Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Alcohol and the effects on college students
Binge drinking habits among college students in the US
Alcohol and the effects on college students
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Alcohol and the effects on college students
Binge drinking and alcohol consumption amongst US college students and US adults has proven that it is extremely dangerous and is responsible for many deaths. Therefore, there needs to be an tremendous change in the amount of alcohol consumption in the US, and with this change there will be an explicit alteration of the amount of alcohol intake. The first article that was chosen is named, “Alcohol Mixed with Energy Drinks: Consumption Patterns and Motivations for Use in U.S. College Students.” This article written by Cecile A. Marczinski, and discusses the, “new popular trend of consuming alcohol mixed with energy drinks (AmED)” (Marczinski 1). It touches many topics of how numerous deaths and injuries occur each year due to alcohol related issues. Furthermore, the article gives a wide range of statistics of binge drinking amongst US college students. The second article that was found was written by multiple authors but one being Timothy S. Naimi, is named, “Binge Drinking Among US Adults.” This article is the predecessor to, “Alcohol Mixed with Energy Drinks: Consumption Patterns and Motivations for Use in U.S. College Students.” It touches on many of the same topics as the up-to-date article, but focuses strictly on binge drinking amongst US adults, not college students. It also gives a lot of pertinent information and statistics about binge drinking amongst US adults. An interview with Ann Wooten, President of the House Corporation Board of Chi Omega a sorority at UNC Chapel Hill, conducted by myself, is a worthy contribution to the dialogue in progress, because it proves that alcohol consumption amongst US college students is life-threatening and is a growing epidemic that has been sweeping the US for years. The interview also... ... middle of paper ... ... For example, one of these is the widespread marketing of beer and wine via television and print media, where a disproportionate share of the audience may be below the legal drinking age and particularly likely to binge drink. Another obstacle is that much of the general public considers alcohol intoxication to be either humorous or a rite of passage” (Naimi, 5). Both of these ideas to prevent binge drinking, excessive alcohol intake, and death due to impairment important ideas that should be taken seriously and possibly implemented. Works Cited Naimi, T.S.; Brewer, R.D.; Mokdad, A.; Denny, C.; Serdula, M.K.; Marks, J.S. Bing Drinking Amongst US adults. JAMA 2003, 289, 70-75. Print. Marczinski, Cecile. “Alcohol Mixed with Energy Drinks: Consumption Patterns and Motivations for Use in U.S. College Students”. Enviromental and Public Heatlh.(2011): 12. Print.
Secondly, observing people binge drinking was the moist difficult. Because the definition I used for binge drinking was “Drinking 5 or more alcoholic drinks, on the same occasion, on at least 1 day in the past 30 days (NIH),” it was quite difficult to find people drinking that much in only an hour. Furthermore, I could not determine the amount of drinks consumed by those who were already at the bar prior to my arrival. With that being said, I decided to observe people and their surrounding while consuming alcohol and not worry about binge drinking.
Gender, age and socioeconomic status are predisposing factors to regular binge drinking, and the burden of alcohol abuse is approximately six times higher in males (World Health Organization, 2003). Charles, Valenti & Miller (2011) discovered in a sample of adults aged 19 years and over, 15% of participants were regular binge drinkers and almost one-third of patients aged 18-24 years were regular binge drinkers. Patients from an English speaking background were twice as likely to binge drink regularly as those from non-English speaking backgrounds (Charles, Valenti, & Miller, 2011). Remote populations were more likely to be binge drinkers than those from major cities or regional areas (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2008). The percentage of Australians who reported consuming risky levels of alcohol has increased from 8% in 1995 to 13% in 2004-05 (Teesson et al., 2010). This demonstrates that there has been an increase in the percentage of binge drinking over time, or ...
“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 environment, will damage themselves mentally, physically, and socially later in life, because alcohol adversely affects the brain, the liver, and the drinkers behavior.
College student drunkenness is far from new and neither are college and university efforts to control it. What is new, however, is the potential to make real progress on this age-old problem based on scientific research results. New research-based information about the consequences of high-risk college drinking and how to reduce it can empower colleges and universities, communities, and other interested organizations to take effective action. Hazardous drinking among college students is a widespread problem that occurs on campuses of all sizes and geographic locations. A recent survey of college students conducted by the Harvard University School of Public Health reported that 44 percent of respondents had drunk more than five drinks (four for women) consecutively in the previous two weeks. About 23 percent had had three or more such episodes during that time. The causes of this problem are the fact that students are living by themselves no longer with parents or guardians; they earn their own money; students need to be a part of a group, be accepted; and they have the wrong idea that to feel drunk is “cool.”
