title: Characterizing high school students who play drinking games using latent class analysis.
abstract: Heavy alcohol use and its associated negative consequences continue to be an important health issue among adolescents. Of particular concern are risky drinking practices such as playing drinking games. Although retrospective accounts indicate that drinking game participation is common among high school students, it has yet to be assessed in current high school students. Utilizing data from high school students who reported current drinking game participation (n=178), we used latent class analysis to investigate the negative consequences resulting from gaming and examined underlying demographic and alcohol-related behavioral characteristics of students as a function of the resultant classes. Three classes of "gamers" emerged: (1) a "lower-risk" group who had a lower probability of endorsing negative consequences compared to the other groups, (2) a "higher-risk" group who reported that they experienced hangovers and difficulties limiting their drinking, got physically sick, and became rude, obnoxious, or insulting, and (3) a "sexual regret" group who reported that they experienced poor recall and unplanned sexual activity that they later regretted. Although the frequency of participating in drinking games did not differ between these three groups, results indicated that the "lower-risk" group consumed fewer drinks in a typical gaming session compared to the other two groups. The present findings suggest that drinking games are common among high school students, but that mere participation and frequency of play are not necessarily the best indicators of risk. Instead, examination of other constructs such as game-related alcohol consumption, consequences, or psychosocial variables such as impulsivity may be more useful.
authors.affiliation: Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies,Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI 02912-9001, United States. Brian_Borsari@brown.edu
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Borsari
authors.forename: Byron L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Zamboanga
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Correia
authors.forename: Janine V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Olthuis
authors.forename: Kathryne
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Van Tyne
authors.forename: Zoe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zadworny
authors.forename: Joel R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Grossbard
authors.forename: Nicholas J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Horton
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D063425:Binge Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D015233:Models, Statistical; D011998:Recreation; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012574:Schools; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D013334:Students / Q000145:classification* / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Adolescents; Alcohol use; Drinking games; Latent class analysis