Peralta 23
Robert L. Peralta
Alcohol Use and the Fear of Weight Gain
in College: Reconciling Two Social Norms
1
Recent research reports a link between diet-related behavior and alcohol abuse among women,
but fails to explain this relationship. In the present study, a grounded theory approach is used
to explore the link between diet-related behavior, body image, and alcohol use among a
sample of college students. In the feminist tradition of “giving voice,” 78 college students
participated in semi-structured, face-to-face interviews to generate insight into the socio-
cultural practice of diet behavior and its association with alcohol use. Four specific categories
of diet-related behaviors in the context of alcohol use emerged. Students reported altering
their eating and drinking patterns, self-induced purging, or exercising to stave off unwanted
weight gain believed to be caused by alcohol use. These categories are useful for understand-
ing the alcohol-use and diet-related behavior associations reported in previous studies. Re-
sults suggest drinking behavior among some college students is perhaps mutually influenced
by socio-cultural pressures to conform both to body-image norms and to drinking norms.
Interventions to reduce college alcohol use and the social consequences that accompany such
behavior may need to take into account these social and psychological factors.
Introduction
Many studies have identified risk factors associated with problematic al-
cohol use for women (see Wilsnack and Wilsnack 1997). Diet-related behavior
has, for example, been identified as an important risk factor for alcohol-related
problems among clinical samples of women (Kozyk et al. 1998; Krahn et al.
1992, 1996; Cooley and Toray 2001). To my knowledge, no studies have at-
tempted to explain why diet-related behavior is predictive of alcohol use or
abuse among women, or if this association exists for men. Exploring the diet/
drinking association among college students is important for college health
professionals, alcohol prevention researchers, and educators given the increas-
ing prevalence and incidence of diet-related behaviors among both women and
Dr. Robert L. Peralta is an assistant professor at the University of Akron, Department of Sociology. His
research focuses on how social structural and cultural features of communities affect individual behavior.
In his research he addresses the roles of race, gender, and sexuality in alcohol use and alcohol-related
interpersonal violence.
24 Gender Issues / Fall 2002
men (Hoyt and Kogan 2001; Luciano 2002) and the stability of problematic
drinking behaviors among students despite college-based intervention efforts
designed to reduce abusive drinking on campus (Wechsler et al. 1998).
Background: Gender, Body Image, Diet-Related Behavior, and Alcohol Use
While men in college continue to drink more alcohol more often com-
pared to women, self-reported drinking rates among college women remain
high (Wechsler et al. 2002). Theories of gender construction have been pro-
posed to explain these gender differences (West 2001). Capraro (2000) argues
men drink “to be men” on campus or to construct and reinforce existing nor-
mative assumptions about manhood and male behavior. McCreary et al. (1999)
and others (West 2001; Cruz and Peralta 2001; Tomsen 1997) have indicated
male alcohol use and alcohol problems often are associated with pressures to
adhere to hegemonic masculinity standards (see Messerschmidt 1993; Connell
1995).
2
Indeed, alcohol use appears to be among the repertoire of behaviors
men rely upon to construct masculinity (see Messerschmidt 1993; West 2001).
Historically, similar problems with alcohol at the level experienced by
men largely have been absent for women (Wilsnack and Wilsnack 1996). Re-
searchers suggest that different societal expectations for female behavior serve
as protective factors and thus explain these gender differences (McCreary 1999).
While empirical evidence suggests drinking is largely of the “male domain,” in
general (Wilsnack and Wilsnack 1996) how gender roles influence alcohol use
among male and female college students is not well researched.
3
The recent proliferation of research on college alcohol use has overlooked
the important association between alcohol use and diet-related behavior. Alco-
hol abuse has been found to be associated with severe and less severe forms of
diet-related behavior. This area of research has theoretical promise for explain-
ing gender differences by highlighting differing socio-culturally-based reasons
why men and women use substances such as alcohol. The possible impact
these reasons have on how substance use is expressed by men and women is
also of interest.
Severe and less severe disordered eating patterns in clinical subgroups
reportedly have a fairly high comorbidity rate with alcohol abuse (Bulik et al.
1992; Striegel-Moore and Huydic 1993; Bulik 1987), especially eating disor-
ders that involve bulimia (Lacey and Moureli 1986; Strasser et al. 1992). In one
study, 225 college freshman women were asked questions on eating behavior
and alcohol use; seven months later 104 of the same women were reassessed.
Participants who reported greater use of alcohol during their freshman year,
Peralta 25
and who were more likely to report signs of alcohol use and abuse, also tended
to show worsening symptoms of eating pathologies (Cooley and Tamina 2001).
In another study using a sample of college students, Cooley and Toray
(2001) reported heavier alcohol use to be associated with worsening scores on
bulimia. Krahn et al. (1992) similarly reported a positive association for col-
lege-aged women between alcohol use and dieting severity. In sum, research
suggests as dieting severity increases, intensity and frequency of alcohol use
also increases. Researchers have concluded diet-related behavior and certain
alcohol- and drug-use behavior both appear to be culturally supported for ado-
lescent women (Krahn et al. 1992).
