Health, Nutrition & Exercise Science Masters Theses

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Browsing Health, Nutrition & Exercise Science Masters Theses by Subject "Binge drinking -- North Dakota."

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    The Association Among Social Support, Binge Eating, and Binge Drinking in NDSU College Students
    (North Dakota State University, 2009) Zaruba, Julie Irene
    The purpose of this thesis was to determine the association between bingeing behaviors and social support in college students. Participants were 216 male (57%) and female students, between 18-25 years, who were enrolled in a university required Wellness course. Participants volunteered to complete an online survey. The survey contained questions related to binge eating (BE), binge drinking (BD), social support, and basic demographic data. Groups were constructed based on the participants' gender or age and reported bingeing behaviors (binge eating (BE), binge drinking (BD), binge eating and binge drinking (BE/BD), and no bingeing behavior (NB)). Further, the social support data were broken down into low, moderate, and high categories for S- and N- Scores. S-scores represent the level of perceived social support an individual reports and an N-Score represents the number of individuals in a social network. Paper 1 (Social Support and Bingeing Behaviors in College Students) examined descriptive data on bingeing behaviors and social support to assess if any associations occur between these variables. Paper 1 also assessed the prevalence of bingeing behaviors among college students and identified gender/age differences among individuals who reported bingeing behaviors. Findings from the study indicate no significant associations between bingeing behaviors and social support (S-Score: p=.778 (BE); .362 (BD); .748 (BE/BD); .144 (NB)) (N-Score: p=.853 (BE); .362 (BD); .602 (BE/BD). Findings from the study also indicate no significant correlation between bingeing behaviors and social support (S-Score: r =.006,p=.573 (BE); r =.047,p=.502 (BD); r =.080,p=.246 (BE/BD)) (N- Score: r =.074,p=.284 (BE); r =.006, p=.936 (BD); r =.036, p=.601 (BE/BD)). The prevalence ofbingeing behaviors was similar to the rest of the nation as 40.3% report BE, and 49.5% report BD. Related to age/gender differences males reported higher levels of bingeing behaviors and males reported significantly higher binge drinking severity level l(males = 64.04% vs. females= 35.96 %, p= .008). Reported binge drinking behaviors were divided into three levels. The three severity levels are; level 0= individuals who drink alcohol, yet have not binged in the past 30 days; level 1 =individuals who binge drank only once in the past 30 days; and level 2= individuals who frequently binge drink (2 or more binge drinking episodes in the past 30 days). Differences in binge drinking severity level 0, 1, and 2 also occurred between age category 18-20 and 21-25 (p=.007, .000, .000, respectively). Implications of this dissertation suggest that, within a collegiate population, social support may not have as much of a positive influence as previously thought. Another implication is the significant differences that exist between age, gender, and bingeing behaviors suggest any attempt to modify binge behaviors within a collegiate population should be gender and age specific.