Social Networking, Perceived Norms And Drinking Among College Students

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

Binge drinking and consumption of alcohol by minors has long been a problem on college campuses. According to the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 59.4% of college students between the ages of 18-22 consumed alcohol within the past month (Prevalence. The same survey found that 39% of students in the same age group reported binge drinking (five or more drinks in a short period of time) within the past month. Given these numbers, institutions have created many programs to both deter drinking and encourage safer drinking. This literature review will analyse and discuss current literature regarding prevention programs, professional standards, and statistics about college age drinkers.

Drinking on college campuses has become a huge problem. For example, in the 10th century only old people used to drink, but now students drink more than their parents. Students see their parents drinking, so they may think that drinking has no effect on health that anyone can drink so why can’t the students drink? Therefore, college students have been drinking alcohol since the 14th century. Barrett Seaman’s article “How Bingeing Became the New College Sport,” appearing in TIME magazine on August 29, 2005, explains how binge drinking is affecting college students. It also suggests that lowering the drinking age might help solve the problem of binge drinking. This article has much information on how and where students get drunk.

“According to the CDC, about 90% of all teen alcohol consumption occurs in the form of Binge Drinking, which experts say peaks at the age of nineteen.” (qtd by Listfield). Binge Drinking is the consumption of excessive amounts of alcohol in a short period of time. The author, Emily Listfield, defines that the standard alcohol consumption over a two hour period is considered to be four beers for women and five beers for men. This has become a great distraction for college students nationwide and a major dilemma on college campuses. Nearly two hundred thousand students visit emergency rooms each year due to the abuse of alcohol, and more than one thousand seven hundred students die. In the article “ The Underage Drinking Epidemic”, Listfield identifies the problems that underage drinking can cause, the dangers that could happen, and four solutions on what parents can do to keep their kids from binge drinking.

“From the moment freshmen set foot on campus, they are steeped in a culture that encourages them to drink, and drink heavily. At many schools, social life is still synonymous with alcohol-lubricated gatherings” (Cohen). Binge drinking is a huge aspect of the culture of college life; many college students binge drink to become socially accepted in a particular group. Binge drinking is not only

“80 percent of teen-agers have tried alcohol, and that alcohol was a contributing factor in the top three causes of death among teens: accidents, homicide and suicide” (Underage, CNN.com pg 3). Students may use drinking as a form of socializing, but is it really as good as it seems? The tradition of drinking has developed into a kind of “culture” fixed in every level of the college student environment. Customs handed down through generations of college drinkers reinforce students' expectation that alcohol is a necessary ingredient for social success. These perceptions of drinking are the going to ruin the lives of the students because it will lead to the development alcoholism. College students who drink a lot, while in a college

As freshmen step foot on Boston College during move-in, the newest Eagles have many expectations for their upcoming college years which involves tailgates, parties, clubbing, and other activities. Boston College is a Jesuit Catholic university. Although Boston College is a religious institution, students still consume alcohol in dangerous amounts. Freshmen come to Boston College with various drinking experiences: familiar, somewhat familiar, or unfamiliar with alcohol. Many drinking habits are established during a student’s freshman year. Freshmen are excited to experience their first ounce of freedom and this definitive moment in their life often leads to dangerous drinking habits and poor decision making. Freshman year is the time where one forms their identity in college without the physical presence of their guardians. Aristotle claims that humans are “social animals” and our interactions with others shape how we live and who we are. (Mattison 139). Humans naturally take cues on how to act from those who we surround ourselves with. From Senior Tuesdays, to Thirsty Thursdays, to weekends and Marathon Monday, drinking has become a habit for many students at Boston College. It is hard to picture a weekend at Boston College where beer cans are not scattered in a Mod backyard or vague cheers echoing from a crowded common room where a drinking game is being played on a Saturday. We often hear ambulances during weekends rushing through campus to transport students to the hospital who drank too much, but students rarely see drinking copious amounts of alcohol as a real problem. According to Mattison, temperance is the virtue of well-ordered desires for pleasures. (Mattison 68). Drinking and temperance have an interesting relationship here at Boston College. Many students who drink often see alcohol as full of pleasure, but their actions are not well-ordered according to Mattison. The media

