Independent and dependent variables in college drinking prevention research

¶ … Alcohol abuse can have devastating effects on individuals, families, and communities. This is particularly so when a young person engages in excessive drinking. Drinking among college students present particular problems that endanger performance and can cause risky behavior such as unprotected sex. This is why many studies have been conducted around the phenomenon. In some cases, excessive drinking is positioned as the dependent variable, where its causes are investigated, while others use drinking as independent variable, in which its effects are established.

Towards the latter part of the article, drinking is established as the independent variable. Specifically, the issue being investigated is binge drinking, identified as a phenomenon by several research efforts on alcohol use among this population. Many students engage in heavy episodic use of alcohol over a relatively short period.

This variable is measured by several short screening methods. One of these is the CAGE Questionnaire, which includes four indicators of alcohol dependence that the article refers to as "fairly severe." The Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test, in turn, includes 24 items that indicate various problems and symptoms related to dependency. Both these screening methods are fairly aged, both having been established during the 1970s.

In response to an apparent increase in the need for studying drinking among college students specifically, more recent assessment tools have been developed to focus on college students and young adults specifically. The 23-item Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index is one of these, which was developed in 1989. The Young Adult Alcohol Problems Screening Test was developed in 1992.

The dependent variable refers to health and behavioral consequences as a result of heavy drinking during an individual's college years. These are divided into primary and secondary effects. Primary effects might include those effects the drinker him- or herself experiences. Examples are missing a class, an inability to study, and risky behavior such as unprotected sex. Secondary effects occur as a result of another person's drinking. A drinker might, for example, verbally or physically assault another student, whereas the same person in his or her sober capacity would not do such a thing. Non-drinking students could also be interrupted ruing their study time as a result of drinking students. Other secondary consequences could include injury from accidents caused by drunk-driving students.