Historically, overweight men in the United States have been tolerated rela-
tive to overweight women. Furthermore, research suggests women in U.S. so-
ciety are more likely to be dissatisfied with their own bodies than are men
(Thompson et al. 1998; Grogan 1999). Dieting is so pronounced among girls in
the United States that at any given point in time, between one-half and two-
thirds of adolescent girls may be dieting (Huon and Brown 1986). The most
recent literature on body satisfaction indicates women continue to be more
dissatisfied with their bodies than men (McCreary and Sasse 2000). As a result,
women are more likely than men to use dieting and other weight-reduction
methods such as fasting and laxative abuse to help acquire a socially desirable
body shape. Laxative abuse, extreme dieting regimens (e.g., fasting), and self-
induced regurgitation are among the most extreme behaviors reported by women
to achieve a desired body shape (Grogan 1999). The pressures to achieve so-
cially approved bodies among women in college may be at odds with similar
pressures to engage in social alcohol use. The conflict exists because of the
belief that alcoholic beverages are high in calories. These opposing factors
create a social context where adaptation is required to meet two expectations of
alcohol use and socially acceptable appearance.
We know women are more likely than men to struggle with body-image
concerns. We also know associations between dieting behavior, eating disor-
ders, and alcohol use have been reported specifically for women. What we do
not know is how the social process of drinking in college and the meanings
attached to alcohol and its use are associated with diet-related behaviors. Prior
studies of student drinking often fail to ask open-ended questions about drink-
ing behavior and have thus been ill-equipped to address social-contextual ques-
tions about student alcohol use. Because prior reliance upon survey methodol-
ogy restricted students’ answers to limited and imposed choices, respondents
have not been able to inform investigators about their alcohol-related experi-
ences with meaningful depth. The social pressures and expectations college
26 Gender Issues / Fall 2002
students face have gone undetected in the absence of exploratory and in-depth
analyses.
Few studies have employed qualitative techniques to understand the socio-
contextual mechanisms associated with drinking among college students (West
2001). This research addresses these limitations directly by giving voice to
students and employing the exploratory technique of grounded theory. This
study does not define dieting and other weight management behaviors as “clini-
cal eating disorders.” Instead, I incorporated college students’ beliefs as ex-
pressed by their narratives to record, document, and chronicle their experi-
ences and views about dieting and physical appearance in relation to student
drinking experiences. Narratives capture contextual nuances and reveal the
meaning of college drinking in a way prevalence studies cannot.
4
Method
Participants
Respondents were a self-selected purposive sample of 78 undergraduate
students at a medium-sized state university in the mid-Atlantic region. Data
were collected between 1997 and 2001. College class ranking ranged from
freshmen to senior status. Students lived both on and off campus. Of the sample,
71% were White (N=55) and 26% (N=20) were Black. Two respondents were
of Hispanic origin and one respondent self-described as Asian. Fifty-three per-
cent (N=41) were male; 47% were female (N=37). Seventy-two percent (N=56)
self-identified as heterosexual, 22% (N=17) self-identified as homosexual, and
the remaining 6% (N=5) self-identified as bisexual. The mean (+/- SD) age was
20 years old +/- 2.75. Thirty-two percent (N=24) reported being freshmen at
the time of the interview, 15% were sophomores (N=11), 22% were juniors
(N=18), and 31% were seniors (N=25). Fifteen percent (N=11) of the sample
were members of a fraternity or sorority. Pseudonyms are used to protect the
informants’ identity.
Instrument
A semi-structured, open-ended interview guide consisting of 12 main ques-
tions was developed and pilot-tested by the primary author to study alcohol use
among college students. Many questions were presented in projective form to
reduce the response effect on threatening questions (see Sudman and Bradburn
1982). Demographic questions were asked in addition to questions about drinking
Peralta 27
quantity and frequency, attitudes toward drinking, reasons for drinking, expec-
tations of alcohol use, and consequences of drinking. The questionnaire instru-
ment included: “What do you think of the idea of getting drunk?”; “What have
been your experiences with alcohol use on this campus?”; “Do you (or do you
know anyone who) diets because of their drinking?”; and “Are you concerned
with the caloric content of alcohol?” Respondents were asked if they perceived
gender differences for each question.
Analysis
The purpose of this study was to explore issues related to drinking behav-
iors on a college campus. Grounded theory is the appropriate analytical tech-
nique for such a study. This technique allows respondents to inform the devel-
opment of both theory and relevant hypotheses for testing in future research
(see Lincoln and Guba 1985). All interviews were transcribed and coded by the
author and three trained research assistants. An initial content analysis was con-
ducted to identify patterns. After the initial analysis, a more thorough examina-
tion of the transcripts was conducted to identify emergent themes. Concepts
were developed and grouped, based upon the frequency of similar articulations
to substantiate emergent themes.
Once concepts were identified, inter-rater reliability was used to verify
consistency in coding and interpretation. After each transcript was coded inde-
pendently, the author and assistants met to identify coding and interpretation
discrepancies. Assistants included a sociology professor trained in qualitative
methods, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology with expertise in qualitative analysis,
and an undergraduate majoring in sociology. Discrepancies involving specific
concepts and themes were discussed and resolved through group consensus.
