Educated chicks are drunkards, more or less. That’s my very short, very liberal paraphrasing of the results of a recent London School of Economics Study. More accurately, the report concluded, “The more educated women are, the more likely they are to drink alcohol on most days and to report having problems due to their drinking patterns.”

The study was conducted on thousands of UK men and women born in 1970. Though the research was limited to the UK, I think it poses some interesting questions about drinking and education here in the US. We can’t be THAT different, right?

When I first read this article at the Telegraph entitled “Cleverest Women are the Heaviest Drinkers”, I was inclined to agree with its content 100 percent. I’m clever! I drink! Although I haven’t conducted any studies, I have enough anecdotal evidence to suggest a correlation between higher education and heavy drinking. That is not to say that one is the cause of the other. Surely people of all education levels drink heavily but there’s something undeniable about the culture of college that lends itself to boozing it up.

I speak from my personal experience as a young, Black woman who has been in several higher-ed settings. I think that’s important to note because my pre-college drinking experience was quite limited in comparison to my white classmates. My Black and Latin@ friends and I got into our share of trouble but we rarely drank. I would guess that’s because liquor wasn’t that easy for us to get, easy access alcohol like beer wasn’t that popular, and we were busy smoking weed (which was way easier for us to get, oddly enough). I spent the majority of school days in upper-level honors and advanced placement classes where students often hide behind a mask of intellectual superiority and receive certain benefits for being perceived as the “good and smart kids”. Without the same sort of scrutiny from our teachers and parents, we all went a bit wild (although not too wild as to mess up any college prospects) but through the magic of Facebook and “throwback pics”, I later learned that our white counterparts were getting really crazy with alcohol. I was pretty  much an alcohol novice before I went away to college so I credit (blame?) the university experience with my penchant for whisky.

I attended a PWI (predominately white institution) in the south and drinking was par for the course. I didn’t know anyone who didn’t drink, though those students existed of course. In the first two months of freshman year I can distinctly remember drinking soooooo much. It’s where I was introduced to beer and where I learned to like what had formerly tasted like warm piss (I assume, having never actually tasted warm piss). I drank copious amounts of bottom-shelf vodka (Aristocrat, anyone?) and learned that the word “bomb” attached to the name of a liquor could
be fun and troublesome. Not only did I get my degree, but I learned everything I know about drinking in undergrad. It’s not uncommon for others who went to PWIs to joke with our HBCU friends about how we really know how to drink. Whether it’s true or not it’s a commonly held belief that white colleges and their students engage in ridiculous and reckless behavior stemming from alcohol. Don’t believe me? Poll 10 HBCU grads and 10 PWI grads about beer pong and see which group barely  knows what you’re talking about, let alone how to play.

The group of friends I made after college included other educated Black folks – many holding or in pursuit of advanced degrees. Those people can DRINK! I definitely notice a difference between the college drinkers and my friends who did not graduate from 4-year colleges. Again, it’s not a science but there is something to say about the way we’re socialized in school and the life that higher education allows you to live. Back to the UK report:

Reasons for the positive association of education and drinking behaviours may include: a more intensive social life that encourages alcohol intake; a greater engagement into traditionally male spheres of life, a greater social acceptability of alcohol use and abuse; more exposure to alcohol use during formative years; and greater postponement of childbearing and its responsibilities among the better educated.

Law school was an alcoholic’s dream and nightmare. The drinking culture is so strong in the legal community that we’re often reminded of counseling and treatment programs for attorneys throughout our three years there. On my campus, the only graduate program allowed to serve liquor at events, meetings, etc was the law program. I’ve walked into information sessions about joining the local bar association where there was a keg being tapped. We often had wine parties and there was a pub within walking distance of the main law building that served as an informal gathering space for students and professors alike. While dentists have the highest rate of suicide, your attorney is most likely to have a problem with the bottle.

So if you ask me, there is definitely some correlation between going to college and drinking a lot. It’s not true for everyone but my experience says it holds for most. The UK study is worrisome because it suggests that the correlation may go beyond having one too many hangovers in life to serious drinking problems. According to the study, “Higher educated women were 1.7 times more likely to have a drinking problem, as assessed through their questionnaire answers, than their less-well-educated counterparts.”

It’s not clear, however, what criteria was used to define “alcohol abuse”. Though the report said that “women with medium or high childhood test scores were up to 2.1 times more likely to have a drink most days,” I don’t necessarily count that as having a problem. I know a hell of a lot of folks who have a drink most days. I had two beers last night!

Some of the questions asked included, “Have you ever felt you should cut down on your drinking?” and “Have you ever had a drink first thing in the morning to steady your nerves or get rid of a hangover?” I’ve asked myself the first for sure but the latter? Hmm, well steadying your nerves with a drink could definitely be problematic but a little “hair of the dog” isn’t so bad, right? According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA),

Alcoholism, also known as alcohol dependence, is a disease that includes the following four symptoms:

• Tolerance–The need to drink greater amounts of alcohol to get “high.”
• Craving–A strong need, or urge, to drink.
• Loss of control–Not being able to stop drinking once drinking has begun.
• Physical dependence–Withdrawal symptoms, such as nausea, sweating, shakiness, and anxiety after stopping drinking.

The article doesn’t go into why educated women drink more heavily than educated men (though both drink more than lesser-educated folks) but it does mention the uptick in marketing of alcohol to educated women with disposable income. I would like to see a similar study done in the US that delves into the effects of gender as well as socio-economic status and types of institutions of higher education.

Thoughts? Do smarty pants women have drinking problems? This study raises some other questions for me about incidence of sexual assault involving alcohol among college students and alums. I also wonder how this information can be used as a cautionary tale to scare, shame and/or disempower women. You can’t end up a drunk hag if you just let your husband (who is clearly better at handling book learning and moonshine) go to college while you stay home. Good girl.