College Students Binge Drinking

On April 4, 2014 Sean Hannity took five minutes and fifty-five seconds to talk about spring break in Panama City Beach. Hannity’s goal was to expose to parents “just how out of control things are when they let their kids head off to spring break”. The segment began with a video taken approximately one month prior. The video demonstrated individuals dancing in an obscene sexual manner, being arrest, and transported to the hospital. All of this behavior was due to one drug called alcohol. In reality, college students don’t go insane from binge drinking one week out of a fifty-two week calendar period. Binge drinking has become the norm of college students despite your gender and race.

Since 1997, binge drinking has increased each year (Wechsler, Lee, & Kuo. 2010). Binge drinking is no stranger to San Jose State University as well as college campuses nationwide (Police Department, n.d.). Binge drinking has been on epidemic on college campuses and continues to grow over the course of time with alarming numbers of incidents that occur while under the influence. Since binge drinking is common on most college campuses, about 60% of students nationwide have stated that they have binge drank during their college years (College Drinking Fact Sheet, 2015).

Since 1997, binge drinking has been increasing each year (Wechsler, Lee, & Kuo. 2010). Binge drinking is no stranger to San Jose State University as well as college campuses nationwide (Police Department, n.d.). Binge drinking has been on epidemic on college campuses and continues to grow over the course of time with alarming numbers of incidents that occur while under the influence. Since binge drinking is common on most college campuses, about 60% of students nationwide have stated that they have binge drank during their college years (College Drinking Fact Sheet, 2015).

Over the past few years, there has been this big debate about whether the drinking age should be lowered to 18 or if it should stay at 21. Those in favor of lowering the drinking age to 18 argue that someone who is old enough to serve their country should be allowed to have a drink. Those who are in favor of keeping the minimum legal drinking age at 21 because of consequences regarding psychological development and health problems later in life. However, there is a bigger problem concerning alcohol. The problem is the excessive amount of drinking or commonly known as binge drinking, done by primarily college students and by raising taxes on any and all alcoholic beverages can lead to significant reduction of dangerous binge drinking and simultaneously reducing the dangerous effects of binge drinking.

Alcohol use among college students has always been a popular subject among teachers, parents, researchers, and even students. The actual act of drinking alcohol is not necessarily the problem, whether legal or not. The main problem is the act of binge drinking of college students, of age or not. Drinking modest amounts of alcohol may have some consequences, but binge drinking has more negative consequences than normal modest drinking. There are many examples as to the consequences that binge drinking can cause to college student’s lives, but one of the main consequences that students face as a result of frequent drinking is poor academic final grades.

Binge drinking varies greatly due to college campus locations. According to the 2000 CAS report, campuses that are located in the Northeast and Midwest of the United States have higher rates of binge drinking. Gender also takes a major role of campus binge drinking. Men are more likely to binge drink than women. The population of college fraternity members and athletes are more likely to binge than any other groups or clubs on campuses. A study done by the Core Institute in 1999 showed that, white students are 50.2% more likely to binge drink, than students of other ethnicities; compared to 34.4% of Hispanics, 33.6% of Native American Indian, 26.2% of Asians, and 21.7% of Black/African Americans. The primary reason for this is consistent with the differential association theory, which is the longer the time period of contact that people have in deviant settings, the greater the probability that they, too, will become deviant.

Binge Drinking is a problem for college students who are expose to an unlimited access of alcohol for the first time ever. Studies have found that an individual’s critical thinking ability is impaired because of alcohol consumption.

As recognition grows that binge drinking on colleges nationwide is more prevalent than ever, school administrators and parents alike are seeking useful intervention to combat this issue. Studies have determined that “students’ use of alcohol is shaped, to some extent; by how much they think other students on campus drink” (Wechsler 2000:57). Most college students are in the particular age group that statistically has the highest rate of binge drinking. According to the American Journal of Public Health, this leads college students who decide to overindulge “extremely vulnerable to such health problems as: injuries from related car crashes; unplanned and unsafe sex; assault and aggressive behavior; alcohol dependence; and

The consumption of alcohol as a habitual behavior has long been associated with the American collegiate experience, despite the many known negative consequences a student who partakes in drinking can encounter. Because of the danger drunken students pose to a college’s reputation and the safety of its surrounding areas, much research has been done concerning the collegiate party and drinking scenes. This research mostly studied the demographics of the student body, so strategies developed to curtail the illegal or overconsumption of alcohol could be targeted towards the specific groups that demonstrated the highest likelihood of participating in these acts. When the strategies were implemented, however, there was little decline in the number of college students who chose to party and drink (Vander Ven 2011). This failure did not point toward a flaw in the research data, but instead a lack of research into the benefits a collegiate drinker receives that are rewarding to the point he or she cannot resist. This is the topic of Getting Wasted: Why College Students Drink Too Much and Party So Hard by Thomas Vander Ven.

High school is over and it is your first time away form home, what are you going to do? The typical college student wants to party! Of the people that were surveyed over half believed that the legal drinking age should be lowered. [O’Kane 1] The legal age to drink in the United States is now 21 years old; college freshman, sophomores, and some juniors are not of the legal age to drink. This causes a problem on many campuses; several students are experiencing their first time away from parental care in a setting sinonomus with drinking and clubbing. Some feel pressure from family and friends to receive excellent grades while attending school, sometimes the pressure is too much and going out and

In Henry Wechsler’s, “Getting Serious about Eradicating Binge Drinking”, he discusses the issue of binge drinking. Binge drinking is an extensive problem on college campuses. The majority of colleges merely focus on the student, rather than what encourages students to drink. Fraternities, sororities, and athletics are huge sources of the students on campus who drink. There are many approaches colleges can take to decrease the problem, and many colleges are already getting a head start. It is also important to not ignore how often colleges indirectly encourage students to drink (20).

The Harvard School of Public Health has done numerous studies on college binge drinking. These studies are known as the standard for binge drinking data. They define binge drinking

For many, the college years are not only to pursue education in your chosen field but also a time to gain independence and practice the decision making process. For some, that decision includes moderate to heavy alcohol consumption. Some students can easily handle the amount of time spent socializing and taking time away from their studies; however, the majority of students’ academic performance suffers greatly from alcohol consumption.

As many teenagers enter college, they begin to experiment with many things. Although not all students participate in underage drinking, it is evident that a vast majority do. Drinking is not the problem. The main problem occurs when students resort to binge drinking. In the

People who drink are more than likely to have poor Academics. There is a clear relationship between alcohol use and academic performance among college students (Pediatrics 1). Students with grades of D or F drink 3 times as much as those who earn A’s …the effects on less mature individuals may be even more significant (Pediatrics 2). Poor academics can lend to students dropping out of school . Heavy drinking in high school also is associated with multiple interpersonal , academic, legal and neurocognitive consequences (Doumas 1). Poor academics can cause changes in behavior