College Drinking
The tradition of college drinking has developed into a necessary culture, involved in every level of a college students’ environment. College drinkers reinforce students’ expectations that alcohol is needed for social success. These beliefs and intentions exert a powerful influence over students’ behavior towards alcohol. Students perceive drinking as a social norm and as an unhealthy and destructive behavior. Functions that promote college drinking are seen in diverse locations and throughout a students’ environment, whether they drink or not.
Binge drinking is a significant public health concern that is well-known among college students. College students who excessively drink often experience a wide range of consequences, including legal complications, health impairments, increased risk of mortality and academic failure.
College students were asked by health organizations and universities nationwide to participate in surveys and questionnaires about this topic. Receiving various results, they all provide explanations why college students, especially underage students, consume alcohol and solutions to help students minimize consequences and reduce alcohol risk and use. All of these sources are credible and informative, but they can’t affect every single college student, because experience must be involved.
The University of Virginia came up with an idea to prevent deaths of intoxication or accidents related to drinking. They use ‘social norming,’ which relies on peer counseling, social events and information to challenge misperceptions students have about drinking. Stories of students are told about their experiences and perspectives involving on binge drinking, and their funereal results. One student from University of Virginia, commented about a scary wake-up call he had when he binged, “Getting into fights with people when you’ve had too much. Uh, vomiting in public. Public urination. Unprotected sex. The whole nine yards of just horror.” Experiencing unpredictable and horrendous results from binge drinking, the student has learned a huge lesson to handle alcohol more responsibility.
The Essay on College Drinking 2
College drinking is a major problem throughout the world. Studies have found that a large number of college students experience alcohol related problems. A recent study found that almost thirty percent (30%) of college students complained of loss of normal functioning of certain parts of the body after they had been drinking. Another study discovered that males consumed twice as much alcohol then ...
Dr. James Turner, Director of the Elson Student Health Center at UVA, said “Perceptions of what your peers do are very, very powerful motivating factors. And misperceptions can be just as powerful (Wilson 1).
What the message Turner is trying to get across is that understanding what your friends do, can be very desirable components for your own actions. Also, not understanding your surroundings can be just as dominant. In this case, college students should be aware of drinking and the risks involved, especially if their friend(s) are consuming more alcohol than they can handle. If they are unaware of the consequences, many college students will continue to make vast misconceptions, increasing rates of possible deaths, diseases, and other problems.
Social norming is an excellent way to help students minimize the risk of being hurt by abusing alcohol and educating students about their safety, and why Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) is an important factor for college students who engage in excessive drinking. When UVA gave its students a survey about drinking, results have shown that students who have driven while intoxicated dropped by more than half since social norming has begun.
Even though social norming works for the University Of Virginia, it does not mean that it will be very effective for various universities and colleges as well. Another statement Turner points out, “I do believe you can educate young people, so if they are around alcohol and they choose to use, they can do so in a more responsible way and minimize the risk of being hurt by it,” (Wilson 3) realizes that it is virtually impossible to keep alcohol away from students, especially underage drinkers and first-year students. Colleges and universities should give social norming a chance, because this methodical source discusses how this program limits college students drinking habits.
Curbing College Drinking Essay
“Curbing College Drinking…” The consequences of college binge drinking are more destructive and life- changing than students realize. In the article “Curbing College Drinking Starts with a Change in Attitude,” by Sara Fritz, published in Pearson’s The Effective Reader in 2011, the author explains the problems resulting from excessive drinking on college campuses. Due to the seriousness of ...
The objective of the next article, “The Virtuous Drinker: Character Virtues as Correlates and Moderators of College Student Drinking and Consequences” by Diane E. Logan, Jason R. Kilmer, and Alan Marlatt is to examine the relationship between alcohol use and positive psychology’s character virtues in college students. Each of the virtues of wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence were examined as possible protective factors and moderators of drinking consequences. The human mind plays the biggest role when college students drink. They are not always capable of controlling their own behavior when they are under the influence. Research shows that wisdom, humanity, and courage were not associated with any outcomes. On the other hand, justice, temperance, and transcendence play significant roles on protecting student’s behaviors.
Fairness, citizenship, and leadership make up the virtue of justice. A person who has a strong trait of justice may possibly protect themselves against binge drinking. People who have citizenship, specifically through increased volunteer work and social capital, are known to not participate in much activities involving alcohol use.