The emergent themes produced through this study included: social space (Black,
White, homosexual, and heterosexual space); coercion and power; gender con-
struction; social control; and diet-related behavior.
Procedure
This research was a part of a larger study on the drinking behaviors of
college students. A qualitative research design was used to document partici-
pants’ experiences with alcohol at a single mid-sized university in the mid-
Atlantic region of the United States. Students responded to class announce-
ments in sociology and criminology courses and to 10 posted notices placed in
campus areas frequented by students. Racial and sexual minority students were
purposely over-sampled to give voice to those who have been traditionally
28 Gender Issues / Fall 2002
excluded from research. Difficulty recruiting minority participants (African-
American and gay and lesbian students) prompted the use of $10 stipends to
encourage their participation.
The University Office of Human Research granted ethical approval for
the project. Interpersonal, in-depth interviews of 78 participants lasted from 45
minutes to one hour each and were conducted in private university offices.
Informed consent was given for participation and all respondents were assured
confidentiality. The interviews were conducted by the author (N=64; 82%) who
was a 27-year-old male at the time the interviewing began, and a trained 28-
year-old female research assistant (N=14; 18%).
Findings
This section presents the findings from the interviews conducted with both
men and women at the university. Table 1 presents a summary of the results by
gender. Percentages pertain to the number of students who engaged in the stated
behavior. Student descriptions of their behavioral processes associated with
conforming to both body image and drinking norms produced four major themes:
(1) altering eating patterns through skipping meals and/or eating less than usual
during a meal to reduce the total number of calories consumed; (2) adopting
altered drinking preferences (drinking less) or choosing alcoholic beverages
assumed to contain less calories such as “lite” beer to reduce the total number
of calories consumed; (3) exercising before and/or after a drinking event to
eliminate the body of calories already ingested; and (4) self-induced purging to
rid the body of calories already ingested.
Nearly 18% of the sample (17.9%) altered their eating patterns. A similar
number altered their drinking preferences in the context of alcohol use. Only
5.1% and 3.8% of the entire sample used exercise or self-induced purging to
eliminate ingested alcohol-calories. Women were at least twice as likely to re-
port engaging in any of the four diet-behaviors in comparison to men [See
Table 1].
The amount of drinking reported in this study is not as high as that re-
ported in studies using nationally representative samples.
5
Of the college women
in the present study, 9% reported drinking an average of four or more drinks in
a row when they did drink. Of the college men, 15% reported drinking five or
more drinks in a row when they did drink.
6
Students in the present study sug-
gest this type of drinking behavior is not necessarily due to a preference for the
taste of alcohol over other beverages. In fact, many students reported not en-
joying the “taste” of alcohol; other social and psychological reasons were used
Peralta 29
to explain drinking and heavy forms of drinking. A number of students did,
however, discuss “drinking to get drunk.” Concerns with body image emerged
as a reason indirectly related to the “drinking-to-get-drunk” phenomenon, as
illustrated by the following quote. Below, Jan’s account of why she chooses to
“drink to get drunk”:
I used to not drink beer because it’s fattening and I’ve had troubles with eating so it’s just like fat is
bad, so I don’t drink beer a lot. I don’t understand the concept of drinking socially. I like to drink to
get drunk. I mean that is the reason, the sole reason, I am drinking. You know, I mean it tastes
disgusting. I don’t like drinking at all. I don’t think I ever will like it, I don’t see a purpose of doing
it socially.
Jan reports that it does not make sense for her to drink in moderation. Jan
defined “drinking socially” as having a glass of wine with a meal. Dinking
socially, i.e., in moderation, does not achieve the intended purpose of drinking,
which is believed to be intoxication. If Jan is going to drink, she reports it is
necessary to become intoxicated, else she would acquire “empty calories” with-
out having felt the euphoria associated with heavy drinking. Jan suggests reaching
the goal of intoxication and hence euphoria counterbalances the ingestion of
empty calories. These sentiments were not uncommon and were expressed in
the narratives that support each of the four themes described in detail below.
Students’ direct experiences with these behaviors are presented first. Students’
knowledge of friends and acquaintances (responses to projective questions)
are presented following accounts of personal involvement with said behaviors
for each of the four emergent themes.
Table 1
Percent of Students Who Reported Engaging in Dieting-Related Behaviors in Relation to
Alcohol Use by Gender (n=78)
Women Men Total
Altered Eating Patterns 29.7% 7.3% 17.9%
(11) (3) (14)
Altered Drinking Preferences 27% 9.8% 17.9%
(10) (4) (14)
Exercising 10.8% 0 5.1%
(4) (0) (4)
Purging 5.4% 2.4% 3.8%
(2) (1) (3)
30 Gender Issues / Fall 2002
Altering Eating Patterns
Dieting is a strategy regularly used for weight maintenance (Huon and
Brown 1986), yet prior research has not identified alcohol use specifically as a
reason to diet. This study reveals how some men and women report dieting in
response to alcohol use. Of the entire sample, 18% reported altering their eat-
ing patterns in response to alcohol use. More women in the present study (29.7%)
report relying upon limiting food consumption as a solution to the problem of
ingesting “high-calorie” or “empty-calorie”
alcohol compared to men (7.3%).
