4-year College Students Research Articles

Disparities in dietary intake, meal patterning, and home food environments among young adult nonstudents and 2- and 4-year college students.

We examined whether young adult meal patterning, dietary intake, and home food availability differed among nonstudents, 2-year college students, and 4-year college students (N = 1687; mean age = 20.5 years). Unadjusted analyses showed that few young adults consumed optimal diets and, compared with 4-year college students, nonstudents and 2-year students consumed fewer meals and poorer diets. After controlling for sociodemographics and living arrangements, we found that over half of the observed associations remained significant (P < .05). Nutrition interventions are needed for young adults, particularly specific at-risk groups.

Communication Apprehension: Levels of First–Generation College Students at 2–Year Institutions

The study explored the oral communication apprehension (CA) levels of first-generation college students at a 2-year case study community institution. Overall and general-context CA were measured using the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension-24 (PRCA-24). The survey was sent by e-mail to 2,040 institutionally-identified first-generation 2-year college students. A total of 161 responses were received from students. In addition to taking the PRCA-24, students were asked to describe how they dealt with an apprehensive communication experience. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and a thematic analysis. First-generation 2-year college students had a CA profile similar to reported levels for national norms. Further, students were shown to use a variety of ways to deal with their CA. Students used elements of communication-orientation motivation, intrapersonal communication, guided visualization, skills training, physical self-regulation, preparation, practice, humor, and a combination approach to managing their own apprehension. Strategies for helping first-generation college students manage their CA were suggested.

Study on Students’ Attitude Towards World Englishes and Non-native English Teachers

The objectives of this paper are first to investigate how students perceive the relatively new concept “World Englishes” and second to find out whether they prefer native English teachers or non-native local English teachers. A questionnaire survey was conducted on two different groups. One group consists of students of a 2-year college who have never taken a course on World Englishes, thus are not familiar with the new concept. The other consists of students of a 4-year university who have taken a course on World Englishes. The former group shows a stronger preference towards British English or American English while the other group shows a relatively less preference towards the so-called Standard English. The difference between the two groups can be attributed to the formal lectures on World Englishes given to the group of 4-year university students. However, in terms of their preferences towards teachers, the result is reversed. Their preference and choice of teachers may depend on the levels of English proficiency. The 2-year college students with lower English proficiency prefer non-native teachers even without taking the course while the 4-year college students with higher English proficiency still prefer native teachers even after the course.

College Attendance and Its Effect on Drinking Behaviors in a Longitudinal Study of Adolescents

While college attendance has been shown to be associated with increased drinking behaviors, there are no studies to our knowledge that have examined whether college attendance moderates genetic influences for drinking. We first tested for changes in alcohol consumption in adolescents who did and did not subsequently attend college, and then tested for variation of the genetic and environmental determinants of drinking in these 2 groups. Participants eligible for this study were selected from 2 samples from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), a national probability sample (n=7,083) and a sample of sibling pairs (n=855 pairs). Participants were assessed for measures of drinking behaviors as adolescents (wave I) and reinterviewed at 1 (wave II) and 6 years (wave III) following the initial survey. Changes in binge drinking and average quantity of alcohol consumed in the past year were estimated among 4 groups (2-year college students, 4-year college students, college withdrawers, noncollege participants) in sequential cohorts which spanned the ages of 13 to 24 across the 3 Add Health waves. Gene by environment interactions were then tested at wave III using biometrical models in the genetically informative pairs. Participants who did not attend college reported more binge drinking and consumed greater quantities of alcohol as adolescents than participants who subsequently attended college. However, the college students not only surpassed their noncollege peers in alcohol use as young adults, but also exhibited a greater genetic influence on quantity of alcohol consumed per drinking episode. Exposure to a college environment acts as an environmental moderator, supporting the hypothesis that the magnitude of genetic influence on certain aspects of alcohol consumption is greater in environments where drinking behaviors are more likely to be promoted.

