What Is Pregaming and How Prevalent Is It Among U.S. College Students? An Introduction to the Special Issue on Pregaming.

Pregaming (or prepartying) can be defined as drinking before going to an event or gathering. The heavy consumption of alcohol and resulting negative consequences that are associated with pregaming have prompted scholars to investigate this risky drinking practice. Indeed, research on college pregaming has grown considerably within the past decade, with over 80 articles published since the seminal empirical studies on pregaming were published in 2007. This special issue in Substance Use & Misuse seeks to address a number of topics on pregaming among U.S. college students that are not well understood. The articles in this special issue explore pregaming behaviors among particular subgroups of students (i.e., college freshmen; postgraduates) as well as the following topics as they pertain to pregaming: exposure to trauma, emotion regulation, social norms, pregaming motives, protective behavioral strategies, and intervention efforts. This prologue to the special issue will discuss key points regarding the definition of pregaming, present an overview of the prevalence rates of pregaming among U.S. college students within the past decade, and introduce articles that advance the understanding of factors that contribute to the high-risk drinking context of pregaming.