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“I Got Your Back”: Friends’ Understandings Regarding College Student Spring Break Behavior

  • Empirical Research
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Abstract

Behaviors that pose threats to safety and health, including binge drinking and unprotected sex, increase during a week-long break from university. Understandings with peers regarding these behaviors may be important for predicting behavior and related harms. College students (N = 651; 48% men) reported having understandings with their friends regarding alcohol use (59%) and sexual behavior (45%) during Spring Break. These understandings were to engage in behaviors characterized by risk (e.g., get drunk [23.5%], have sex with someone new [5.2%]) and protection (e.g., drink without getting drunk [17.8%], use condoms [15.8%]). After controlling for previous semester behavior and going on a Spring Break trip, Get Drunk Understandings predicted a greater likelihood of binge drinking and alcohol-related consequences; No/Safe Sex Understandings predicted condom use; and Sex Understandings predicted not using condoms. Understandings with friends regarding Spring Break behavior may be important proximal predictors of risk behaviors and represent potential targets for event-specific prevention.

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Acknowledgments and Disclosures

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism supported data collection for the University Life Study and manuscript preparation with a grant to J. Maggs (R01 AA016016), and manuscript preparation with a grant to M. Patrick (F32 AA017806). The content here is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the sponsors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48106-1248, USA

    Megan E. Patrick

  2. Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, S110 Henderson Building, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Nicole Morgan, Jennifer L. Maggs & Eva S. Lefkowitz

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  1. Megan E. Patrick
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  2. Nicole Morgan
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  3. Jennifer L. Maggs
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  4. Eva S. Lefkowitz
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Correspondence to Megan E. Patrick.

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Patrick, M.E., Morgan, N., Maggs, J.L. et al. “I Got Your Back”: Friends’ Understandings Regarding College Student Spring Break Behavior. J Youth Adolescence 40, 108–120 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-010-9515-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-010-9515-8

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