I.

Alcohol Consumption Affecting Academic Motivation in Undergraduate Students

A study into the association between heavy alcohol consumption and academic motivation of University of

Washington (UW) undergraduates.

II. Background

Heavy alcohol consumption is frequently accompanied by a variety of long- and short-term health issues. As

heavy alcohol consumption becomes normalized on college campuses, its association with student-specific

issues, such as academic motivation, should be investigated. Previous studies have found that 1 in 5 college

students reported falling behind on their schoolwork as a result of their alcohol consumption.1 In addition, 21%

of student’s self-report frequent binge-drinking in college (Figure 1). Students attend universities to obtain an

educationI, however data suggests that alcohol has a negative effect on academic performance and hinders a

student’s ability to complete their degree.1

We are interested in studying the relationship between alcohol consumption and academic motivation among

UW undergraduates. Our study will include a validated survey, the Academic Motivation Scale, as an indicator

of intrinsic academic motivation. Students are less likely to have motivation for academic behaviors after

sessions of heavy drinking. Lower academic motivation may lead to lower homework and test scores, which

results in a lower GPA. Our research question is what is the association between alcohol consumption and

academic motivation among UW undergraduate students?

III. Specific Aims

The descriptive aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of heavy alcohol consumption among

undergraduate students at the UW.3 Based on a survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services

Administration in 2015, we hypothesize that the prevalence of heavy alcohol consumption among

undergraduate students at the UW will be approximately 12.5%.2 Our analytic aim is to assess the association

between heavy alcohol consumption and academic motivation in undergraduate students at the UW. We

hypothesize that heavy alcohol consumption is negatively associated with academic motivation among

undergraduate students at the UW.

IV. Methods
Study Population: The study population of this project is UW undergraduates between the ages of 18 and 24

years old. Participants who are over 24 years old, faculty or graduate student members, and/or have pre-

existing depression, as determined by a PHQ-2 questionnaire, were excluded. Participants were recruited

through passive interaction with promotional material, such as social media posts and posted fliers, as well as

referral sampling from both study designers and participants to their respective friends. Social media posts

were posted on the UW Class of 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 Facebook pages and in various group

communication platforms from November 12th to November 22nd. While our target sample size was 100 eligible

participants, we recruited 205 participants, of which 176 met our eligibility requirements.

Data Collection Procedures: The survey was self-administered through an online Google Form to eligible

study participants. Informed consent is a requirement to access the survey. Participants were informed about

the survey primarily through the medium of communication — the social media post. The active component of

recruitment primarily constituted of the study designers reaching out on Facebook and other social media

platforms to recruit participants to the study. The study design did not anticipate any random component

contained therein.

Definition and Measurement of Key Variables: The exposures of our study include behaviors related to

excessive drinking among undergraduate students, such as how often the individual drinks per week, how

much they drink during one event, and what kind of alcohol they are consuming on average. Heavy drinking

was defined as consuming more than 15 alcoholic beverages per week for men and more than 8 alcoholic

beverages per week for women.3 It is necessary to know the type and amount of alcohol consumed to

calculate number of standard drinks.

To measure motivation, we have chosen to adapt six questions from a validated survey, the Academic

Motivation Scale, and generate a new scoring system. The maximum score of our system is 26: it is the sum of

the four intrinsic-motivation question scores and the two amotivation question scores. All questions are scored

on a scale of 1-7. However, amotivational scores subtract from the total. Poor academic motivation was

defined as obtaining a score of 13 or below, the halfway point on our scale.

Depression, screened for by the PHQ-2, was taken into consideration as a confounding variable in the study;

depression can contribute as a factor to a student’s academic motivation and use of alcohol. Because
depression may influence both academic motivation and alcohol use on a non-causal pathway, we screened

out individuals with high PHQ-2 scores. High PHQ-2 scores were determined by answering “every day” to one

or more of the following statements: “little interest of pleasure in doing things” or “feeling down, depressed, and

hopeless” over a period of two weeks.

Analysis Plan: We primarily assessed the prevalence of heavy alcohol consumption and low academic

motivation among UW undergraduate students by use of adapted validated surveys. Participants were

classified as heavy or light drinkers and having high or poor academic motivation. The measure of disease and

exposure occurrence was then used to calculate an odds ratio to determine the odds of poor academic

motivation with heavy alcohol consumption compared to those that do not heavily consume alcohol.

We additionally calculated the average number of days per week and the number of drinks consumed by use

of midpoint coding. This analysis method utilized the midpoint of our category ranges to generate estimated

mean values for the frequency and amount of alcohol consumption.

