Women who begin to drink alcohol or increase their drinking in their first year of college are at greater risk of physical or sexual victimization, a new study by the State University of New York at Buffalo’s Research Institute on Addictions has found.

Compared with women who do not drink, new drinkers have greater odds of experiencing physical harm, especially if they have a history of anxiety, depression, or other psychological symptoms, the study found.

Compared with drinkers whose weekly intake decreases or stays the same, female freshmen who increase their drinking are at greater risk of sexual victimization. That risk increases significantly with each sexual partner a woman has before college, says the report, which is published in the current issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

The study surveyed nearly 900 women in the year before they started college and in their first year as college students. It also identified several consequences of their increased drinking, such as inability to do homework and engagement in consensual sexual activity they later regretted. —Sara Lipka