weeks of the month (LaBrie, Pedersen, & Tawalbeh, 2007). Use of a 2-week time period, therefore, would yield approximately 30% of heavy binge drinkers being excluded. A past 6 months time-frame for college samples captures the vacation time of the academic calendar during which students would be more apt to binge drink. Although longer time frames have yet to be analyzed, the ability to recall consumption amounts and frequencies accurately (e.g., recall bias) would seem to diminish with extended time frames. The goal in selecting an optimal time frame associated with a binge-drinking pattern is to optimize the accuracy of self-reported drinking amounts, while also capturing an accurate representation of this problematic drinking pattern. Further, employing a multiple binging occurrences evaluation strengthens the definition as these attributes together integrate the quantifiable dimensions of binge drinking.
