The Abuse of Alcohol by College Students

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.

Binge drinking is considered to be a health problem because nearly half of all college students have reported to drink more than 5 drinks is a short period of time (Hennessee, 2013). There has been about 1,825 college students who have died from alcohol-related injuries such as motor-vehicle crashes with the students being between 18 - 24 years old (College Drinking Fact Sheet, 2015). An increase of 6% of college deaths has occurred due to binge breaking increasing the total amount from 1,600 to 1,700 (Hingson, Heeren, & Wechsler, n.d.).

“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.

What do failing grades, frequent memory lapses, fights, brutal hangovers and unplanned sexual activity all have in common? They are all frequent results of binge drinking by college students. On a typical Friday or Saturday night you can find the average college student out drinking and having fun. Normally partying with friends at a party, bar, or club; most of these college students are underage consuming excessive amounts of alcohol, or as its better known, “binge drinking.”The term binge drinking is defined as the consumption of five or more drinks in a row by men and four or more drinks in a row by women, at least once in a two week period. “One” drink is defined as 12 ounces of beer, 4 ounces of wine, or one shot of liquor. Alcohol

“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

techprogram/paper_40822.htm)." Some other effects that can happen from drinking is that students get in trouble with police, vandalism, get injured, or even worse, death. Over 1,400 students are killed annually because of their alcohol use, according to researchers at the Boston University School of Public Health. This survey also claims that over 600,000 students a year are assaulted by other students who have been drinking. Additionally, over 70,000 are the victims of sex assaults or date rapes in similar circumstances. These are very disturbing figures. Thirty-one percent of college students met criteria for a diagnosis of alcohol abuse and 6 percent for a diagnosis of alcohol dependence in the past 12 months, according to questionnaire-based self-reports about their drinking. Drinking heavily seems to bring out more difficulties in a person's life and can only continue the same way as an adult. One starts to rely on alcohol to solve problems and may continue throughout their life because their body becomes dependent on alcohol to make them feel good again.

Those that participate in binge drinking do it for many different reasons, a bad test grade, roommate arguments, celebration for a job well done, peer pressure, or simply because it is the weekend. No one is saying that it is wrong to go out and have a few drinks but when students go out and just drink to get drunk, actions must be taken to stop such activity. According to the graph on the next page done by the Harvard Public School of Health it is clear that a majority of students drink to simply get wasted. [Colorado State University 1] The number of binge drinkers may not have gone up in 1999 compared to 1997, for every five students two are binge drinkers, or 44%. [Wechsler #2, 1] However, the intensity of drinking has increased, when students are going out they are having more to drink. [Wechsler #2, 2]

As a matter of fact, binge drinking would not necessarily lead to negative consequences. For example, “consider the individual who perceives that drinking alcohol is likely to lead to physical harm. This individual is perhaps less likely to engage in behaviors after drinking that are highly related to experiencing negative consequences relative to individuals who do not hold that belief” (root). Binge drinking in campus is universally recognized as misconduct, but the degree of its consequence is determined by the drinking belief of the drinkers. In certain occasions, such as birthday parties, binge drinking is inevitable. But if the college students hold the drinking belief that any immoral, illegal or dangerous activities should be avoided after binge drinking with their friends, in all probability, they would not suffer from the potential negative consequences. Additionally, when there exist a few fellows with proper alcohol awareness among the drinkers in a party, they can help lower the risk of alcohol-related hazards of their friends in the party significantly

A recent event that showcases that binge drinking is still a problem for many college students at the University of Iowa is the story of one Iowa student during the 2013 football season. Samantha Goudie, who is a twenty-two year old University of Iowa student, was once known as ‘Vodka Samm’ not only around the Iowa City area but nationally. One day in a highly intoxicated state, she tried to jump onto the field during a regular home football game and after quickly being arrested was known around the nation as “The World’s Drunkest College Student.” She was cited for having a blood-alcohol level of .341 percent, which is more than four times the legal driving limit. This event just continued to help solidify the University of Iowa’s out of control party school reputation. However, it did bring light to the serious problem of the students binge drinking and its effects especially during home football games.

“Binge Drinking on College Campuses.” Center for Science in the Public for Science, Center for Science in the Public Interest. Web. 21Mar. 2012.

There is no doubt that college campuses are filled with alcohol. Many students engage in alcohol consumption and some also use drugs. Although alcohol use is widely accepted in the college student population there are intervention plans attempting to limit alcohol consumption to protect students from the negative consequences. This is a compilation of a few different strategies for alcohol reduction. According to Dr. Amaro of the Institute on Urban Research at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts and Reed, Rowe, Picci, Mantella, and Prado, (2010), implementation of the “Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention

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 drinking is a term used to describe a situation where women drink more than 4 bottles of alcohol in a row and men drink 5 or more bottles of alcohol in a row. It is taking too much alcohol in a short period. Alcohol is a substance that gradually produces an addiction in the body. Many college students use alcohol in recreational activities and parties. The alcohol gradually leads to addiction and causes a decline in their social and academic performance. Additionally, some students drink to boost their image and popularity, while others do so as a means to counter mounting pressures. There is a lot of peer pressure in college and minimal control and guidance from parents and teachers, which contributes to binge drinking.. Binge drinking in college is a societal issue as it affects students’ performance, contributes to accidents, and causes negative impacts on health.

In the U.S. the legal drinking age is twenty one but that does not stop students on college campuses from participating in binge drinking. For over a decade, binge drinking among students on college campuses is being recognized as one of the most serious public health concerns. In that it often has severe health and behavioral consequences for drinkers themselves, as well as others in the campus community (Chen, Feeley, 2016). College students that binge drink do not limit their consumption of alcohol to only a few drinks during an occasion. That is what distinguishes social drinking from binge drinking. Binge drinking is defined as five consecutive drinks in two hours for males and four consecutive drinks in two hours for females (Marczinski, C. A., Grant, E. C., & Grant, V. J. 2009 p.9). College students binge drink for a lot of reasons like freedom, more time on their hands, social factors and coping, but this needs to stop because the majority of college students do not know the short term, or long term health effects it has on themselves and other students and people around them that do not participate in binge drinking.

Alcohol is one of the most widely used drugs in the United States and since the 1980’s the misuse of alcohol by college students has presented as a major public health concern (Croom et al., 2008). Roughly 30% of all college students meet the clinical requirements of alcohol abuse and more than 40% of college students have engaged in high-risk drinking (5 or more drinks in one sitting). Alcohol consumption and abuse can negatively affect a students’ academic performance and their relationships with family and friends. High-risk drinking has been linked with high-risk sexual behavior, overdoses, and