V. Results

Population Characteristics: Our sample population consisted of 205 undergraduate students at the

University of Washington. The sample population stratified into subgroups: biological sex at birth, shown below

in Table 1, and the class standing of the participants, shown below in Table 2. Overall, our sample skews

toward being female and of upperclassmen standing.

Aim I Findings: Aim I sought to find the prevalence of heavy alcohol consumption among undergraduate

students at the University of Washington. We found this prevalence value to be 0.47 for our entire study

population who met eligibility criteria. This value changes for different subgroups within our study population;

the prevalence of heavy alcohol consumption for women was 0.44, whereas the prevalence for men was 0.55.

By class standing, the prevalence of heavy alcohol consumption among upperclassmen (juniors and seniors)

was 0.33, whereas the prevalence for underclassmen (freshmen and sophomores) was 0.60 (Figure 2). We

also estimated average days per week that our study participants consumed alcohol as well as how many

drinks were consumed on each occasion. The average number of days that females consumed alcohol was

1.49 days per week, with a standard deviation of 1.16 days, compared to men who drank, on average, 2.19

days per week with a standard deviation of 1.77 days. During these occasions, females averaged 3.65 drinks
and males averaged 5.70 drinks; standard deviation of drinks were 2.69 and 3.73 drinks per session for those

subgroups respectively. In regard to class standings, underclassmen drank, on average, 1.86 days per week,

with a standard deviation of 1.55 days, and averaged 5.15 drinks, with a standard deviation of 3.31 drinks per

session. Upperclassmen drank, on average, 1.52 days per week, with a standard deviation of 1.17 days, with

an average of 3.37 drinks per session, with a standard deviation of 3.26 drinks (Figure 3).

Aim II Findings: Aim II investigates the association between heavy alcohol consumption and academic

motivation in undergraduate students at the University of Washington. The total number of participants

classified in the different academic motivation and alcohol consumption levels is shown in Figure 4 below. The

odds ratio of these two variables for the entire study population was 0.85 (95% CI: 0.39-1.88). In addition, odds

ratios were found for the stratified subgroups. The odds ratio between heavy alcohol consumption and poor

academic motivation for women was 0.64 (95% CI: 0.24-1.74) while the odds ratio for men was 1.33 (95% CI:

0.32-5.59). As for class standing, the odds ratio was 0.9 for underclassmen (95% CI: 0.26-3.13) and 0.93 for

upperclassmen (0.31-2.74). These findings are summarized in Figure 5 below.

VI. Discussion

Aim I: We hypothesized that the prevalence of heavy alcohol consumption among undergraduate students at

the UW, based on a previous literature search, to range from 12.5% to 21%2,4. However, our findings show that

47% of study participants heavily consume alcohol, a level that is much higher that previous studies suggest.

Thus, our results do not support our hypothesis. Possible explanations for this discrepancy between previous

studies and our results may be the result of selection bias and differences in populations. Due to our study

design, we primarily utilized convenience sampling to recruit study participants. Thus, many of the Facebook

posts were on Greek Community pages. It is plausible that the study participants recruited were primarily from

the UW Greek Community, and these recruited participants have different drinking habits from the general UW

undergraduate population. Furthermore, previous studies were focused on a nationwide undergraduate

population while we were interested in University of Washington undergraduates. Due to regional differences in

laws, beliefs, and attitudes toward alcohol, there may be a real difference in the alcohol consumption of the

University of Washington undergraduates compared to undergraduates nationwide. If this hypothesis holds

true, then our results may reflect this real difference. Therefore, further investigation is warranted into regional

differences in alcohol consumption by undergraduates.

Aim II: We hypothesized that the prevalence of heavy alcohol consumption is associated with low academic

motivation. Our findings indicate that the heavy consumption of alcohol is not associated with low academic

motivation, as the 95% Confidence Interval span an OR of 1 (OR: 0.85, 95% CI: 0.39-1.88). Furthermore, post

hoc stratification of different subgroups that show a non-significant trend in differences between biological sex.

This leads us to believe that sex could be an effect modifier in this study. The odds of a woman that drinks

heavily having low academic motivation is 0.64 times the odds of a woman that does not drink heavily (95% CI:

0.24-1.74). However, the odds of low academic motivation among men who drink heavily is 33% higher than

men that do not drink heavily (95% CI: 0.32-5.59). Despite these sex-specific differences in odds, the 95%

Confidence Intervals span each other, as well as across an OR of 1. As a result, no significant conclusions

from our results can be drawn, and our hypothesis of low academic motivation being associated with heavy

alcohol consumption is not supported. However, we believe that this non-significant result is due to limitations

in our study population size. Due to the study population having a high level of variability in responses, a larger

sample size is needed to determine if there is a change in academic beliefs and attitudes that result from

heavy alcohol consumption.

