Coed college housing connected to frequent binge drinking - BYU News Skip to main content
Intellect

Coed college housing connected to frequent binge drinking

  • 500+ students from 5 college campuses (excluding BYU) participated in study of housing and risk behavior
  • 42 percent of students placed in coed housing reported binge drinking on a weekly basis
  • 18 percent of students placed in all-male or all-female housing reported binge drinking weekly
  • The difference does not appear to be driven by a selection effect

A new study in the Journal of American College Health finds that students placed by their universities in coed housing are 2.5 times more likely to binge drink each week than students placed in all-male or all-female housing.

More than 500 students from five college campuses around the country participated in the study:

- 42 percent of students in coed housing reported binge drinking on a weekly basis.

- 18 percent of students in gender-specific housing reported binge drinking weekly.

While that doesn’t put coed housing on par with fraternity and sorority houses, the researchers note that binge drinking isn’t exclusively a “Greek problem.”

“In a time when college administrators and counselors pay a lot of attention to alcohol-related problems on their campuses, this is a call to more fully examine the influence of housing environment on student behavior,” said Jason Carroll, a study co-author and professor of family life at Brigham Young University. BYU was not one of the participating campuses.

Carroll’s former student Brian Willoughby is the lead author of the study, which will be published Nov. 17. Willoughby earned a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and recently joined the faculty in BYU's School of Family Life.

In light of the finding, the natural question is whether a selection effect is in play. For example, do partiers and teetotalers sort themselves out in the housing application process?

That doesn’t appear to be the case, the researchers say. College housing offices generally assume students prefer coed housing and give them the option to “opt out” if single-gender housing is available. Very few exercise that option.

“Most of the students who live in gender-specific housing did not request to be there; they were placed there by the university,” Willoughby said.

A wealth of information on the study participants allowed the researchers to examine other factors that predict binge drinking. Their statistical analysis took into account the effects of age, gender, religiosity, personality and relationship status.

“When we first identified these differences with binge drinking, we felt certain that they would be explained by selection effects,” Willoughby said. “But as we examined the data further we found that the differences remained.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the study found students in coed dorms were significantly more likely to have had multiple sexual partners in the past year. Pornography use was also higher among students in coed dorms.

The participating campuses included two public universities in the Midwest and another on the West Coast, as well as a liberal arts college and a religious university on the East Coast.

Earlier this year, Willoughby and Carroll published work showing that more than 90 percent of college housing in the United States is coed.

JasonCarroll.jpg
Photo by Mark A. Philbrick/BYU Photo

Related Articles

data-content-type="article"

BYU researchers show social connection is still underappreciated as a medically relevant health factor

May 22, 2025
Despite mounting evidence that social connection is vital to physical health, new BYU research shows most people, including doctors, still underestimate its importance.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= promoTextAlignment=
data-content-type="article"

BYU’s 2025 awards season honors student standouts

May 15, 2025
Rise and shout! Across various disciplines, BYU students have been recognized for their world-class accomplishments.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= promoTextAlignment=
data-content-type="article"

Student inventors help BYU rank as a top U.S. university for newly-issued patents

May 12, 2025
Brigham Young University was just ranked as one of the Top 100 universities in the nation for most issued patents. But the new ranking from the National Academy of Inventors isn’t the story for BYU; it’s who holds the patents.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= promoTextAlignment=
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText=