ABSTRACT
Social science research has augmented biomedical findings regarding the disinhibiting effects of alcohol on the brain, clearly substantiating a correlation between social consumption of alcohol and sexual risk-taking among college students. Psychological theory, arising from research that used such constructs as expected outcomes, involving alcohol, has tended to emphasize the internal processes that mediate behaviors. In response to this research, many intervention programs have been designed to educate young people about the riskiness of combining alcohol and sex and/or to encourage them to stop drinking altogether. Working from the assumption that alcohol is the causal factor in risky sexual behavior among young adults, researchers have not reported why and how young people use alcohol in social/sexual situations in the first place. College students are products of that greater culture, coming to maturity within the unique but by no means sheltered confines of their campuses. Understanding their experiences from their perspective is a necessary precursor to effective education, intervention, and guidance.