Temperance is composed of forgiveness, humility, prudence, and self-regulation. It is said that self-regulation is the most important part of the virtue that moderates your own actions. For example, self-regulation keeps track of how many drinks you’ve consumed, sets a goal to reduce harm among peers, and exercises skills to deal with stress, such as having cravings and urges to consume alcohol. Temperance is also associated with abstinence, lower-risk drinking, lower alcohol levels, and fewer consequences even among heavy drinkers.
Finally, transcendence is fabricated of appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, and spirituality. This virtue is known to lower substance use among college students. On the contrary, a lower sense of hope or optimism causes increased alcohol use.
Binge Drinking Students Alcohol Icap
... the community to limit student access to alcohol, and eliminate alcohol advertising on college campuses. Violent behavior isn't always caused by alcohol. However, students who drink are ... Studies show that binge drinking can start in high school and continue through college (ICAP 4). Twenty-eight percent of high school seniors ...
Overall, each piece of personal virtues such as perspective, integrity, prudence, self-regulation, and spirituality moderate aftermaths and students high in these strengths experience fewer consequences. Understanding virtues provides a clear picture of how to handle alcohol use, and to stray from making consequential decisions again.
The article “Underage Alcohol Use: Summary of Developmental Processes and Mechanics Ages 16-20,” by Brown et al, discusses adolescents cognitive, biological, social, and affective changes into adulthood and how alcohols involvement determines short and long term consequences on health and well-being. It also covers how adolescent’s behavior, and background affects the way they approach alcohol.
Adolescents are more likely than adults to engage in risky behavior, such as binge drinking.
There are reasons why late adolescents and college students behave the way they are in approaching alcohol. For instance, alcohol lowers inhibitions, which unfortunately, can lead students to behave in ways they might not otherwise, including unplanned and unprotected sex. Alcohol’s social and sexual enhancement properties increase students’ motivation to drink uncontrollably. Students believe that alcohol can help them achieve these goals in college: building social and intimate relationships, exploring their own identities, and taking risks to become independent adults (Brown et al 7).
Students are also motivated to drink excessively so they can “fit in.” When students move out of their homes for the first time to enter college, that process may also significantly influence drinking behavior. Without parent supervision, it makes the student feel obligated to be involved in risky behaviors. The college environment itself promotes drinking.
People that come from different environments and inheritance may also be a key factor as to why adolescents and college students use and abuse alcohol. These factors strongly influence drinking behavior: positive family history of alcoholism, preexisting mental problems, low levels of self-regulation, have been victims of sexual or physical abuse, came from broken families and/or have parents who poorly monitor their activities hold beliefs that encourage excessive alcohol use, and are exposed to deviant peer models (Brown et al 7-8).
The Effects Of Alcohol In College Students
On college campuses across America, the use of alcohol has been an topic in need of explanation for many years. The concept will be explained with emp hise on the negative effects of hooch. Alcohol in cardio-sport athletes is especially harmful. But at any rate the negative concepts apply to all student. Besides the fact that a large number of students are underage when they drink, alcohol can put ...
Alcohol use and abuse leads onto other problem behaviors adolescents as well as college students undergo, such as smoking tobacco and marijuana, using illegal drugs, unwanted sexual behavior, antisocial behavior, and poor academic grades.
When college students continue to proceed into adulthood, they should remind themselves that as their body develops, taking part in problem drinking dramatically damages the body and their cognitive development, especially their brain. The brain is more vulnerable to neurotoxic processes, such as heavy alcohol exposure (Brown et al 3).
College students tend to ignore antagonistic consequences when it comes to drinking alcohol excessively. Keep in mind that the media influences their perception of use, myths, and other factors that promote critical experimentation with alcohol.
Young people drink excessively and suffer as a result. In the book, “College Drinking: Reforming a Social Problem” by George W. Dowdall, chapter three intensifies the potential dangers and risks of drinking, along with its consequences. It underlines how promotions of advertising and marketing on alcohol serves as a temptation for college students to drink out of their control, and why college students depend on alcohol and abuse it. College students use alcohol for the following favorable effects; these percentages were found in a questionnaire from the Core Institute that students responded: breaks the ice (70 percent), enhances social activity (69 percent), gives people something to do (66 percent), gives people something to talk about
(59 percent) allows people to have more fun (55 percent), facilitates a connection with peers (54 percent), facilitates male bonding (53 percent), facilitates sexual opportunities (49 percent), facilitates female bonding (41 percent), makes it easier to deal with stress (35 percent), makes women sexier (21 percent), makes food taste better (14 percent),
The Essay on Legal Drinking Age Alcohol Students Engs
Drinking Age Did you know that in the year 1980 the legal drinking age was only 18? In 1987 there was a law passed that said in order to drink legally and to buy alcohol a person had to be 21. At the age of 18 people are allowed to buy tobacco, vote, get married without parental consent, and even join the armed forces, so why can't some one who is 18 by alcohol. This is a question I have; I ...
makes men sexier (12 percent) and makes me sexier (12 percent) (Dowdall 45-46).
