Comparing Heavy Episodic Drinking and High-Intensity Drinking: Effects on Academic Achievement Across Adolescence
Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Abrams, Alyssa
- Graduate Program:
- School Psychology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- February 25, 2022
- Committee Members:
- Cristin Hall, Major Field Member
Jennifer Frank, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Robert Turrisi, Outside Unit Member
Elizabeth Hughes, Outside Field Member
Ashley Linden-Carmichael, Outside Field Member
James Diperna, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- alcohol
adolescence
heavy episodic drinking
high-intensity drinking
time varying effect model
academic achievement
time-varying effect model - Abstract:
- Alcohol is the most commonly used substance by the American population, according to annual reports from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). While drinking behaviors vary considerably across the lifespan, consumption of alcohol during any developmental period has been consistently associated with harmful consequences. The likelihood of experiencing these consequences rises dramatically with participation in heavy episodic or high-intensity drinking—risky drinking behaviors often observed during adolescence and young adulthood. The definition for heavy episodic drinking (HED) by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) has been widely accepted in substance use research since its introduction in 2004, and studies have often utilized the HED criteria of consuming four/five or more drinks in one sitting for women/men as the highest threshold of drinking behavior. Current substance use researchers have identified a more extreme pattern of alcohol consumption called high-intensity drinking (HID), where individuals report drinking two to three times the heavy episodic drinking threshold, resulting in increased likelihood of alcohol-related consequences beyond those associated with HED. Many studies have begun investigation into HED and HID in adult participants; however, less research has focused on effects of these risky drinking patterns in adolescence. The present study was a secondary analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent and Adult Health (Add Health), and utilized data collected during Waves I and II, which comprised the adolescent developmental period. The analytic sample (N = 4,480) was weighted with the grand sample weight provided from Add Health in Wave II and included students who were, on average: 15.89 years old (SD = 1.61), 50.6% male, and 66.7% White. An innovative statistical technique, the Time Varying Effect Model (TVEM), was used to analyze trends across adolescence and elicit specific periods where the influences of risky drinking patterns were most detrimental on educational success. Descriptive plots demonstrated very little change in current academic achievement from a student's first semester GPA 2.89 (95% CI = 2.78 – 3.00) to a student's last semester GPA of 2.90 (95% CI = 2.82 – 2.99). A measure of risky drinking, the number of alcoholic beverages that students reported drinking during a typical drinking event, increased fairly linearly across age with average number of drinks per event peaking at age 19 (M = 6.90; 95% CI = 6.13 – 7.67). When examining the time-varying effect of the typical number of drinks during a single drinking occasion on current semester achievement, the relationship was significant from the beginning of adolescence at age 12 (β = -0.03; 95% CI = -0.07 – -0.02) to age 13 (β = -0.02; 95% CI = -0.03 – -0.0003), and again from age 15 (β = -0.01; 95% CI = -0.02 – -0.0001) to age 19 (β = -0.01; 95% CI = -0.02 – -0.0002). Visual analysis of the differences between drinking patterns indicated that during semesters that students engaged in HED or HID, they reported lower grades than peers who abstained from drinking or only drank socially. These differences were wide at younger ages but as students aged, the gap lessened until approximately age 15, when only students reporting HID were differentially affected in their achievement. Results from this study can inform school-based prevention programming and interventions targeted toward the adolescent population. The results may also be useful for parents when monitoring their children’s behavior and the messaging they provide to their teenagers about alcohol use.