.'' But other black students said they rarely drank.
``Between the classes and the schoolwork, you're too busy to really party,'' said Shawn Connors, a junior majoring in education. Connors says he drinks no more than twice a month.
``It's harder for us growing up,'' he said. ``We've got a lot more to fight. They (whites) have more opportunities to party than we do.''
Plus, Connors said, ``It's harder for us to get the money to come here. So once we get here, it feels like a waste if you fail.''
Annie Barnes, a sociologist at Norfolk State, said, ``I think the study is absolutely correct from my observation. . . . African-American students work a great deal, and therefore they do not have as much time as perhaps some other groups have to engage in drinking. Another reason is they don't have extra money.''
Their theories dovetail with some that Meilman set out in the article he co-wrote for the journal. His other hypotheses: Blacks may feel less drawn to the ``social outlets'' on campus. And a higher percentage of blacks are first-generation college students, so they might face more pressure at home to succeed.
The study also showed sharp racial differences in the frequency of various after-effects of drinking. Forty percent of blacks, vs. 66 percent of whites, said they suffered from a hangover in the last year. And 31 percent of blacks reported throwing up after drinking in the last year, compared with 53 percent of whites.
Among all age groups, blacks have lower rates of alcohol use than whites, according to a 1993 study by the federal Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. But, the study said, ``rates of heavy use showed no statistically significant differences by race/ethnicity.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff graphic
COLLEGE STUDENTS' DRINKING HABITS
A comparison of alcohol use by blacks and whites
SOURCE: The Core Institute, Southern Illinois University.
[For a copy of the graphic, see microfilm.]
KEYWORDS: ALCOHOL STUDY RACE by CNB