title: Pre-college pregaming: practices, risk factors, and relationship to other indices of problematic drinking during the transition from high school to college.
abstract: This study examined alcohol use and pregaming (i.e., drinking before going out) in the transition from high school to college and had 3 objectives: (1) evaluating pregaming prevalence and characteristics during this time, (2) determining whether it represents a unique risk for problematic drinking above-and-beyond traditional measures of consumption (i.e., quantity/frequency: QFI, and heavy episodic drinking: HED), and (3) identifying characteristics of individuals who pregame. Alcohol use and beliefs (i.e., self-reported quantity/frequency, pregaming practices, drinking game participation, alcohol-related problems, and expectancies) were assessed in entering freshmen (N = 1171) with prior alcohol use for the 3 months between high school and starting college. Results revealed that 65% of drinkers pregamed in the past, and most did so on fewer than 50% of their overall drinking occasions, consuming an average of 3 drinks in 27 min and most (87%) drank afterward. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that pregaming frequency explained an additional 7.0% of variance in problematic alcohol use above-and-beyond overall drinking and demographic risk factors (e.g., gender, ethnicity, and Greek affiliation: R2 = .43 for overall model). Separate analyses indicated that demographics did not moderate the relationship between pregaming and problems. Regression analyses predicting pregaming frequency identified 7 characteristics associated with this outcome including demographics (gender, ethnicity, Greek affiliation), heavy drinking, drinking game frequency, and 2 scales of the Alcohol Expectancy Inventory (AEI: Attractive and Woozy). Findings implicate pregaming as a common practice during the transition to college, and highlight the need for additional studies examining pregaming changes across the freshman year.
authors.affiliation: Pacific Graduate School of Psychology (PGSP), Palo Alto University, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA. ahaas@paloaltou.edu
authors.forename: Amie L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Haas
authors.forename: Shelby K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Kari
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kagan
authors.forename: Theodore
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jacob
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000523:psychology*; D063425:Binge Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D057566:Self Report; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult