Young adults in college using fake IDs to buy alcohol are more likely to engage in high-risk drinking and are at a greater risk for developing drinking problems, a new study finds.


Heavy drinkers were more likely to use a fake ID to buy booze, the study concluded, and students with access to alcohol through false identification tended to increase their consumption in both frequency and quantity. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents in the study used fake IDs to buy alcohol among a sample of 1,015 college students.


The study was written[1] by researchers at the Center on Young Adult Health and Development at the University of Maryland School of Public Health and at the University of Maryland College Park psychology department.


"In our sample, we found a clear pathway from more frequent false ID use to more frequent drinking, which led to greater risk for developing alcohol dependence, even after adjusting for several risk factors for AUDs," said Amelia M. Arria, associate professor of behavioral and community health at UMD. "Thus, we believe false ID use contributes to high-risk drinking patterns because it increases the accessibility of alcohol and makes it easier for students to drink more frequently."


Students were more likely to have used a fake ID to drink before they turned 21 based on the younger they first drank alcohol, "greater levels of alcohol and drug involvement during high school, higher levels of sensation-seeking, Greek life involvement, and living off-campus," according to a news release. Arria believes "false ID use might be 'adding fuel to the fire' among students who are already high-risk drinkers."


"I think some of the most important findings to come out of this study have to do with how widespread this problem is," Jennifer Read, an associate psychology professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, said in a statement. "I was surprised that almost two-thirds of the students used false IDs."


Arria said it's unclear how these results would change among young adults of the same age who were not attending college.



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  • 1920's


    In the 1920's, many colleges were still segregated by gender. Some schools, like American, Cornell, Penn, Iowa, Oberlin and Bates, became or <a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/naw/nawstime.html">were founded as coeducational</a> in the 19th century. But Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth and others <a href="http://www.yale.edu/opa/arc-ybc/v29.n23/story4.html">didn't integrate the sexes</a> until the 1960's or 70's. The only time men and women would interact was through fraternities and sororities at formal events like dances and dinners, according to <a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/The_damned_and_the_beautiful.html?id=A_0YAAAAIAAJ">The Damned and the Beautiful: American Youth in the 1920's by Paula Fass</a>. Greek life <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/140416/why_is_the_frat_boy_culture_so_sleazy_and_sex-crazed" target="_blank">was the hub for dating</a>, and formal student organizations on campus defined the social structure. This was the Prohibition era, so any drinking took place in private in the fraternity houses or off campus <a href="http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/books/sat2/history/chapter16section3.rhtml" target="_blank">at speakeasies and jazz clubs</a>. Any "college party" on campus<a href="http://redd.it/1epfaf" target="_hplink"> would be formalized</a>, according to <a href="http://www.reddit.com/user/1Tw03Four" target="_hplink">redditor 1Tw03Four</a>, like dinners that include a lot of speeches and other specific rituals.




  • 1930's


    Female education <a href="http://filsonhistorical.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/64-1-3_College-Women-in-the-1930s-The-Possibilities-and-the-Realities_Brisbay-Erin.pdf" target="_blank">was on the rise</a>, but it typically focused on <a href="kclibrary.lonestar.edu/decade30.html" target="_blank">preparing women to be wives</a>, and attending college was <a href="http://ruthlace.blogspot.com/2007/02/going-to-school-in-1930s.html" target="_blank">still not typical</a>. Like the 20's, social life continued to revolve around formal events and dances, joining <a href="http://mwc1930s.umwblogs.org/social/" target="_blank">official student clubs</a>, and the colleges attempted to <a href="http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/libs/scua/douglass_scholars/article6.shtml" target="_blank">regulate students' free time</a>. There may have been cracks in the social structure, but <a href="http://newdeal.feri.org/students/essay05.htm" target="_blank">it appears that it remained largely intact</a>.




  • Early 1940's


    The United States entered World War II in 1941, which took quite a lot of male students and faculty away from campuses as they enlisted in the military. A lot of campuses <a href="http://barnard.edu/events/student-life-during-wartime-world-war-ii-barnard-college" target="_blank">mobilized for how</a> they could contribute to the war effort. <a href="http://www.berea.edu/media-relations/navy-servicemen-stationed-at-berea-college-during-wwii-gather-for-a-reunion-on-campus-june-4-6/" target="_blank">Portions of campus</a> and instruction were given <a href="http://www.bc.edu/libraries/about/exhibits/burns/ww2.html" target="_blank">over to the military</a>. Harvard University president <a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1956/12/7/college-life-during-world-war-ii/" target="_blank">James B. Conant said</a> on Dec. 8, 1941: "The United States is now at war ... We are here tonight to testify that each one of us stands ready to do his part in insuring that a speedy and complete victory is ours. To this end I pledge all the resources of Harvard University." The Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper,<a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1956/12/7/college-life-during-world-war-ii/" target="_blank"> even ceased production </a>and was replaced by a twice weekly paper called Service News, absent of any editorial until Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1945 death. Many of the students left behind, <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1epfaf/im_a_typical_college_student_in_america_and_im/ca3823l" target="_blank">1Tw03Four writes on reddit</a>, were still in service so they would've been in uniform on campus and obeying strict codes of conduct, and "a lot of the campus socializing, events, and parties that had been the hallmark of student life in the 20s and 30s disappeared."




  • Late 1940's


    After the war, the GI Bill sent a huge wave of returning veterans to school, some of them attending as a way to move <a href="http://voices.yahoo.com/how-adjusted-sailor-civilian-after-wwii-11413782.html?cat=7" target="_blank">on from the war</a>. The proportion of the student body made of women is suddenly dwarfed by the huge influx of America's boys home from the war, according to <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/pubs93/93442.pdf" target="_blank">statistics from the U.S. Department of Education</a>. And after winning WWII, these military vets weren't about to let traditional social dynamics of campus regulate their lives completely, as <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1epfaf/im_a_typical_college_student_in_america_and_im/ca3823l" target="_blank">explained by redditor 1Tw03Four</a>, and the returning vets are more likely to drink/curse/have sex than earlier generations of college students. As far as diversity, some states are<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/18/us/college-segregation-persists-study-says.html" target="_blank"> still segregated</a>, pushing black students to certain colleges that <a href="http://www.jessicapettitt.com/images/Merisotis.pdf" target="_blank">either catered to the African-American community</a> or were already allowing equal opportunities. The LGBT community, however, is very much underground, <a href="http://www.oberlinlgbt.org/content/Behind-the-Masks/WWII-Veterans-A-Whole-Gay-World-Had-Come-Out/the-kinsey-report-sexual-identity-and-oberlin-tearooms-late-1940s.html" target="_blank">going to secret parties or bars</a>.




  • 1950's


    Dating life on campus shifted to a focus on <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/274670/a-1950s-guide-to-dating/" target="_blank">finding someone to marry</a>, and advice for women <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/books/review/Schuessler.t.html?_r=0" target="_blank">centered around keeping husbands happy</a>. On reddit, <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1epfaf/im_a_typical_college_student_in_america_and_im/ca3823l" target="_blank">1Tw03Four writes</a> students were often looking to go steady and ended up socializing off campus either as a couple or in groups of couples, creating cracks in the control by the universities on student behavior. But it's still a very different scene than today's campuses -- some colleges still had <a href="https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/colloquia/women_teaching/reflections/node/338089" target="_blank">no women teaching</a>, some wrote in their handbooks when women were <a href="http://studentactivism.net/2011/04/14/chivalry-and-rape-on-the-american-campus-of-the-1950s/" target="_blank">allowed to date</a>. Another development after the war, which 1Tw03Four admitted to <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1epfaf/im_a_typical_college_student_in_america_and_im/ca3823l" target="_blank">in the comments</a>, was the rise of attendance at state universities. Students typically have more affluence in the post-war economy, which 1Tw03Four said brings "an increasingly youth-oriented consumer culture" of students cruising in cars, going to drive-ins, concerts and restaurants.




