Principal Investigator(s): Wechsler, Henry, Harvard School of Public Health

Summary: The Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (CAS), a multi-round survey that interviewed students in four-year colleges, examined key issues in alcohol abuse and other high risk behaviors among college students, including the relationship of state alcohol control measures and college policies to alcohol use and the role of fraternities and sororities, easy access to alcohol, and low alcohol prices. As in the previous rounds of CAS, which were conducted in 1993 (ICPSR 6577), 1997 (I... (more info)

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  As explained in the ICPSR Processing Note in the codebook, variables COLL_ID (college identifier), SERIAL (sequence number within college), STUDY_ID (unique respondent identifier), and G12B (high school state) are restricted from general dissemination for reasons of confidentiality. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete an Agreement for the Use of Confidential Data, specify the reasons for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research. Apply for access to these data through the ICPSR restricted data contract portal, which can be accessed via the study home page.

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Wechsler, Henry. Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study, 2001. ICPSR04291-v2. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2008-02-05. doi:10.3886/ICPSR04291.v2

Persistent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR04291.v2

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This survey was funded by:

• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (35965)

Summary:   The Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (CAS), a multi-round survey that interviewed students in four-year colleges, examined key issues in alcohol abuse and other high risk behaviors among college students, including the relationship of state alcohol control measures and college policies to alcohol use and the role of fraternities and sororities, easy access to alcohol, and low alcohol prices. As in the previous rounds of CAS, which were conducted in 1993 (ICPSR 6577), 1997 (ICPSR 3163), and 1999 (ICPSR 3818), this round collected information on students' use of alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs, views on campus alcohol policies and student alcohol use, reasons for drinking alcohol and reasons for not drinking or limiting drinking, and personal difficulties caused by drinking problems (e.g., missed classes and trouble with police). Additional topics covered by the survey include overall health status, daily activities, satisfaction with education being received, grade-point average, living arrangements, social life, sexual activity (heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual), use of condoms during sexual intercourse, rape, and drunk driving. Background variables include age, height, weight, sex, marital status, religion, mother's and father's education, mother's and father's drinking habits, race, and Hispanic origin.

Subject Terms:   academic achievement, alcohol abuse, alcohol consumption, college students, drinking behavior, drug abuse, health status, sexual behavior, smoking, social life, treatment programs

Geographic Coverage:   United States

Time Period:  

• 2001

Date of Collection:  

• 2001

Universe:   Full-time undergraduate students enrolled in four-year colleges or universities in the United States.

Data Types:   survey data

Data Collection Notes:

Generated by the SAS CPORT procedure, the SAS transport file comprises the data and a formats catalog with the value labels.

ICPSR did not receive code descriptions for variable COLL_ID (college identifier). Consequently, individual colleges cannot be identified by name with this variable.

ICPSR rearranged the cases in random order in the public-use data file.

Sample:   Random sample of students using probability proportionate to size sampling of colleges and universities. The data comprise responses from 119 schools.

Mode of Data Collection:   mail questionnaire

Original ICPSR Release:  2005-08-08

Version History:

• 2008-02-05 ICPSR produced SPSS and Stata setups and a Stata version of the data which were added to the collection.

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