7
Some students noted eating less than usual in order to drink as much as
desired without having to worry about gaining weight, while other students
skipped meals altogether before a planned night of drinking. Skipping meals
was a particularly attractive option, for two reasons. One, students reasoned it
took less alcohol to get drunk, which translated into fewer calories ingested;
second, food calories acquired through dinner, for example, were entirely
avoided. The following narratives illuminate these socio-cultural practices.
Kim: We used to not eat dinner before we would go out and drink. We usually drink lite beer, and
maybe if we want to get drunk more quickly we will not eat that day. It sounds really unhealthy and
it does become a factor [in staying healthy]. I don’t like to think I drink a ton but I don’t want to gain
weight from drinking.
Kim reported not eating dinner before a “party” night along with her friends
in order to avoid the problem of ingesting too many calories. Her account was
similar to others. The pressure to participate in alcohol-related social activities
and the pressure to maintain or achieve a desired body shape informed Kim’s
decision to exchange her dinner plans for a night of “partying.” Tara reported
similar experiences when answering a question about alcohol’s caloric content:
“I worry about that [alcohol use and eating]. During school we wouldn’t eat the
entire day and then we would go and drink.”
Men similarly expressed types of diet-related behavior discussed above.
Take James, for example. A male student who aspired to work in law enforce-
ment, he mirrored the activities and reasoning of his female counterparts docu-
mented above:
James: Yeah, I work out. It has to do with what I want to do, [which is] law enforcement. It’s my
career and I like to be in good shape. I don’t want to be fat. I’m not a muscle head, you know, I don’t
use steroids to stay ripped. But in summertime, especially in summertime, I think about the calories
in alcohol and avoid eating and drinking too much as [often] as I can.
Consider the following statement by Jack, a male undergraduate majoring
in engineering, regarding his anxiety over the caloric content of alcohol:
Peralta 31
Jack: I’m a light eater anyway, but you have to understand that a beer has a minimum of 100 calories
and I’m guessing that is for a lite beer. You put down 15 in a night and that’s a day’s meal for a lot of
people, so I try to avoid drinking and eating at the same time as much as possible.
Both men and women discussed their friends’ and classmates’ attempts to
maintain or conform to appropriate body shape norms through diet-related be-
havior in the context of pressure to use alcohol. Some women and men on
“party nights” avoided excess calories by not consuming as much food, which
in turn freed them to indulge in heavy alcohol use. With little to no food calo-
ries consumed on a night of planned drinking, students reported enjoying the
added benefit of requiring less alcohol to become intoxicated. Consider Mary’s
words in relation to this theme: “I think people do skip meals because they can
get drunk quicker and because they will consume fewer calories.” Similarly,
Julia said, “I know some of my friends would skip meals but they didn’t verbal-
ize it [skipping meals] as much.” Finally, another female voice provided further
insight into what is known about the use of dieting behavior in relation to alco-
hol use. Christine used the term “lightweight” in relation to her experiences
with college women, alcohol use, and diet-related behavior:
Christine: [Many] women here [at the university] will [call themselves] “lightweights” because a lot
of them don’t eat. Women will feel the effects of alcohol because they are not eating!
Many students discussed this issue with fellow students in their dorm rooms.
Jenny’s words exemplify how these social behaviors are communicated and
discussed among women:
Jenny: We used to talk about it actually, probably freshman year. We used to compare how many
calories were in something compared to beer. That didn’t last long, but I do know people who, if they
were gonna go out and drink, would cut back on their food calories for the day so that they could
make up for them [with alcohol].
Some students described their friends as “anorexic” when discussing the
question of alcohol use and dieting behavior. Take Stacy’s account:
My anorexic friend goes through extremes as far as cutting back a little bit. She just wouldn’t eat all
day. Sometimes we would say something to her and maybe she would have a piece of bread or
something. There was [always] an excuse to drink but never [one] to eat.
Samantha further illuminated this theme in talking about her friend’s be-
havior:
A female friend of mine would skip meals before going out and partying, she was really anorexic but
she also used to drink a lot.
32 Gender Issues / Fall 2002
These two examples are suggestive of the presence of eating disorders
among college females. Unfortunately, there is no way of verifying whether or
not any respondents or the friends they speak of are or have been clinically
diagnosed with eating disorders. In the next section, the negotiation of drinking
and body-image norms are further explored in the context of altered drinking
patterns.
Altered Drinking Preferences
Drinking habits are a part of college culture and are routinely controlled
by many factors, including socio-cultural control agents (Peralta, 2005). Al-
tered drinking preferences emerged as a theme because the fear of weight gain
informed the question of choice of alcohol type (regular beer versus lite beer)
and how much alcohol was to be used per sitting (quantity). Of the sample,
18% discussed altering their drinking patterns in response to the fear of weight
gain. Primarily women (27%) reported altering their drinking patterns in their
attempt to negotiate drinking pressures with pressures to conform to body shape.
