Conclusions
These results indicated that greater frequency of freshman year binge drinking and marijuana use is significantly related to delayed college graduation, which supports the importance of pre-college interventions targeted at decreasing heavy drinking and marijuana use. Thus, highlighting the harmful academic outcomes associated with binge drinking and marijuana use, including longer time spent in college might augment these pre-college interventions. Further, we found a significant association between delayed college graduation and decreased financial prosperity during early adulthood, which could also be integrated into incentives for college students to graduate college in 4 years.
