*Disclaimer: Please note that parts of this blog have been automatically translated.*
Stacked crates of beer in the backyard of a dorm, vodka Wednesdays at a student union and beer bowling during introduction week; alcohol consumption seems to be a part of student life. Yet caution is called for here. Drinking many alcoholic drinks in one evening, such as “binge” drinking, can have serious health consequences for students. It can also cause social and societal problems: think about blackouts, unsafe sexual behavior, depression, anxiety, extra healthcare costs, study problems and dropout.
Within the Healthy Student Life1 project at Radboud University, one of the things we have been mapping in recent years is the alcohol consumption of students. This research has already yielded many valuable insights. For example, we found out that alcohol consumption during the corona crisis was much lower than before, but immediately after the crisis, there seemed to be a “catch-up ”2. We also discovered that in some cases, there is a “curvilinear” relationship between alcohol and mental well-being. That is, non-drinking students scored slightly higher on depressive symptoms than moderate drinking students, but heavy drinking students actually reported (much) more depressive symptoms than their moderate drinking peers3. Furthermore, it was found that students who regularly drink alcohol were also more likely to use other substances (such as nicotine and drugs)4. The mental well-being of these students was not as good as the group of students with a predominantly healthy lifestyle. On the other hand, their mental well-being was better than the group of students who showed other risk behaviors (no substance use, but problematic Internet use and poorer sleep quality)4. Finally, we saw that almost half of the students also drink non-alcoholic drinks from time to time, but only 17% of these students drink them as a substitute for alcoholic drinks, while 57% have not started drinking less alcohol since they also drink non-alcoholic drinks5.
Recently, two new projects were launched that allow us to further zoom in on student alcohol use. In one project, the focus is on student unions and student houses, because that may be the key to denormalizing excessive alcohol use in student life. In the second project6 we are going to see if we can work with students (in co-creation) to come up with an appropriate challenge where together they don’t drink alcohol for a month (IkPas7). It is expected that if students temporarily put their alcohol use on pause, this will create awareness of alcohol use (of themselves and others), have positive consequences (physically and mentally) and influence social drinking norms (it can also be fun without drinking).
On November 21, 2024, during the “Empowering the Young” day8, PhD students have already picked up valuable information that they can use to successfully launch the projects described above. What also came out loud and clear during this day is how important it is to conduct research not only about, but especially together with the target group. After all, only students themselves can indicate what would motivate them to drink less or no alcohol for a while. I am very much looking forward to this new way of doing research (together), let’s (alcohol-free) toast to a great collaboration!