1. Dr. Ginette Ferszt, Nursing
Drunkorexia and the motives behind substance abuse and eating disorder pathology amongst college culture Nicole Caron, Psychology
Introduction
Abusing alcohol and binge drinking have become a prominent feature in college culture. However, an increasing number of college-age students are also exhibiting “drunkorexia” behavior, or the dangerous combination of substance abuse and eating disorder pathology, such as restricting calories. Often, this leads to becoming intoxicated at a much higher rate, and suffering a greater amount of consequences (Ward, Galante, Trivedi, & Kahrs, 2015). These behaviors are harmful and quickly becoming a college norm. The goal of this research is to analyze the motives for drunkorexia behavior.
Discussion
The goal of this research was to analyze the motives for drunkorexia. The findings suggest that there are a variety of motives, and also that all of the participants who engaged in drunkorexia weren’t entirely sure why they were doing so (figure 2).
With very little research done in the area surrounding drunkorexia and the motives behind such harmful behavior, it is hard to surmise why it is that so many college students exhibit this behavior. In this study alone, 6 out of 13 of the participants engaged in drunkorexia behavior (figure 1). This was nearly half of those surveyed. This means that, while many college students likely exhibit these behaviors, few can explain their behaviors or even identify the term now associated with them.
Further research is needed on this topic. The greater the understanding of drunkorexia behaviors, the greater at risk populations such as college students, can be educated about the problem. Particularly, greater research should be done in order to better describe this phenomenon to the public, so that more college students are aware of the problem. As a sample, 100% of the participants of this survey had never heard of “drunkorexia” (figure 3.
Results
The results show that 6 of the participants participated in drunkorexia behavior (figure 1), and there are a variety of motives for this behavior (figure 2). It was also clear that none of the participants had a name for this behavior (figure 3).
Figure 1. Displays the responses of participants to the survey question “Over the last 30 days, on how many occasions did you eat less during the day or restrict calories, or exercise vigorously before drinking?
Figure 2. Displays the motives and the frequency of those motives for participants engaging in drunkorexia behavior (in this case, restricting calories or vigorously exercising prior to binge drinking.
Figure 3. Displays the participants answers to whether or not they had heard of the term “drunkorexia” prior to this survey.
Methods
In order to analyze the motives of college students to participate in drunkorexia behavior, a preliminary literature review was completed. This showed what information surrounding drunkorexia behavior was scarce. Following this, a survey was created which asked questions about gender, age, drinking behavior, experience of eating disorder behaviors, and Greek Life affiliation. This survey was distributed to large classes at the University of Rhode Island via a Survey Monkey Link. Professors of large classes at URI received an invitation to distribute the survey, with a script to post along with the link on URI’s online class portal, Sakai. Students did not receive compensation for participating in the study. A total of 13 students completed the study and were included in the sample.
Literature Cited
Ward, R. M., Galante, M., Trivedi, R., & Kahrs, J. (2015). An Examination of Drunkorexia, Greek Affiliation, and Alcohol Consumption. Journal of Alcohol & Drug Education, 59(3),
Acknowledgements
Dr. Ginette Ferszt, Nursing
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