Psychological correlates of drinking behavior in social drinker college students.

Psychological adjustment, cognitive functioning, and drinking behaviors have been shown to discriminate between alcoholic and control populations. Few data exist on the discriminatory power of such measures among social drinkers differing on alcohol intake level. The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between alcohol consumption and psychological/cognitive functioning in a group of social drinker college students made up of equal numbers of males and females, matched on age and education, and varying on amount of alcohol consumed per drinking episode. Results indicate no relationship between alcohol consumption and cognitive functioning in this group of social drinkers. Drinking and psychological profiles of heavy social drinkers were very similar to those of diagnosed alcoholics and very dissimilar to light social drinkers. Such a finding suggests that these types of profiles may have predictive value for identifying at-risk social drinkers in the general population.