Sex, alcohol and Little 500

In 2008, 228 students participated in a 21-day, Internet-based daily diary study to assess drinking and sexual behaviors during Little 500, as well as during the weeks before and after. Prospective data was taken from 4,261 daily diary reports.

The study’s findings suggest that there is a pronounced change in student drinking behaviors during a special event week like Little 500, but not in students’ sexual behaviors. All indicators of high-intensity alcohol use peaked during the week, but the only effect on sexual behavior was an increase in drinking before sex.

Predictive models were constructed for various sexual and alcohol use behaviors, suggesting that high-intensity drinking patterns and past experience with non-relationship sexual partners are predictive of high-risk behaviors.

Overall alcohol use, number of drinks consumed, alcohol consumption rate, the number of hours spent drinking, having a drink on more than one occasion, drinking to the point of becoming sick and blacking out were all greater during the week leading up to the race than during the weeks before and after Little 500 week.

The only sexual behavior that occurred more during the event week than in the weeks before and after were the amount of sexual encounters which occurred after consuming alcohol.

Source: “Alcohol use and sexual behavior during a college special event week: Utilizing Internet based daily diary methodology to analyze event-level data”
Ph.D. thesis by Nathan Stupiansky, published in 2008.

2009 Drinking Tickets

Every year, the “world’s greatest college weekend” comes to an abrupt halt for hundreds of students at IU. In 2009 Indiana State Excise Police issued 157 tickets to 125 people between Thursday and Saturday of Little 500 weekend, and the IU Police Department issued 117 tickets for 69 people between Friday and Sunday.

Most of those who received tickets had to spend a day doing community service and attending an alcohol awareness class.

Most of the charges involved underage drinking, possession of alcohol or public intoxication. Each of these offenses carries a $423 fine.