Alcohol causes all of these “symptoms” to college students when they are under the influence. College students might not be unaware of the health consequences but are yet to acknowledge its existence.
One more piece of information that is left out in discussing college drinking the Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA).
This law is implemented for the general safety of our fellow citizens in the United States, and across the globe. In the early 1970s, the drinking age was lowered to eighteen in twenty-nine states. As a result, car accidents, deaths, and injuries severely increased. In the late 1970s, the twenty-nine states shifted the drinking age back to twenty-one. Today, the minimum legal drinking age is still twenty-one. This shows that lowering the drinking age to eighteen, in continents/countries such as Europe, France, Ireland, etc., lead to escalated funereal results (Dying to Drink: Confronting Binge Drinking On College Campuses” by Henry Wechsler and Bernice Wuethrich).
Within every source researched and read, All the material that the authors explained about the whole concept on college drinking and students’ experience on drinking is factual and authentic . There is only one statement that is skeptical in the NIAAA (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism) document involving underage alcohol abuse. The authors became too confident in establishing the criteria, making it seem as if it were a misleading and questionable to the readers about the prevalence of alcohol use. The authors state, “the prevalence of alcohol use… higher for White and Hispanic adolescents than for African-
American adolescents, and higher for those living in the north and north central United States,” (Brown et al 6).
This statement can be argued in many ways. It may be favorable for White and Hispanic college students to drink more alcohol than African-Americans, but it does not prove that different regions of the United States comply with this reasoning. There can be observations made and discussed about each states total population, as well as what percent of a certain race dominates each state. Did the authors fail to support enough evidence and research on the regions of the United States in terms of the percentage of population, race, and college students/adolescents rate of alcohol consumption? It is very questionable, but otherwise this is a very precise source.
The Essay on Binge Drinking College Students Alcohol
Lately the topic of binge drinking among college students has attracted a lot of attention. "Binge drinking is the consumption of at least five or more drinks in a row for men, and four or more drinks in a row for women," according to the Journal of American College Health. (p. 23) A major cause of college binge drinking is the fact that under aged young adults are introduced to college life and ...
Throughout these sources, they are all methodical and cerebral. College students are not only unaware of their behaviors when alcohol influences them, but they need to experience and engage in rigorous activities involving the use and abuse of alcohol in order to understand its consequences. Once students understand the consequences, they learn from their mistakes on binge drinking. There aren’t any weaknesses throughout each of the sources. The only concept recommended to make this essay more powerful would be if every source other than the story, “University Uses ‘Social Norming’ To Curb Drinking” by Brenda Wilson, had more emphasis on people’s opinions and backgrounds on binge drinking. The sources would only be useful if college students as well as adolescents would ever be interested to take time and understand drinking’s aftermaths. These sources can also help you become wise whenever the next time you will be attending a party involving alcohol. For example, being more conscious with alcohol, in terms of how many drinks you’ve consumed, and having a designated driver. If drinkers were to view parties and getting wasted as an utopian society, someday, when they have a conscious, would have an intense wake-up call on their life the next day.
Works Cited
Logan,Diane E., Jason R. Kilmer, and Alan Marlatt Eds. “The Virtuous Drinker: Character Virtues as Correlates and Moderators of College Student Drinking and Consequences.” Journal Of American College Health 58.4 (2010): 317-24. Abstract. EBSCOhost. January/February 2010. Print.
Wilson, Brenda. “University Uses ‘Social Norming’ To Curb Drinking.” npr.org National Public Radio Online, 23 Oct. 2008. Web. 11 Sept. 2010. Print.
Brown, Sandra A. et al. “Underage Alcohol Use: Summary of Developmental Processes and Mechanics Ages 16-20.” pubs.niaaa.nih.gov (2008).
Web. 11 Sept. 2010. Print.
Dowdall, George W. “The Impact of College Drinking.” College Drinking: Reforming A Social Problem. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2009. 39-59. Print.
Wechsler, Henry and Bernice Wuethrich. “The Problem Of Underage Drinking.” Dying to Drink: Confronting Binge Drinking On College Campuses.” St. Martin’s Press, 2002, 71-86. Print.