Most students drink responsibly. This is what the results of a survey run by the Dean of Students Office at Rhodes University revealed.
The online survey has been run annually for the past 3 years, and for the first time this year, students were given immediate electronic feedback regarding their own drinking patterns.
Over the past three years the surveys, based on the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, have revealed a slight but steady ‘improvement’ overall in drinking patterns.
Of the approximately 7000 students registered at Rhodes, 2179 completed the survey (1236 women and 943 men), the following interesting results were obtained:
Most Rhodes students drink responsibly: only 11% drink “harmfully”
57% of all students are drinking safely
Most Rhodes students have 2 or fewer drinks on a night out.
Most men have 4 or fewer drinks on a night out.
Only 17% have more than 6 drinks on a typical night out
80% of all female students drink safely, and generally they drink more safely than men
A new focus this year was to explore whether students over-estimate how much their peers actually drink. Previous research suggests that this tendency to over-estimate peer consumption patterns causes young people to drink more than they normally would. The survey revealed that students were indeed overestimating the drinking habits of their peers. For example, 50.6% of students overestimate the frequency of their friends’ alcohol consumption, 44.3% the amount that is consumed on a typical drinking occasion and 54.4% the frequency of binge drinking. All the differences between the actual and estimated means are statistically significant. For example, the typical student has a drink containing alcohol two to four times every four weeks. Even if this is rounded up to once a week, it is still less than the estimated two to three times a week. On these drinking occasions, the typical student consumes three or four drinks, not the five or six that is typically estimated.
According to the Dean of Students, Dr Vivian de Klerk "The results are pleasing in many ways, in that they reveal a growing, positive trend towards moderate, responsible drinking by the majority of Rhodes students. I'd like to applaud the moderate drinking habits of the "average students", especially our women, who are setting a good example. Those students (in the minority) who drink excessively know who they are, and hopefully they will realise that this is not normal, and that they are hurting themselves. Help is available for them through the Counselling Centre"
Dr Vivian de Klerk
Dean of Students