Fraternity membership and binge drinking

This paper examines the relationship that social fraternity and sorority membership has with binge drinking incidence and frequency among 18–24 year old full-time 4-year college students who participated in the 1995 National College Health Risk Behavior Survey. To net out unobserved heterogeneity, several measures of situational and total alcohol use are entered into the regressions as explanatory variables. Fraternity membership coefficients are substantially reduced in size, but remain large and highly significant, suggesting a causal effect on binge drinking. Otherwise, the estimates identify idiosyncratic selection into fraternities and binge drinking across students with similar overall drinking profiles. Particularly notable is that behavior by underage students appears to drive the relationship.

Prevalence and characteristics of smokers at 30 Pacific Northwest colleges and universities

College is an important transition period during which young adults explore tobacco use. Few large-scale studies have been conducted among college students regarding tobacco use. We initiated a study examining tobacco use in 30 colleges and universities in the Pacific Northwest. We conducted a baseline survey among students. Sample size varied by the school size; for the 14 largest schools, we drew a random sample of all students, oversampling freshmen (n approximately 750) so that we could recruit and follow a cohort to assess smoking onset during the college years. Of the remaining students, we sampled equivalent numbers of sophomores, juniors, and seniors (n = 200 each). For the 16 schools with fewer than 1,350 students, we surveyed all students. We found overall smoking rates of 17.2%. Males (18.6%) were more likely to smoke than females (16.6%; p = .03), and public college students were more likely to smoke (20.5%) than those who attended private independent schools (18.9%; p = .61), whose rates were higher than those of private religious schools (11.6%; p = .001). Overall, college students are light smokers who do not smoke every day of the month. Further, they tend not to be highly dependent on tobacco, do not consider themselves regular smokers, and plan to quit before they graduate (56.8%). School type should be considered when estimating smoking rates among 4-year college students. Data indicate that college smokers wish and plan to quit before graduation, suggesting that efforts to assist smokers in quitting during the college years may be fruitful.

E-Mail as Social Capital and its Impact on First-Year Persistence of 4-Year College Students

This study addressed the influence of social capital factors on the first-year persistence of beginning first- and second-generation four-year college students. First-generation students were those students whose parents had never attended college. Second-generation students had at least one parent who attended college. A case was made for considering e-mail to be a form of social capital. Data for the study were from the NCES Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS) 1996/1998 survey. Findings from the cross-tabulations indicated that first-generation students differed from second-generation students over a range of demographic, socioeconomic, high school, social capital, academic and social integration, and college performance factors. Findings from the sequential logistic regressions indicated that first-generation status, after controlling for all other factors in the study, had a statistically significant, but comparatively minor, negative effect on persistence. Findings indicated that whether a student had an e-mail account was a statistically significant predictor of persistence.

Early Age of First Drunkenness as a Factor in College Students’ Unplanned and Unprotected Sex Attributable to Drinking

Early age of drinking onset has been associated with a greater likelihood among adults of experiencing alcohol dependence, frequent heavy drinking even among nondependent drinkers, and an increased risk of motor vehicle crashes, unintentional injuries, and physical fights after drinking. This study explores whether first getting drunk at a younger age is associated with a greater likelihood of college students reporting that they had unplanned or unprotected sexual intercourse because of their drinking. In 1999 11 739 full-time 4-year college students from 128 randomly selected US colleges and universities completed a self-administered survey that asked them about their drinking practices and whether their drinking had caused them, since the beginning of the school year, to: 1) engage in unplanned sexual intercourse or 2) not use protection when having sex. Among college students who drink, those first drunk before age 13 compared with those never drank until age 19 or older had a 2.0 times greater odds of having unplanned sex and a 2.2 times greater odds of having unprotected sex reportedly because of drinking, even after controlling for age, race/ethnicity, marital status, parental drinking history, age of first smoking, and marijuana use. After further controlling for history of alcohol dependence and frequency of heavy drinking those first drunk before age 13 had a 1.5 times greater odds of unplanned sex and a 1.7 times greater odds of unprotected sex reportedly because of drinking. Clinical, educational, legal, and community interventions to delay age of first getting drunk need to be coupled with efforts to prevent unplanned and unprotected sexual intercourse among US college students.

Magnitude of alcohol-related mortality and morbidity among U.S. college students ages 18-24.