Throughout the years, drinking alcohol in excessive amounts has become somewhat synonymous with the college experience. It has become an expected occurrence for college-aged students to drink and party regularly, and overtime has transformed into an accepted social norm of college life. Extreme drinking has been a consistent social problem that has substantially grown on college campuses all around the United States for the past few decades. In fact, binge drinking is consistently voted as the most serious problem on campuses by collegiate presidents (College Binge Drinking Facts). Thus, most campuses have recognized binge drinking as a serious problem, yet this epidemic continues on, and many seem to

I began my research with the question “Who is responsible for underage binge drinking on college campuses.” I found that there were four main entities responsible for this issue; College leaders (dean of Students, President of the University, Housing Supervisors), Community leaders (Politicians, Mayors, and City counsel members), liquor associations (bars and liquor stores), and social influences. I decided to target university and community leaders because I believe some of the leaders, especially mayors and city counsel members, may not understand how extensive the issue of underage binge drinking on college campuses is. That is why my goal with this project was first to inform them of the responsible factors for this issue and then to move

Research has supported the observation that young people in America consume alcohol regularly; this prevalence of use increases rapidly during adolescence, as well as a few years afterward (Wagenaar and Wolfson 37). This has come to be a problem among college students. It has been shown through extensive quantitative and qualitative research that those under twenty-one years of age are able to obtain alcohol, which allows them to binge drink. Binge drinking holds many problems for college students: alcohol poisoning, DUIs, traffic accidents, and even fatalities.

Binge or excessive drinking is the most serious problem affecting social life, health, and education on college campuses today. Binge or excessive drinking by college students has become a social phenomena in which college students do not acknowledge the health risks that are involved with their excessive drinking habits. Furthermore college students do not know enough about alcohol in general and what exactly it does to the body or they do not pay attention to the information given to them. There needs to be a complete saturation on the campus and surrounding areas, including businesses and the media, expressing how excessive drinking is not attractive and not socially

To achieve this goal, I have organized my paper into five main sections. In my first section I discuss the cognitive development that makes college students more susceptible to excessive binge drinking. In the second section, I discuss the social interactions that promote social drinking among college students. In the third section, I discuss the dangers and life long detriment to physical and emotional aspects in life. In the fourth section, I provide possible solutions to help prevent binge drinking among college students. I end my paper with a fifth section where I discuss the positive effects of drinking, when in moderation and I conclude with a works cited page with my ten sources on

Over the years, college students’ drinking habits have become a concern due to alcohol related injuries (all studies). LaBrie, Hummer, Neighbors & Larimer (2010) note that around 500,000 alcohol related injuries and 1,700 students alcohol related deaths have occurred since 2001. Several studies have shown that using injunctive and descriptive norms are most effective in changing behaviors (Thorgersen, Kallgren (1993), Noal et al and Goldstein et al (2008). Thus, researchers are looking at the influence of injunctive and descriptive norms on college drinking. Social motives and interaction between descriptive and injunctive state that when people believe their friends approve of drinking, their own drinking behaviors increase. LaBrie, Hummer, Neighbors & Larimer (2010) looked at perceived injunctive norms (approval of drinking), alcohol related incidences and intervention/prevention programs. Their results showed it is most effective to use groups the students care about (Greek Life, race, gender, etc) to change drinking behavior (LeBrier, Hummer, Neighbors & Larimer, 2010).

Social media gives the impression that alcohol usage is normative among young individuals. Adolescents may develop a perceived social norm of alcohol use among peers of varying ages because ages of individuals on social networking sites vary greatly. In an experiment conducted by Dana M. Litt and Michelle L. Stock, they examined the roles and impact of social networking sites perceived social norms of alcohol usage of adolescents. Their results show

Peer influence is more than pressuring another student to do something risky. The study by Talbott et al supports the claim of the strength of one’s peers to influence drinking behaviors. This study goes into more depth than Stappenbeck et al’s analysis of socialization and selection by dissecting indirect peer influences and focusing on injunctive norms, which, “were a significant predictor of drinking” (60). Injunctive norms are peers approval of a given topic, in this case underage (illegal) alcohol use. If a subject believes their peers have a positive view of drinking and that their peers are heavy drinkers then they too become heavier drinkers to be in line with those norms. In college, students are in an environment in which their peers