  • 1960's


    A "submerged tension" on campus boiled to the surface, as students declared they were mature enough to not need curfews and chaperone rules, according to redditor <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1epfaf/im_a_typical_college_student_in_america_and_im/ca3823l" target="_blank">1Tw03Four</a>. This decade brought<a href="http://www.salon.com/2009/06/04/frat_boy/" target="_blank"> the sexual revolution</a>, and you can finally visit your girlfriend in her dorm room. While we can't assume the sexual revolution is representative of every student in the 60's, photos that Acclaim posted suggest <a href="http://www.acclaimmag.com/arts/student-house-party-photos-from-1960s/" target="_blank">students were certainly less prude</a>. And don't forget, "Animal House" was set in 1962 and based on experiences the writers had<a href="http://thedartmouth.com/2006/11/09/news/miller" target="_blank"> during their fraternity days in the 60's at Dartmouth College</a> and Washington University in St. Louis. The traditional conformity was challenged not only by the sexual revolution, but also because more working class, minority and female students <a href="http://www.pbs.org/opb/thesixties/topics/politics/" target="_blank">are in college at this point</a>. <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1epfaf/im_a_typical_college_student_in_america_and_im/ca3823l" target="_blank">1Tw03Four says</a>: "So this is where the 'college party' in the sense that we think of it today really becomes possible: for the first time, students can go and do what they like, and not face severe disciplinary consequences from their school or from their peers." How else is conformity challenged? There was also increased activism, including the civil rights movement, protests against the Vietnam war and the growth of the counterculture. Notable examples of activism on campus included<a href="http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/jofreeman/sixtiesprotest/berkeley.htm" target="_blank"> the Berkeley Free Speech movement</a> or the <a href="http://www.columbia1968.com/history/" target="_blank">Columbia University occupation</a>, (which is surely reminiscent of the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/10/thousands-gather-for-occupy-cal-protest_n_1086963.html" target="_blank">Occupy Cal</a>, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/30/cooper-union-commencement-2013_n_3361217.html" target="_blank">Cooper Union</a> and <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/29/dartmouth-rape-death-threats_n_3157298.html" target="_blank">Dartmouth protests</a> of late). At the University of Notre Dame, a<a href="http://www3.nd.edu/~otters/history.php" target="_blank"> residence hall decided</a> in the 1960's to secede from the university in protest of the Vietnam War.




  • 1970's


    The activism, counterculture and the rise of the subculture continued through the late 60's into the 1970's. <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1epfaf/im_a_typical_college_student_in_america_and_im/ca3823l" target="_blank">1Tw03Four explains</a> one might've gone to an anti-war meeting, a rock concert to drink or smoke, or "just go on a double date to the movies," while the Greek system's model of formal parties remains. It's safe to assume the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/05/books/review/Buckley3.t.html" target="_blank">"Animal House"-style parties</a> continued, as evidenced in <a href="http://deadspin.com/5818693/hey-it-was-the-seventies-mark-cuban-narrates-a-gallery-of-his-debaucherous-college-rugby-years/" target="_blank">photos from Mark Cuban's Indiana University days</a>. One of the photos Deadspin posted showed "rugger bowling," which was when they threw a naked rugby player down a table into a stack of cups. Actually, <a href="http://www.acphs.edu/aboutus/celebrating125years/decade1970atacphs.aspx" target="_blank">some suggest</a> the 1978 release of "Animal House" and the rise of "Saturday Night Live" just encouraged students to follow those party-habits. More <a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-01/ace-lda011413.php" target="_blank">than half the states also had </a>a legal drinking age under 21, so drinking is much more common.




  • 1980's


    The 1980s was perhaps the last decade before the great arms race of higher education, where colleges compete to see who can have a campus<a href="http://voices.yahoo.com/how-college-has-changed-since-1980s-621512.html?cat=4" target="_blank"> most like a country club</a>. Things were cheaper in the 80s -- from books to tuition -- and computers were still rare. Making <a href="http://www.manythings.org/voa/history/224.html" target="_blank">money</a> was the top <a href="http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/SupportingResearch/upcraft1.aspx" target="_blank">reason for going to college</a>, while the biggest student activist movement is <a href="http://www.wobc.org/2012/04/the-archive-sounds/" target="_blank">divestment from South Africa</a>. Congress passed the <a href="http://alcoholpolicy.niaaa.nih.gov/the_1984_national_minimum_drinking_age_act_2.html" target="_blank">National Minimum Drinking Age Act </a>in 1984, which forced states to move the legal drinking age to 21 or lose federal highway funding. So in response, colleges tried to tame students and prevent underage drinking, redditor 1Tw03Four <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1epfaf/im_a_typical_college_student_in_america_and_im/ca3823l" target="_blank">says</a>. But that law didn't stop students from <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/10/north-carolina-state-university-video-1980s_n_3254406.html" target="_blank">their plans to get wasted</a>, so there ends up being more off-campus and illicit on-campus drinking, and more house parties. Women<a href="http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/SupportingResearch/upcraft1.aspx" target="_blank"> not only matched the number of </a>men on campus in the 80's, they also began to surpass 50 percent on campus. And another major change, according to <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1epfaf/im_a_typical_college_student_in_america_and_im/ca3823l" target="_blank">1Tw03Four</a>, is that "way more universities have coed dorms, something that was just starting to get implemented at the end of the 60s." This changed social life in that a party can take place within a single dorm building floor, rather than arranging at a fraternity or someone's house.