College Students Drink example essay topic

Running head: TO THINK OR DRINK: AN EXAMINATION OF ALCOHOL To Think or Drink: An Examination of Alcohol Abuse in Higher Education Christopher M. Johnston Northern Illinois University Abstract Alcohol consumption continues to be a challenging issue for student services professionals on college campuses. Since 1975, the amount of programs implemented to prevent dangerous drinking behaviors has seen consistent growth. There has been a significant increase in alcohol awareness programs, severity of punishment, and instances of punishment since 1993 (Wechsler, Lee, & Kuo, 2002). However, despite these measures, studies have shown little or no improvement in binge drinking patterns (Wechsler, Lee, & Kuo, 2002). In fact, there was a 2% increase in legal trouble, a 3.5% increase in injury due to binge drinking, and a 5% increase in students riding with drunk drivers from 1993 to 2001 (Wechsler, Lee, & Kuo, 2002). Moreover, Wechsler, Lee, and Kuo (2002) found evidence of a trend toward polarization of drinking behavior.

In 1993, "1 in 7 students abstained and 1 in 5 engaged in binge drinking" (p. 207). In 2001, "1 in 5 abstained and 1 in 4 engaged in binge drinking" (p. 207). That is a 3% increase in binge drinking in eight years. To Think or Drink: An Examination of Alcohol Abuse in Higher Education 85% of college students drink alcohol (Philpot, 1997). According to a Wechsler, Lee, and Kuo (2002), heavy episodic alcohol use, or binge drinking, and the resulting problems gained national recognition in the 1990's as the number one public health problem affecting college students. Further, the more frequently a student binge drinks, the greater number of problems he or she experiences (Hensley, 2001).

Wechsler (1996) defines binge drinking as 5 or more consecutive drinks (e. g., 1 shot liquor, 1 beer, 1 glass of wine) per occasion for men and 4 or more drinks per occasion for women one or more times in a two-week period. Alcohol consumption continues to be a challenging issue for student services professionals on college campuses. Why college students drink. There are myriad influences upon college students that can contribute to problem drinking.

No one reason is responsible for drinking on college campuses. Features of the environment that promote heavy alcohol use such as college drinking traditions, lax college or community policies and enforcement, easy accessibility to cheap alcohol in high volume, and gaps in service networks have received far less attention than other preventative efforts (Wechsler, Lee, & Kuo, 1990). Impulsivity, aggression, low assertiveness, low self-efficacy, and low self-esteem as well as perceived gender roles, identity construction, and social conformity are other factors that play a role in problematic attitudes and behaviors regarding alcohol use (Glindemann, Geller, Scott, & Fortney, 1990; Kaufman, 1999; Capraro, 2000; McClelland, 1972). General alcohol awareness programs have proven ineffective over time.

To enable positive change, I believe a more targeted approach to understanding the psychology behind binge drinking is necessary. This paper will examine internal and external motivations by gender, and then explore how student services professionals can use that knowledge to create effective programs and counseling strategies that ultimately diminish problem-drinking patterns by college students. Men. Capraro (2000) found that men's alcohol use is related to both men's power and men's powerlessness. A variety of evidence suggests that college men may be drinking not only to enact male privilege, but also to help them negotiate the emotional hazards of being a man in the contemporary American college setting.

Men are supposed to be powerful. There is a societal expectation that men will be strong, confident, secure, and resourceful. When they are not, they tend to seek alternatives to social power. One such alternative is alcohol.

In The Drinking Man, McClelland (1972) asserts that drinking stimulates socialized power thoughts for most men. Further, with diminished inhibitions and increased assertiveness that occur with alcohol consumption, power thoughts make men feel strong, which is exactly how they are supposed to feel. However, although objective social analysis suggests that men as a group have power over women as a group, in singular context, a man's subjective view is of powerlessness rather than power. Individual power and privilege leads to an individual perception of isolation (Kaufman, 1994).

Research indicates that men dominate in all aspects of alcohol abuse determination criteria. They drink with more quantity and frequency than women. So it would appear that alcohol consumption itself is a validation of manliness (Capraro, 2000). Conformity to this socialized standard of manliness is attained through excessive alcohol use. So in order to avoid the shame of being perceived as less than manly, by self and peers, men are encouraged to drink. Moreover, Capraro (2000) asserts that, "shame may be the mechanism that leads men directly to alcohol" (p. 309).

Kimmel (1990) suggests that shame influences the development of men and women. It helps boys and girls conform to social standards. However, as men age, they begin to view shame as antithetical to masculinity. He goes on to illustrate the connection between shame and fear. Fear that one does not measure up or is not a man unless certain criteria are met encourages shame.

