Collegiate Times

Whether it’s swinging a tankard in a German beer garden or maybe enjoying a glass of wine with dinner in France, many American college students are keen to drink in the local culture when studying abroad.

At least, such is the indication of a recent University of Washington study, which found students studying abroad tended to drink more heavily while abroad than while in the US.

The study, titled “When in Rome: Factors associated with changes in drinking behavior among American college students studying abroad,” also found students who drank most heavily while overseas continued to have increased alcohol consumption after they returned.

For students under 21, the study said consumption increased by 170 percent while abroad.

The study reported students who traveled to Europe and Oceania drank the most, but students who went to places with stricter alcohol rules, such as the Middle East, drank less.

In general, among the 177 participants in the study, alcohol consumption was affected by students’ region of study, whether they were under 21, their predetermined intentions of drinking and their perceptions of the drinking behavior of those in their host country.

Eric Pedersen, a graduate student at UW who was one of the leaders of the study, said his results were “somewhat what I had expected.”

“I’d been talking with students and study abroad programs and reading newspaper articles about it, and it seemed like there were worries about students drinking more when they were abroad, but there was no real evidence of this until now,” Pedersen said.

Scott Rumberger, a junior theatre arts major at Virginia Tech who recently studied abroad in Switzerland, noted the different cultural perceptions toward alcohol between Europe and the U.S. 

“In America, especially in a college town, you’re going to have a wealth of negative connotations on drinking, but in Europe it’s just the culture,” Rumberger said. “The locals loved to have us there and loved to drink with us — it’s about embracing the culture and embracing the people in it.”

Rumberger also said since drinking is more socially accepted in Europe, local students there tend to drink more responsibly.

“I can easily tell the amount of drinking that goes on in college here and the amount of drinking that goes on abroad is pretty much the same, but I feel like it’s more responsible there,” Rumberger said. “It’s refreshing to see a culture that can handle it and the young people can handle it.”

The study showed students who went to Oceania (which includes Australia and New Zealand) drank more as well, which may also be related to those countries’ more lenient cultural attitudes toward drinking.

“They have a totally different concept of teenage drinking there,” said Karla Piedl, a junior biochemistry and biology major who studied in New Castle, Australia last spring. “They’re a lot cooler with the idea. Australia’s drinking age is 18.

“It’s a lot more accessible and it’s legal. You go out and you might have a few drinks, but you don’t have to always worry about if you’re going to get caught.”

Piedl said it’s hard to make conclusions about her own drinking behavior.

“I’d say ‘Yeah, I drink more,’ but that may have to do with the fact that I’m 21 now,” Piedl said.

Rumberger said his taste in alcoholic beverages is more refined.

“I’d say now that I’ve been back I just drink better beer — I’ve kind of gotten a taste for a few nicer things,” Rumberger said.

Continue Reading: 12 Next » 

A version of this article appeared in the Oct 20 issue of the Collegiate Times.