Nearly 10% of men acknowledged engaging in this behavior.
In terms of quantity, students reported the fear of weight gain as altering
their drinking behavior in an unexpected direction. At first glance, one would
think heavy drinking would be avoided due specifically to the caloric content
of alcohol, especially for those men and women concerned with body image.
But for some men and women the exact opposite was the case. As one female
student plainly said, “If you are going to drink, you better get drunk,” because
“it makes no sense to drink alcohol if you don’t get some kind of buzz.” Spe-
cifically, it makes “no sense” to drink for the pleasure of having a single drink
or having a glass of wine with a meal because of the unnecessary consumption
of empty calories and the dreaded possibility of weight gain.
Women were more likely than men to self-report favoring lite beers, shots,
or mixed drinks. Men were more likely to avoid lite beers or other “feminine”
drinks, while a minority of men did seek out these lower-calorie alcoholic bev-
erages. Women preferred lite beer, shots, and mixed drinks because of the per-
ceived lower caloric content of these drinks. Men self-reported favoring beer,
especially heavier or dark beers, unless they themselves took steps to adhere to
body image norms.
While most men did not alter their drinking preferences due to body image
concerns, some did. The following two accounts specifically demonstrate how men
sometimes altered their drinking preferences due to body image concerns. Greg
discussed his diet, which involved choosing between certain types of alcohol
8
:
Peralta 33
Greg: “Recently I have been watching [my weight]. I’ve started this diet where I need to drink all lite
beer. I’m not crazy about it, but you know. The guys call me “Coors Lite”, [or] “Girls Lite.”
Finally, Adam below discusses why he chooses “hard” liquor over beer:
Adam: Yes, I think about it [calories in alcohol]. I guess that’s the advantage of drinking hard liquor.
It’s not as hard on the appearance of your body. I’m sure hard liquor is worse for you internally
[Adam is referring here to alcohol-related health consequences] but I still do it to avoid the calories.
The calorie-percent-to-alcohol ratio of mixed drinks and lite beers com-
pared to regular beer or other types of drinks was actively sought out by those
concerned enough about body image to alter their drinking patterns. Take Meg’s
account as an example of how choice of alcohol is influenced by body image
concerns for acquaintances and friends of respondents: “One of my best friends
went on a diet and she stopped drinking beer altogether while she was on that
diet.” Another student named Amy mentioned how she would frequently “over-
hear” people in her dorm discuss their concerns over the caloric-content of
alcohol. Choosing lighter drinks was thought to compensate for the threat of
weight gain posed by partying.
Tamara: I remember one time I asked for a Sam Adams and this girl was like, “How can you drink
that? It has so many calories!” Girls definitely care about what they drink and it affects me. We don’t
want to gain weight.
Comparatively, most men interviewed did not report being concerned about
alcohol’s caloric content enough to alter their own alcohol use. Some men,
however, reported knowing of women’s concerns with the caloric content
of alcohol. Mike’s statement is an example of how some men discuss
women’s concerns over the “fattening” aspects of alcohol use. He reported,
“The girls always complain about the amount of calories in alcohol. I’ve never
really thought about it.” Mike constructed the concern as primarily a “woman’s
issue.”
Many men recount examples of their female acquaintances engaging in
specific drinking styles. Mitch, for example, said, “I know girls who will drink
only shots or they will drink like mixed drinks that are sugar free [due to
caloric content of other types of alcoholic beverages].” Tyler observed,
“Women will drink a lite beer and will drink less because they don’t want to
get fat.” Justin further noted, “The girls who worry about how they look,
they’re usually the ones who drink more; they’re the ones who worry about
their self image.”
Women, too, had their stereotypes of female drinking behavior.
34 Gender Issues / Fall 2002
Meg: If women are that concerned about calories, which they are, I don’t think they should be
drinking beer at all, because the food is going to be better for you than beer, and if you’re that worried
about your shape you should not drink beer.
Some students reported altering drinking habits is a way for them to curb
their intake of calories, whether it be through limiting their intake of alcohol or
by choosing one form of alcohol over another (e.g., beer versus hard liquor, or
regular beer versus lite beer). Engaging in these behaviors helps women and
men avoid the stigmatized status of being “overweight” (Schur 1984) while
complying with the normative culture of college alcohol use.
Exercise and Self Induced-Purging
Reliance upon exercise and self-induced purging were the third and fourth
sets of behaviors associated with college students’ alcohol use. Of the sample,
5% reported engaging in these behaviors as a result of alcohol use. The use of
exercise as a strategy to maintain an ideal weight or to lose weight has been
well established in the research literature (Thompson and Chad 2002; O’Dea
and Abraham 2002). Excessive exercise and self-induced purging after meals
are understood as symptomatic of eating disorders (Thompson and Chad 2002;
O’Dea and Abraham 2002) and alcohol problems among clinical samples of
women (Bulic 1987).
What follows is an analysis of college student narratives pertaining to
these two diet-related behaviors as they are utilized in relation to alcohol use.