So to avoid feelings of shame, men will distance themselves from the feminine and continually re-indoctrinate themselves with what is masculine (Kimmel, 1990). I would also posit that when men enter college for the first time, there is vulnerability inherent in displacement from a known setting (i. e., high school) to an unknown setting (i. e., college). Loneliness and isolation experienced from a disengagement from the emotional support offered by one's family of origin can exacerbate feelings of dependence. To most men, dependence equals weakness (i. e., powerlessness) and can cause shame. Alcohol is a means by which one can expedite the socialization process and thus, ameliorate unwanted feelings of shame. A complete reframing of male socialized attitudes from birth would be one means to extinguish dangerous drinking patterns in men.

However, this is unrealistic. Given that gender identity and societal determined roles are changing so slowly as to be statistically insignificant, what can student services professionals do to help men adjust to college life in a more constructive manner? If we accept the above arguments for male drinking behaviors, then a way to begin a new socialization process is by changing what it looks like to be a man in college. I explain this concept in more depth later in this paper but first I would like to address issues concerning women and alcohol abuse. Women.

According to a study by Parent and Newman (1999), "Personalities characterized by high levels of sensation-seeking are more likely to consume alcohol frequently and in large quantities, and to rate perilous activities as being less dangerous then those who are low in sensation seeking" (p. 24). Further, high sensation-seekers were more likely to engage in risky behaviors (e. g., unsafe sex, smoking, drunk driving, etc.) whether drunk or sober (Parent & Newman, 1999). As opposed to perceived gender-role incompatibility in men, women were more influenced by self-esteem concerns and high sensation-seeking personalities to engage in binge drinking. Although men drink with more frequency and quantity, women show a greater variation in drinking behaviors when compared to men. In a study by Glindemann, Geller, & Fortney (1999), women with low self-esteem became more intoxicated then men with low self-esteem and women with high self-esteem became less intoxicated then men with high self-esteem. These results indicate a correlation in women between self-esteem and alcohol consumption.

However, both men and women with low self-esteem had significantly higher levels of intoxication than those in the high self-esteem group (Glindemann, Geller, & Fortney, 1999). Although this information is not surprising, what is surprising are the results of a study conducted by Wechsler, Lee, & Kuo (2002). Despite the rise in prevention campaigns targeted at women, at all-women's colleges, abstainers decreased and binge drinking increased slightly between 1993 and 2001. At coeducation facilities, binging did not change and there was a small increase in abstainers. These results and the results of the men's studies suggest that education and advertisement alone clearly is not tapping into the primal motivations for binge drinking. There is more underlying this problem than ignorance or unavailability of services.

Common influences. Drinking on college campuses is an essential component of socialization. During this socialization process, students are developing an identity. Chickering and Reisen (1993) defined seven vectors of development that described identity formation: (1) Developing competence, (2) Managing emotions, (3) Moving through autonomy towards interdependence, (4) Developing mature interpersonal relationships, (5) Establishing identity, (6) Developing purpose, and (7) Developing integrity.

As students navigate through these developmental tasks, they create a value and belief system. Hensley (2001) concluded that those values and beliefs might also include choices regarding alcohol consumption. Moreover, using Kohlberg's model of moral development, she goes on to posit that as students develop the higher moral reasoning to define values apart from the influence of others, they will also develop attitudes and behaviors that differ from campus norms (Hensley, 2001). However, until they reach that level of development, encouraging students to moderate their alcohol use is basically asking them to be different from their peers. In addition to conformity as an underlying cause of alcohol abuse, there is also loyalty.

A personal example comes from my time as a Marine Officer. I had the privilege to work with several Viet Nam era and Gulf War veterans. When asked about what motivated them to fight, all respondents said they fought to protect their friends and team members. Loyalty to the United States or to the Marine Corps itself was too large and amorphous a concept to have any significant meaning. This phenomenon can be generalized to include college students as well. They will continue to do what they perceive their friends and peers are doing because they cannot conceptualize social expectation from a nebulous Society.

As these results indicate, peer evaluation is a considerable factor in the degree of alcohol consumption in college students. Even though success of prevention programs seems dubious thus far, positive indicators come from peer-to-peer interventions. There was an increase in reports of students asking other students to cut back or stop using alcohol between 1993 and 2001 (Wechsler, Lee, &Kuo, 2002). Once identifying the link between peer acceptance and alcohol consumption, counselors and student services administrators can redirect and restructure the mechanisms responsible for the perceptions of acceptance and encourage more constructive means for gaining that acceptance. There is's final potential underlying cause that, in this paper, is unsubstantiated by reference material. However, whether research on this subject is available or not, I would be remiss if I did not mention personal observations that may help clarify some of the problems inherent in student alcohol abuse.