This report estimates the numbers of 18-24 year old United States college students who annually experience alcohol-related deaths, injuries and other health problems. We examined traffic and unintentional injury deaths in 1998 reported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). We also examined results of national coroner studies, Department of Education college enrollment data, the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA), the CDC National College Health Risk Behavior Survey and the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Survey (CAS). All survey participants were ages 18-24: 6,930 college and 12,394 noncollege respondents in the NHSDA survey; 3,077 college students in the CDC survey; and 12,217 full-time 4-year college students in the CAS. Based on the number and proportion of 18-24 year olds enrolled in college, data on alcohol involvement in injury deaths among 18-24 year olds and survey responses, we calculated the numbers of 18-24 year old alcohol-related injury deaths and other health problems. We estimate that over 1,400 students aged 18-24 and enrolled in 2- and 4-year colleges died in 1998 from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including motor vehicle crashes. According to surveys conducted in 1999, in the preceding year, over 2 million of the 8 million college students in the United States drove under the influence of alcohol and over 3 million rode with a drinking driver. Over 500,000 full-time 4-year college students were unintentionally injured under the influence of alcohol and over 600,000 were hit or assaulted by another student who had been drinking. There is an urgent need for expanding prevention and treatment programs, to reduce alcohol-related harm among U.S. college students and other young adults.

Students connecting mathematical ideas: possibilities in a liberal arts mathematics class

Problem solving and justification for a diversified group of 2-year college students enrolled in a mathematics course for liberal arts majors were studied as the students met in small groups to work on various non-routine problems. Several problems from the area of combinatorics were given during these problem-solving sessions. This paper focuses on one small group of students from this study. These students were engaged in thoughtful mathematics. They identified patterns, justified that their patterns were reasonable and recognized isomorphisms between the different problems. The findings support the importance of introducing rich problems to college students and encouraging them to explore solutions, explain their reasoning and justify their solutions.

Unsafe motor vehicle practices among substance-using college students

This study examines the relationship between substance use and behaviors that increase the risk for motor vehicle crashes and crash-related injuries. The investigation uses National College Health Risk Behavior Survey data collected in 1995 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These data are representative of 2- and 4-year undergraduate college students in private and public colleges and universities in the United States. Smokers, episodic heavy drinkers, marijuana users and users of illegal drugs in combination with alcohol were significantly more likely to drive after drinking alcohol and ride with a driver who had been drinking alcohol and significantly less likely to wear safety belts while driving or while riding in a car as a passenger. This study indicates that college students who are substance users are more likely to behave in a manner which increases their risk for motor vehicle crashes and motor vehicle crash injuries.

Cognitive Effects of 2-Year and 4-Year Colleges: New Evidence

This study investigated the freshman-year cognitive impacts of five 2-year and six 4-year colleges drawn from all sections of the United States. Controlling for individual precollege ability, there was a general parity between 2-year and 4-year college students on end-of-freshman year reading comprehension, mathematics, critical thinking, and composite achievement. This general parity, however, masked conditional effects based on gender and ethnicity. Men benefited cognitively more from 2-year colleges, whereas women realized greater cognitive returns from 4-year colleges. Non-White students benefited more from a 2-year college, whereas the reverse was true for their White counterparts.

Health and behavioral consequences of binge drinking in college. A national survey of students at 140 campuses

<h3>Objective.</h3> —To examine the extent of binge drinking by college students and the ensuing health and behavioral problems that binge drinkers create for themselves and others on their campus. <h3>Design.</h3> —Self-administered survey mailed to a national representative sample of US 4-year college students. <h3>Setting.</h3> —One hundred forty US 4-year colleges in 1993. <h3>Participants.</h3> —A total of 17592 college students. <h3>Main Outcome Measures.</h3> —Self-reports of drinking behavior, alcohol-related health problems, and other problems. <h3>Results.</h3> —Almost half (44%) of college students responding to the survey were binge drinkers, including almost one fifth (19%) of the students who were frequent binge drinkers. Frequent binge drinkers are more likely to experience serious health and other consequences of their drinking behavior than other students. Almost half (47%) of the frequent binge drinkers experienced five or more different drinking-related problems, including injuries and engaging in unplanned sex, since the beginning of the school year. Most binge drinkers do not consider themselves to be problem drinkers and have not sought treatment for an alcohol problem. Binge drinkers create problems for classmates who are not binge drinkers. Students who are not binge drinkers at schools with higher binge rates were more likely than students at schools with lower binge rates to experience problems such as being pushed, hit, or assaulted or experiencing an unwanted sexual advance. <h3>Conclusions.</h3> —Binge drinking is widespread on college campuses. Programs aimed at reducing this problem should focus on frequent binge drinkers, refer them to treatment or educational programs, and emphasize the harm they cause for students who are not binge drinkers. (<i>JAMA</i>. 1994;272:1672-1677)

