Date of Award

Spring 5-2017

Degree Type

Honors College Thesis

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Michael Madson

Advisor Department

Psychology

Abstract

Females are engaging in harmful amounts of drinking at higher rates than ever before. Because these rates are increasing, studying harmful drinking in the college female population is imperative. Previous studies have noted that an increase in harmful drinking correlates positively with an increase in risky sexual behavior. Although these correlations are evident, no previous study has looked at drinking context as a moderator between these two variables. The current study examined the degree to which drinking context moderates the relationship between harmful drinking and risky sexual behavior in college females. This study consisted of 387 female college students ages 18-24 who had drank alcohol in the past 30 days. In this sample, harmful drinking and each drinking context predicted risky sexual. However, drinking context did not moderate the relationship between harmful drinking and risky sex. The implications, limitations, and potential for future research will be discussed as well.

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