Up for discussion: Bottoms up, grades down

If you’ve ever told your student that partying and academic performance don’t mix, you’re onto something, and a UC Davis professor has the facts to back you up.

Assistant Professor of Economics Scott Carrell and two researchers found that alcohol consumption “significantly reduces academic performance” enough to push a final class grade down by about a half of a letter grade. What’s more, the negative effects are largest for highest-performing students.

Carrell and his co-researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado conducted a six-year review of the grades of 3,884 students in mandatory courses at the academy.

Exams and 21st birthdays

Because the academy strictly enforces its ban on underage drinking, researchers were able to zero in on a narrow time frame of alcohol consumption — drinking on and after the 21st birthday. The researchers found that students who turned 21 just prior to taking standardized final exams performed at a lower level than students who turned 21 just after finals.

Also, the largest negative effects were for students who had been in the top half of their class by grade point average at the end of their freshman year.

Carrell says researchers found that the effect was persistent, rather than a one-time occurrence caused by students who party around their 21st birthday.

“If it were a birthday effect you would expect the negative effects to go away the next semester — but they don’t,” says Carrell. “Six to nine months later, student performance is still hindered.”

He theorizes that the downturn comes from the distraction posed by partying, rather than the actual presence of alcohol in the students’ systems during class and exams. “Students at the Air Force Academy aren’t showing up to class drunk — they would get expelled,” observes Carrell. “My sense is that [partying] diminishes study time and effort.”

Economic impact

As an economist, Carrell focuses on how variables affect students’ academic performance and ultimately, their academic achievement. He compares the ill effects of student partying to the difference between having a top-notch professor versus an average one teaching a student’s class.

Carrell says parents might want to discuss the findings of his study, published as a working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research, with students to show that there are measurable academic outcomes associated with drinking and partying.

“Balance is important,” he says. “Of course, you want your students to enjoy college, but they need to be responsible.

“They need to understand that the reason they are at UC Davis is, from an economic standpoint, to improve their human capital and that what they learn now has a large effect on their long-term wages and employment opportunities.”

Editor’s note: UC Davis offers professional assessment and intervention services for students with concerns regarding alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. Services and referrals are provided in collaboration with Counseling and Psychological Services and Student Health Services medical staff. To make an appointment, students can call (530) 752-6334 or use Health-e-Messaging.