Factors associated withundergraduate alcohol use

SUMMARY To examine cigarette, alcohol, anddruguse amongundergraduates inCorkaprecoded questionnaire wasmailed tooneinseven(458) students, chosensystematically. The response ratewas 97%. Twentypercentofmalesand36% of females donotdrink, whereas 52%ofmalesand 17% offemales aresocial drinkers oroccasional drunks. Student patterns ofdrinking behaviour weresignificantly associated withsociocultural factors, suchasleisure moneyavailable, belief inaGod,andfrequency ofattendance atreligious services. Current cigarette use,experience of marijuana, andattitude tofuture marijuana use, totheopposite sexdrinking, andtothemisdemeanour considered mostserious alsohad significant associations with alcohol-related behaviour. Itappears that peergrouppressures, as illustrated by theproportion ofclosefriends drinking andsibling drinking, havea greater influence on student drinking behaviour than family-related factors such asparental drinking and parental knowledge ofdrinking. Theeffect of ambivalent attitudes towards alcohol use,demonstrated bytheageatintroduction andtheplace of