Students who go abroad absorb every part of their adopted country’s culture, including its alcohol.

A recent study conducted by researchers at U. Washington revealed college students significantly increase their alcohol consumption while abroad.

The study, which was published in the Psychology of Addictive Behaviors journal on Monday, examined the drinking habits of 177 UW students before and after they studied abroad.

UW researchers found that students reported drinking more because they observed other students in their study abroad program drinking more, and followed suit. Students considered drinking abroad an important aspect of cultural immersion.

Students who participated in the survey said they drank over twice as much than they normally did at home while abroad, which amounted to about 10 drinks per week, according to the study.

After returning home, they said they resumed their normal drinking habits of three to five drinks per week.

While the average student increased his or her alcohol consumption by 105 percent, students under the age of 21 increased their drinking by 170 percent, the study said.

Joseph Finkhouse, the director of institutional relations for Boston U’s study abroad programs, said “students’ behavior abroad generally reflects students’ behavior at home.”

Finkhouse said the study only showed the behavior of a small sample of students and could not be used to generalize the behavior of BU students while abroad.

Many of the more than 2,200 students who travel abroad through BU travel to places where the drinking age is under 21, he said.

“Our policy is that students are bound by the laws of the country that they’re in,” he said. “We’re not going to tell them that they can’t drink, but we like to emphasize that drinking isn’t necessarily part of the culture.”

While the BU study abroad program sometimes has rules about alcohol consumption in residences abroad, the program does not attempt to curb legal drinking in the host country, Finkhouse said.

Alice Boudes, a senior in the College of Communication who studied in Paris last Spring, said that there was no pressure to drink more alcohol because alcohol was readily available everywhere.

“I think people were drinking about the same amount,” said Boudes.

However, instead of drinking a lot at once, students spread out their alcohol consumption over a longer period of time, she said.

Alexa Fernandez, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences and COM, had a similar experience when she was studying abroad in Sydney last fall.

“I guess I did drink more because I could actually go out to the bars and the program would provide alcohol at events as well,” she said.

Fernandez said that students seemed to be more responsible while drinking abroad, as they “would be going to bars, not parties.”

Both students agreed traveling abroad changed their drinking habits for the better.

“I learned to enjoy it,” Boudes said. “My program actually had a wine-tasting event during which we got to learn how to drink, savor and recognize wine properly.”

Boudes said that binge drinking seemed much more common in students in Boston than in Paris, regardless of their legal drinking status.

“My bosses would bring beers to work and we would drink on the job,” added Fernandez. “They have a ‘work hard, play hard’ lifestyle.”

According to the study, Europe, Australia and New Zealand were the countries where students’ drinking increased the most.