Strengths and Limitations of Study: A strength of the study is the sampling strategy. Through convenience

sampling, we were able to reach a sizeable population and recruit many study participants. In addition, we

anticipated for and screened out individuals with confounding mental health issues. Finally, we conducted a

post hoc stratification and analysis of odds of our participants along different demographic subgroups. This

suggests that male undergraduates are at risk of alcohol-induced low academic motivation. While post hoc

analysis of subgroups is less arguably strong than pre-specifying the subgroups, as no a priori hypothesis was

generated, it does point towards a future area of study.

An identified limitation in this study was the way questions were asked, specifically the number of days per

week alcohol was consumed and number of drinks consumed per drinking session. To make the survey

participant-friendly, we generated categories for our participants to choose from. Consequently, there is a

broad range of answers that makes result classification difficult. For example, our cutoff for heavy alcohol
consumption for females was 8 drinks per week. However, if a female responded that she drank 1 to 2 days

per week and consumed 4 to 6 drinks on each occasion, this gives a range of 4 to 12 drinks consumed per

week, meaning our heavy alcohol consumption cutoff was in the middle of this range. To solve this issue, we

utilized midpoint coding, where the midpoint of each category was defined as the numerical value for further

calculation. This allows estimation of mean number of drinks consumed per week, but this estimation may not

reflect the participant’s actual behavior. Altering the answer choices so that the participant can enter a

continuous value to these survey questions would increase internal validity, as we would not need to estimate

study participants’ alcohol consumption. However, this would result in a much more unfriendly survey

experience, potentially reducing the number of individuals who participate in our survey.

Additionally, our outreach materials were heavily posted on Facebook pages of UW’s Greek Life. While

unconfirmed, potential bias in the placement of our outreach material online could have resulted in an

unrepresentative sample compared to our target population, thereby limiting generalizability and internal

validity. Future studies conducted should utilized an unbiased selection of UW-associated Facebook pages to

post this survey on. This may decrease the likelihood that any subgroup is overrepresented in future surveys.

Moreover, as with all surveys that ask sensitive questions, potential response bias may be present. However,

we were unable to determine the level at which social desirability bias impacted the truthfulness of participant

answers due the survey being anonymous.

Conclusion and Implications: The study provided novel and unique information on the drinking habits and

academic motivation of undergraduate students at the University of Washington. The results of the study show

that a high percentage of UW undergraduates heavily consume alcohol. These are important results to

disseminate due to the short- and long-term adverse health outcomes associated with heavy alcohol

consumption. Due to the non-significant results of this study, further research needs to be done on the

relationship between heavy alcohol consumption and academic motivation. In addition, post hoc stratification

and analysis suggest that future investigations should utilize gender stratification. Finally, having a larger

sample size is needed to improve the power of this study, as well as better reflect our target population. This

would hopefully reduce the variability in responses, reduce the size of our 95% Confidence Intervals and

generate statistically significant result.

 Bibliography:

1. Perkins HW. Surveying the damage: a review of research on consequences of alcohol misuse in

college populations. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Supplement. 2002;(s14):91-100.

doi:10.15288/jsas.2002.s14.91.

2. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). 2015 National Survey on

Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). Table 6.84B—Tobacco Product and Alcohol Use in Past Month among

Persons Aged 18 to 22, by College Enrollment Status: Percentages, 2014 and 2015.

3. CDC - Frequently Asked Questions - Alcohol. (2018, March 29). Retrieved from

https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/faqs.htm.

4. Binge Drinking. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/magazine/winter09binge/. Published February 19,

2014. Accessed December 8, 2019.

Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 1: Proportion of Binge Drinkers in the United States College Student
Population. Figure taken from Winter, 2014 Magazine Published by the Harvard School of Public Health4.

Figure 2: Prevalence of Heavy Alcohol Consumption Among Sample Population, Stratified by Class
Standing and by Biological Sex Assigned at Birth.

Table 1: Sample Population as Stratified by Biological Sex at Birth

Figure 3: Mean Number of Alcohol Drinks Consumed by Sample Population and Stratified Subgroups per
Drinking Event. Error bars represent the standard deviation of number of alcoholic drinks consumed.
Figure 4: Number of Individuals who Have High and Low Levels of Academic Motivation, as Grouped by
Level of alcohol Consumption.

Figure 5: Odds of Heavy Alcohol Consumption Resulting in Poor Academic Motivation Among Sample
Population, Stratified by Class Standing and by Biological Sex Assigned at Birth. Bars indicate the 95%
Confidence Interval.