Only 10.8% of these women reported regularly exercising before or after a
night of drinking to “burn the alcohol calories off.” Use of exercise was the
only diet behavior men did not report using to stave off unwanted weight gain
due to alcohol use. Patty’s account illustrates how women use exercise in rela-
tion to their alcohol use:
Patty: I exercise a lot before and after drinking because of the calories. I got pretty skinny and I
thought I looked great. But I have to keep an eye on it [the drinking and exercise to maintain my
weight]”.
Perhaps the most disturbing theme to emerge was the reliance upon self-
induced purging as a way to negate superfluous alcohol-calories. Two women
and one male student reported purging purposefully after a night of drinking.
While this behavior is not meant to be indicative of existing eating disorders for
students in this study, students did discuss this behavior in relation to their own
existing eating disorders. Sarah, for example, explicitly refers to herself as
“anorexic”:
Peralta 35
Sarah: It’s different for me because I exercise all the time and a lot of times I won’t eat. So that affects
me. Because I’m anorexic, it’s a disease I will have forever. That’s one of the reasons I get so drunk
when I drink. After I drink, I make myself throw up.
While this was one of the least self-reported behaviors, many students
reported knowing someone who did engage in self-purging due to the fear of
gaining weight from alcohol calories. A female student recalled how her friend
would “throw up” after drinking:
I know women who are concerned with the calories. A friend of mine throws up after she drinks,
especially after she realized a Corona has 600 calories per bottle! I used to be concerned with my
body, but now I am comfortable with it. When I was dieting, I would only drink hard alcohol and not
beer because hard alcohol has empty calories whereas beer just goes straight to your thighs. Every-
one thinks this; if you are at all concerned about your body, this is what you do.
Kim was asked if she knew anyone who made conscious decisions about
what type of alcohol they were going to drink:
Kim: Girls will sometimes not eat as much because then it takes less to get drunk which means you
absorb fewer calories…and if you don’t eat a lot, then maybe you can throw up. Some girls like to
because then they think they are getting rid of [the calories].
Jessica described the intertwined aspects of exercise and self-induced purg-
ing in relation to alcohol use:
Jessica: I have a friend who likes to make herself throw up when she’s been drinking and we try to
talk her out of it because it’s not healthy to do, and sometimes we will all exercise a lot at the
beginning of the week if we know we are going to be drinking a lot later in the week.
While the majority of students did not describe themselves as engaging in
purging and exercise directly, these same students did report knowing of some-
one who exercised to burn off alcohol calories. Students suggested I should
visit the school gym on Thursday or Friday early evenings (“party nights”) or
on Sundays (“recovery days”) to witness the “packed” gym. Students felt the
gym was packed with students who were ridding their bodies of unwanted
calories obtained from weekend drinking activities. Ben and Angie provided
narratives illustrative of this behavior among students other than themselves:
Ben: Girls are concerned with the amount of calories in alcohol ... like last night we did shots, like
four or five apiece, and the one girl who doesn’t work out didn’t say anything about the calories but
the other girl who works out was complaining about the calories and how she had worked out really
hard that day and so she ended up burning off those calories that she drank in the shots ... and so that
it ‘evened it out’ for her, she said. She wasn’t complaining about it as much as she was stating how
she was going to go work out again in order to burn more off ... she mentioned her workout that day
[needed to] equalize her drinking.
36 Gender Issues / Fall 2002
Angie’s narrative similarly illustrates the use of this diet-related behavior
to negotiate the problem of weight gain caused by the social pressure to drink
among friends, classmates, and college acquaintances.
Angie: I know people that exercise to make up for heavy nights of drinking. Some friends actually
during the day when they know they are going to go out that night will say, “Oh, we better get our
exercise in right now so we will burn calories by the time tonight comes.” This [exercising] also
happens the day before [planned drinking events].
While the behaviors described in this section were the least self-reported
among students interviewed, many students knew of other students who en-
gaged in these specific diet-related behaviors. The socio-cultural pressure to
remain or become thin or fit, couched in a culture of alcohol use, appears to
produce adaptations in students’ behavior that range from modifying eating
and drinking practices to using exercise and self-induced purging to rid the
body of excess calories.
Women and men alike reported feeling pressure from their peers to drink.
This social context represents a component of what students referred to as the
“college drinking culture.” Students felt this “drinking culture” was a signifi-
cant aspect of their college experience. While not all students reported drinking
to the point of intoxication, many students did imply that drinking implicitly
meant heavy drinking.
9
Similar to drinking pressures, both male and female students reported feel-
ing pressure to maintain or construct an “ideal” body type. In the present study,
40% of students reported concern about the calories in alcohol. To be success-
ful at meeting the demands of drinking and staying thin, students admitted to
engaging in more extreme forms of dieting activity to reconcile the two com-
peting pressures of drinking and maintaining an appropriate body shape. Im-
plications for these self-reported behaviors are discussed below.
Discussion
This study explores why diet-related behaviors might be associated with
alcohol use. A relationship between alcohol use and diet-related behavior was
evident from interviews, and therefore corroborates existing research (see Kozyk,
Touyz, and Beumont 1998; Krahn et al. 1992, 1996; Cooley and Toray 2001).