Health and Behavioral Consequences of Binge Drinking in College

To examine the extent of binge drinking by college students and the ensuing health and behavioral problems that binge drinkers create for themselves and others on their campus. Self-administered survey mailed to a national representative sample of US 4-year college students. One hundred forty US 4-year colleges in 1993. A total of 17,592 college students. Self-reports of drinking behavior, alcohol-related health problems, and other problems. Almost half (44%) of college students responding to the survey were binge drinkers, including almost one fifth (19%) of the students who were frequent binge drinkers. Frequent binge drinkers are more likely to experience serious health and other consequences of their drinking behavior than other students. Almost half (47%) of the frequent binge drinkers experienced five or more different drinking-related problems, including injuries and engaging in unplanned sex, since the beginning of the school year. Most binge drinkers do not consider themselves to be problem drinkers and have not sought treatment for an alcohol problem. Binge drinkers create problems for classmates who are not binge drinkers. Students who are not binge drinkers at schools with higher binge rates were more likely than students at schools with lower binge rates to experience problems such as being pushed, hit, or assaulted or experiencing an unwanted sexual advance. Binge drinking is widespread on college campuses. Programs aimed at reducing this problem should focus on frequent binge drinkers, refer them to treatment or educational programs, and emphasize the harm they cause for students who are not binge drinkers.

Head-Injury Prevalence among Community College Students

835 community college students were surveyed to establish the prevalence of head injury or illness. Results are compared to prevalence rates among 4-year college students.

HEAD-INJURY PREVALENCE AMONG COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS

835 community college students were surveyed to establish the prevalence of head injury or illness. Results are compared to prevalence rates among 4-year college students.

Transfer students in institutions of higher education

The primary purpose of this study is to describe the extent of college transfers over two years since initial matriculation and to examine differences in background characteristics between transfers and nontransfers (i.e., persisters, withdrawals, and graduates). Data involved a national probability sample of the 1972 entering class. Major findings include the following: 25% of the 2-year college students transferred to a 4-year institution, and 16% of 4-year college students moved to another 4-year institution. This later group of students tended to hold higher socioeconomic status and college grades but lower ability test scores than persisters. Implications of the findings are also discussed.

College students' goals, plans, and background characteristics: A synthesis of three empirical studies

This study was designed to provide longitudinal data about the change and/or the stability of college-bound students' educational and vocational goals and plans as well as their background characteristics. Data from three studies were contrasted and compared. Included in these studies were: (a) a 2-year follow-up of 4,009 junior college students: (b) a 4-year follow-up of 5,623 4-year college and university students; and (c) a comparison of the responses of two independent samples (32,351 and 50,205) of high school seniors. Considerable differences in stability among characteristics were found; however, the changes seem to be orderly and according to logical expectations. The utility of the findings regarding changes and stability in these characteristics for those who work with college populations are discussed, and possible applications are suggested.

Academic Performances of Matched Groups of Community College and 4-Year College Students

A total of 180 June, 1964, high school graduates, ninety of whom entered a public junior college and ninety of whom entered 4-year institutions directly from high school, were studied through June, 1969. The two groups were matched in terms of sex, IQ, aptitude test scores, high school grade point averages (GPA’s), and high school majors. Although the junior college students attained higher mean GPA’s in the first 2 years of college (2.770 as compared with 2.368 on a 4.00 scale), a significant difference was not found in the upper division years, the native students earning a mean GPA of 2.747 and the junior college transfers a mean of 2.742. Of the initial groups of ninety each, fifty-five, or 61.2 percent, of the 4-year college freshmen received bachelor’s degrees as compared with sixty-one, or 67.1 percent, of the junior college freshmen after 5 years.