As seen particularly in sporting events is the need to "top" oneself. Consistent but static levels of achievement can become mundane with time and soon the cry rings out, "tonight I will get drunker than ever before". With this mentality, eventually drinking limits correlate directly with physical limits. Program Evaluation and Recommendations 97% of schools provide general alcohol education programs (Wechsler, Kelley, & Weitzman, 2000). They also use other measures to reduce binge drinking. Wechsler, Kelley, & Weitzman (2000) surveyed 1105 schools and out of those schools, 98% restricted the supply of alcohol (e. g., prohibited deliveries to dorms and sorority / fraternity houses), 66% offered alcohol-free dorms and living spaces, 90% restricted alcohol advertisements at home sporting events, but only 50% prohibited advertisements for off-campus bars in school newspapers and message boards.

As mentioned earlier, these preventive measures have had little or no effect on the reduction of dangerous drinking behaviors. There are a few newer perspectives, however, that show promise. The Social Influence Approach was first introduced in 1998 at Northern Illinois University (Kellog, 1999). That year, NIU studied binge drinking and found that most binge drinkers thought that binge drinking was more prevalent on campus than it really was.

Using this data, NIU initiated a prevention campaign addressing this issue, which resulted in a 16% reduction in binge drinking (Kellog, 1999). Basically, they found a way to make students believe the reality of exactly how much binge drinking was occurring and thereby lessened the incidence. Wechsler (1996) ironically created a twelve-step program for alcohol awareness on college campuses. These steps include: (1) Assess the ways in which alcohol is affecting your college, (2) Admit your college has an alcohol problem, (3) A systematic effort begins with the president, (4) Plan for a long-term effort, (5) Involve everyone in the solution, (6) Involve the local community in your efforts, (7) Establish the rights of non-binging students, (8) Target disruptive behavior for disciplinary action, (9) Address problem drinking at fraternities and sororities, (10) Provide a full-time education for a full-time tuition, (11) Encourage problem drinkers to seek help or treatment, and (12) Freshman orientation should start long before students arrive on campus.

It was interesting to note that Wechsler, Kelley, and Weitzman (2000) reported a strong positive association between the severity of perceived student alcohol abuse and the institutional investment in prevention. Administrators who perceived student alcohol abuse to be a major problem were from 60% to 250% more likely to support implementation of various institutional action than were peers who reported low perceived severity of alcohol related problems. Research has determined that awareness of a problem is necessary and that much of what has been done thus far is ineffective. However, there is still hope and I believe it lies with a concerted effort by the school, the community, and the students themselves.

Ziemelis, Bucknam, and Elfessi (2002) proposed a three-level intervention that included: (1) Student participation and involvement, (2) Educational and informational processes, and (3) Campus regulatory and physical change efforts. As far as community involvement goes, I believe raising alcohol price and taxes as well as the hours of service and days of sales could also be effective. However, the real results are going to come from the interaction with the student. Not all students will see school counselors, but they will see academic advisors, professors, and teaching assistants.

Ensuring proper training of faculty and support will provide a closed-loop solution to addressing binge drinking and other dangerous behaviors associated with alcohol. Lewis (2001) asked college students what they need from an alcohol prevention program and they said things like, put yourself in the students's hoes, focus resources on preventing excessive use, be aware of different backgrounds, focus on individuals-not drugs, promote an open dialogue between students and administration, and listen to real students and not student leaders. Conclusion Drinking is a problem on nearly every campus in the United States. An increasing awareness has placed student services administrators and counselors at the forefront of prevention. It is our responsibility to have the most thorough understanding of what motivates students to binge drink. We have found that there are gender differences that must be addressed.

We have found that general education is inferior to targeted programs. We know that the dynamic of student alcohol consumption is as complex and fluid as is the socialization that helps create the problem. Well, if who we are as imperfect human beings are to blame, then we must use every means necessary to address and correct this invasive problem. Throughout the process of researching this topic, I discovered that many researchers concentrated on a person's interrelation with others and society as a whole as part of the developmental process. However, I believe an area for future research could be the effect of the media on identity construction. Never before in our history has television, film, and print played such a ubiquitous role in the development of the individual.

As time elapses, I believe that we will need to revisit Chickering, Kohlberg, Erikson, and other identity researchers in order to explain that we are who the media tells us we are. On the other hand, the media can be an incredibly powerful tool for social change with the proper application. Until all people within higher education and without realize that our young people are drowning in beer and whiskey, I believe we can expect the same results ten years from now as we got ten years ago. Until universities, communities, and students diligently work to alter the perceptions of what is important for peer acceptance and what is not, our students will get drunk and stay drunk until we do.

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