American Journal of Public Health, Vol 90, Issue 12 1936-1939, Copyright © 2000 by American Public Health Association

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Giving means receiving: the protective effect of social capital on binge drinking on college campuses

ER Weitzman and I Kawachi
Department of Health and Social Behavior, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02120, USA. eweitzma@hsph.harvard.edu

OBJECTIVES: We tested whether higher levels of social capital on college campuses protected against individual risks of binge drinking. METHODS: We used a nationally representative survey of 17,592 young people enrolled at 140 4-year colleges. Social capital was operationalized as individuals' average time committed to volunteering in the past month aggregated to the campus level. RESULTS: In multivariate analyses controlling for individual volunteering, sociodemographics, and several college characteristics, individuals from campuses with higher-than-average levels of social capital had a 26% lower individual risk for binge drinking (P < .001) than their peers at other schools. CONCLUSIONS: Social capital may play an important role in preventing binge drinking in the college setting.

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