Coed dormitories linked to risky behavior: Study
POSTED November 20, 2009 - 16:15 | POSTED BY Neharika Sabharwal
Last edited by Harpreet Bhagrath on November 21, 2009 - 11:12
The study found that students living in a mixed setting were 2.5 times more likely to binge drink, indulge in casual sex with multiple partners, and use pornography as opposed to students in single sex housing arrangements.
Jason Carroll, a professor of family life at the Brigham Young University (BYU) and co-author of the study declared, "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.”
Impact of college housing on destructive behavior
In an effort to understand the impact of college housing on risky behavior, the researchers surveyed students from five college campuses excluding BYU and other Utah schools. Out of the 510 students questioned, 442 lived in coed dorms.
The study unearthed some startling and disturbing results. It found that 56 percent of co-ed residents indulged in weekly drinking compared to 27 percent in same gender housing. In addition, binge-drinking was 42 percent in mixed dorms as opposed to 18 percent in the single sex dorms.
The researchers found that the attitude towards sex was more liberal in coed environment. Nearly 44 percent stated that shacking together for sex was acceptable compared to 26 percent in the gender-specific housing.
Study author Brian Willoughby stated that even after taking into account factors like age, gender, religiosity, personality and relationship status, "there was still something unique about living in a coed dorm that was associated with risk-taking.”
Implications of the study
The findings of the study are significant because co-ed dormitories comprise more than 90 percent of the residential options in the nation’s education centers.
However, the researchers are quick to point out that the research is not all-inclusive but simply an effort to understand whether the social pressures of coed housing may be leading to self destructive behaviors.
Carroll stated, "These findings indicate there might be a different normative context when young adults men and women live together and when they live in gender-specific housing. This is a call for further investigation."
The study was published in the Journal of American College Health.