Student narratives reveal how the cultural pressures to use alcohol are inter-
twined with similar cultural pressures to conform to beauty standards. Emer-
gent themes suggest drinking behavior and efforts to comply with dominant
standards of “health” (perhaps a code word used for beauty) intertwine, rein-
Peralta 37
force, and inform one another in a body-image conscious society. These find-
ings call attention to the importance of socio-cultural pressures to conform to
perceived body-image and drinking standards and their effect on drinking be-
havior among college students.
Women in college, like men, use alcohol in part to be accepted by peers
(Wechsler et al. 2002). Historically, women have had to meet strict beauty norms
compared to men (Schur 1986). Men, however, are increasingly exposed to
rigid standards of beauty (Luciano 2001). Thus, both women and men are likely
to feel social pressure to reconcile drinking norms with the desire for a socially
acceptable body shape. While in college, cultural pressures to drink, as well as
cultural pressures to conform to body image norms, may be playing a role in
shaping drinking behaviors.
Empirical evidence for a relationship between diet-related behaviors and
drinking behaviors rooted in a socio-cultural landscape of conflicting norms
and expectations emerged from this study. What is more, this relationship was
found for both college men and women, suggesting men also are susceptible to
the interrelationship between alcohol-use norms and pressures to conform to
beauty norms. Data presented here suggest a number of women and men in the
present sample express sufficient anxiety over caloric content of alcohol to
engage in diet-related behaviors of varying severity. These behaviors appear to
be adopted specifically to avoid the possibility of alcohol-related weight gain.
Moreover, students who did not admit to engaging in these reported diet-re-
lated behaviors did mention that they were aware of friends and acquaintances
who engaged in these behaviors for similar reasons. The four specific emergent
themes identified here were: (1) altered eating patterns; (2) altered drinking
preferences; (3) use of exercise; and (4) self-induced purging. These themes
highlight how diet-related behaviors can be associated with the use of alcohol.
The first two themes can be understood as changes in consumption be-
haviors resulting from a concern for calories. Some students reported alcohol
and eating cannot fit harmoniously into their daily lives. Of the interviewed
students, 18% were categorized as students who were conscious of food and
alcohol calories and tended to eat less or skip meals altogether before or after a
night of drinking. Eighteen percent of students were found to be conscious of
the caloric content of alcohol and thus active in limiting their alcohol use or
altering the type(s) of alcohol consumed. These behaviors are reportedly being
used to enable students to conform to perceived drinking standards and to beauty
norms.
The last two themes can be understood as behaviors designed to eliminate
alcohol calories already absorbed by the body. Five percent of students re-
38 Gender Issues / Fall 2002
ported negotiating the drinking and weight gain problem through exercise. These
diet-related behaviors comprised the third theme emerging from the present
study. Finally, nearly 4% of the sample reported using self-induced purging as
a strategy to negotiate the alcohol-diet dilemma and purging behaviors do not
require students to curb their eating or drinking like the first two descriptive
categories. These behaviors allowed students to continue eating and drinking
what they desired despite competing body image norms which may have
blocked others from doing so. Concerns with body image were dealt with through
exercise or purging in the time before or after drinking events. These behaviors
can thus be understood as behaviors used to rid the body of excess calories
acquired through alcohol use.
These data have implications for university student policies. College health
professionals, college administrators, and researchers alike should consider diet-
related behaviors among men and especially among women as potential risk
factors for alcohol abuse. When considering prevention efforts, college coun-
selors, coaches, and health professionals should note body image concerns
may be associated with alcohol use. Moreover, students presenting with alco-
hol abuse problems may need to be screened for eating disorders. Finally, risks
associated with under-eating or fasting before a night of partying may need to
be included in educational presentations, pamphlets, and other alcohol-related
material distributed to college students.
It is important to note the strengths and weaknesses of this study. Con-
ducting qualitative research on college drinking is a valuable yet underutilized
technique. This methodology allows for students to discuss at length what al-
cohol use means to them and what the social processes involved in drinking
entail. The open-ended questioning technique and grounded theory approach
used here generated data rooted directly in the experiences of students. Use of
these techniques grants students the opportunity to effectively contribute to the
development of empirically rooted theories about gender, diet-related behav-
iors, drinking and alcohol among students. The question of diet-related behav-
iors was not considered at the outset of the study. Pilot interviews with students
revealed the importance and relevance of body-image consciousness and diet
behavior to the use of alcohol. In keeping with qualitative methodology, themes
concerning diet behavior in relation to alcohol use emerged on their own.
Two limitations of the present study are addressed here. First, because this
was an exploratory study designed to develop theoretical constructs and to
explore the meaning of alcohol use for college students and the social context
of college alcohol use, purposive and non-probability sampling was use. Dif-
ferent experiences may be found at universities with differing populations and
Peralta 39
locations. Our understanding of the relationship between alcohol use and diet
behavior would benefit from replicating this study at other universities. Adopt-
ing representative samples would provide generalizable and more conclusive
data about the association between drinking behaviors and diet-related behav-
ior. Second, this research cannot identify the cause-and-effect relationship be-
tween dieting behavior and drinking. Did the drinking or the diet behavior
emerge first, or did they develop simultaneously? Longitudinal work may re-
veal important patterns relevant to the etiology of drinking and dieting behav-
ior.
As with many studies, this research produced more questions than an-
swers. Drinking behaviors among female college students are especially im-
portant to understand given women’s particular risk for physical and sexual
victimization associated with alcohol use (Vicary et al. 1995; Harrington et al.
1994; Wechsler et al. 1998; Synovitz and Byrne 1998) as well as school-related
and other health-related problems unique to women. Moreover, the drinking
styles reported here (such as drinking “on an empty stomach”) may place stu-
dents, especially women, at risk for various forms of victimization and may in
turn partly explain why women who use alcohol are at elevated risk for specific
alcohol-related problems such as sexual assault, date rape, and rape (Vicary et
al. 1995; Harrington et al. 1994; Wechsler et al. 1998; Synovitz and Byrne
1998; Bachman and Peralta 2001).
Two research questions in particular emerge from this study: (1) Are women
and men who engage in the types of diet-related behavior described above at
increased risk for interpersonal violence while in college given their suscepti-
bility to higher levels of intoxication compared to those who do not diet? and
(2) What is the prevalence of these behaviors in relation to alcohol use in the
general population? While use of exercise and purging behaviors was less com-
mon for this sample compared to the first two categories of diet-related behav-
ior, it is important to determine the prevalence and incidence of these behaviors
for college students and people in general given the corresponding increased
risk for alcohol-related and health-related consequences (e.g., bulimia and an-
orexia).
Finally, one of the goals behind examining the drinking experiences of
students was to gain an understanding of student’s general experiences with
alcohol, particularly the positive and negative consequences of alcohol use.
Although there is a growing body of knowledge about the prevalence and con-
sequences of alcohol use among students (Wechsler et al. 2001), it remains
unclear how the social context of the college environment influences alcohol
use for students. What meaning does alcohol hold for these men and women,
40 Gender Issues / Fall 2002
and more importantly, what are the social processes involved in the use of
alcohol? Are alcohol use and associated concerns with body image of concern
to college students of color, and if so, how? Answers to these questions can
inform the literature on alcohol use, college health, and larger sociological ques-
tions of gender and race simultaneously.
Notes
1. I would like to thank professors Cynthia Robbins, Margaret Andersen, and Ronet Bachman for
their support and guidance on all aspects of this research. I am indebted to the insight and suggestions
made on drafts of this paper from J. M. Cruz, Ph.D., and P. Guerino. To Tricia Wachtendorf and Erin
Gladding, thank you for all your assistance in the collection and analysis of data. For the careful and
critical thought put into an earlier draft of this paper, I would like to acknowledge the anonymous
reviewers at Gender Issues. And finally, I am grateful to the students who shared with me their views
and experiences with alcohol use.
2. Alcohol problems include health problems, alcohol-related violence, problems with addiction,
and other social problems stemming from the abuse or dependence on alcohol.
3. What is more, the narrowing gender gap in substance use has not been adequately explained.
This is in part due to a lack of systematic research on the question of gender construction in substance
abuse research (Johnson et al. 2001). Socio-cultural questions related to gender issues such as “dread of
weight gain” may explain some of the lower rates of drinking we have seen and continue to see among
college women.
4. It is important to note the question of race in this research. Future manuscripts will document
systematically the racial differences emerging from the present study and their sociological implications
for alcohol abuse, race relations between and among students, and differing social constructs of beauty.
The majority of Black women interviewed (N=20) reported very little if any alcohol use. Further, Black
women did not report engaging in any dieting-related behavior associated with alcohol whatsoever.
These important racial differences speak to cultural differences as well as to the racialized space of the
college campus where the study took place (see Peralta, 2005). Thus, the data presented in this paper
speak to the experiences of White college student participants.
5. This may be due to the sampling technique employed and/or the face-to-face interview aspect
of the present study, which differs from research designs used by large, national probability samples.
6. The prevalence of “binge” drinking reported here is far below the national figures reported in
the literature. Wechsler et al. (2001) report over 40% of college students engage in risky and heavy
drinking behavior. The lower rates reported here may be an artifact of the sample. It is unknown whether
students who engage in heavier drinking practices engage in more diet-related behaviors.
7. “High-calorie” and “empty-calorie” were terms used by students to describe alcoholic bever-
ages.
8. Greg’s reference to “Girls Lite” refers to the gendered nature of alcoholic beverages. “Lite
beer” connotes a female beverage because women are expected to be more concerned with body image
than are men. Despite the fact that Greg admits to drinking lite beer, his narrative suggests men who
drink lite beers are a contradiction in terms, as men are not supposed to consume beverages meant for
women and are hence susceptible to ridicule.
9. Four or more drinks for women, five or more for men has been defined as “binge” drinking for
students in the college student alcohol use literature (see Wechsler et al. 2001).
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