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A study by CUNY SPH Distinguished Professor Luisa N. Borrell and York College Adjunct Assistant Professor Thinh Toan Vu found that the estimated likelihood of binge drinking was unevenly distributed across groups of high school students, with the highest estimates among 12th graders who identified as Hispanic/Latino, Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander, gay, lesbian, or bisexual.
Published in Addictive Behaviors, the study analyzed 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System data from 88,291 high school students. Overall, 10.4% of students reported binge drinking, defined as consuming four or more drinks in a row for girls or five or more for boys, during the previous 30 days.
Using an intersectional analytic approach, the researchers examined 224 groups defined by students’ grade, race/ethnicity, sex, and sexual identity. Binge drinking was more likely among students in higher grades: twelfth graders had more than three times the odds of binge drinking compared with ninth graders. Girls, gay and lesbian students, bisexual students, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander students also had higher odds of binge drinking than their respective comparison groups. Asian and Black students had lower odds than white students.
Predicted probabilities ranged from about 2% to 30% across the groups studied. The highest predicted probabilities were concentrated among older Hispanic/Latino and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander students who identified as gay, lesbian, or bisexual.
“An overall figure can hide substantial differences between students,” says Dr. Vu. “By looking at grade, race and ethnicity, sex, and sexual identity together, we found that some groups had a much higher estimated likelihood of binge drinking than others.”
“Our findings could help develop public health interventions to tackle binge drinking among U.S. adolescents scaled with intensity to high-risk groups,” Dr. Borrell adds.
The authors call attention to prevention efforts reaching all adolescents given the health and economic implications of alcohol consumption, especially among racial/ethnic and sexual minority groups.
