Sex and substance use within a prohibitionist university setting

While risk factors such as alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and sexual behaviors are often studied among college students, rarely are students at prohibitionist universities studied. The purpose of this paper was to compare the prevalence and trends of substance use of a prohibitionist university to a number of national samples, as well as look at various sexual behaviors of the unmarried participants in the prohibitionist university. For trends in annual alcohol use, our sample had a total average of 42.1% to the comparison samples. For alcohol binge drinking, in the two weeks prior to the survey, our sample had a total average of 21.2%, for annual tobacco use our sample had a total average of 34.3%, and for annual marijuana our sample had a total average of 31.4% to the comparison samples. The data suggests that either cultural leveling is not occurring, or occurring at a very small rate. Analysis of sexual behaviors of the unmarried participants suggests a ‘lifetime’ engagement in various sexual behaviors at a significantly higher level than they report being comfortable with prior to marriage. When looking at engaging in the sexual behaviors of oral, anal, or vaginal sex within the last year, more than twice as many of our subjects reported not engaging, as a comparison group. The top reported answer for not engaging in sexual intercourse was that it was against their personal or religious beliefs. The implications of risk behaviors at a prohibitionist university are discussed.