In the 19th century alcohol consumption rocketed and Americans drank “more than five gallons of pure alcohol per person per year“ (Carlson par. 20). Historian W.J. Rorabaugh in his 1979 book, The Alcoholic Republic, wrote “Americans drank at home and abroad, alone and together, at work and at play. They drank before meals, with meals and after meals. They drank while working in the fields and while traveling across half a continent." (qtd. in Carlson par. 20).
According to Andrew Herman, “Each year, 14,000 die from drinking too much. 600,000 are victims of alcohol related physical assault and 17,000 are a result of drunken driving deaths, many being innocent bystanders” (470). These massive numbers bring about an important realization: alcohol is a huge issue in America today. Although the problem is evident in Americans of all ages, the biggest issue is present in young adults and teens. In fact, teens begin to feel the effects of alcohol twice as fast as adults and are more likely to participate in “binge-drinking” (Sullivan 473). The problem is evident, but the solution may be simple. Although opponents argue lowering the drinking age could make alcohol available to some teens not mature enough to handle it, lowering the drinking age actually teaches responsibility and safety in young adults, maintains consistency in age laws, and diminishes temptation.
Lily, Henrietta M. and Harmon, Daniel E. Alcohol Abuse and Binge Drinking. New York: the Rosen Publishing Group Inc., 2012. Print.
were drinking to get drunk than their counterparts a decade earlier, and one recent study reported an increase, just since 1994, in the number of students who drink deliberately to get drunk? (Smith 1). I interviewed my friend Shelly Mitchell who recently turned twenty-one and asked her how she felt about finally being legal to drink. She quoted, ?It is not as exciting to drink anymore, I mean I still like to go out with my friends to bars, but the fun is all over, in high school and college it was so exciting trying to get alcohol by using a fake ID.? All of these factors could be changed by lowering the drinking age to eighteen. In a study done by the Harvard School of Public Health, binge drinking is defined as five drinks in a row for boys and four drinks for girls. And when they did a survey they found that 44% of the students attending Harvard binge drink (Jeffrey Kluger 1).
The United States has the highest binge drinking percentage worldwide, 5,000 people under the age of 21 die each year due to alcohol poisoning. Also, 15.8 % of underage males and 12.4 % of underage females engage in binge drinking. Binge drinking has become a culture in the United
Using fear, while not aggressively, Silveri highlights the fact that excessive alcohol consumption is the third leading leading cause of preventable death. The author discusses this topic in a way that seems to be to scare anybody she is trying to convince. A mother reading this could worry about her daughter, or a young man in college who drinks often could take his drinking habits far more seriously after reading something like that. Also, ending the article on an optimistic note, she allows the reader to have some hope. Silveri mentions the reduction of maladaptive alcohol use through better recognition of the negative tendencies that comes with alcohol abuse in adolescents. (Adolescent Brain Development and Underage Drinking in the United States: Identifying Risks of Alcohol Use in College
According to a national survey conducted by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “almost 60 percent of college students ages 18–22 drank alcohol in the past month, 1 and almost 2 out of 3 of them engaged in binge drinking during that same timeframe” (NIH). Binge drinking culture refers to the recent rise and normalization of college age students drinking excessively. The CDC describes binge drinking as “a pattern of drinking that brings a person’s blood alcohol level to 0.08grams within two hours” (CDC). For many young adults, college is one of the first times they will experience complete freedom. This freedom often leads to partying, which goes hand in hand with the consumption of alcohol. However, since the age at which
A staggering 80% of college students consume alcohol and around half of those students are frequent binge drinkers (“College Drinking”). The excessive consumption of alcohol has became a widespread issue at universities nationwide, causing many people to wonder where the problem got its roots. However, the problem of underage drinking is not exclusive to college campuses. By the time a student graduates high school, there is a 65% chance that they will have consumed at least one alcoholic beverage. Some researchers could claim that this epidemic is due to the historical time period of Prohibition in the 1920s and early 1930s. The eighteenth amendment, ratified in January 1919, outlawed the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors” and caused drastic changes in American society (qtd. in Anderson). The ratification of the eighteenth amendment not only affected citizens
Marcus, D. (March 27, 2000). Drnking To Get Drunk. U.S. News & World Report [On-line], Available: www2.gasou.edu/library/ (Galileo)(EBSCOhost)(Search=Alcohol Abuse).
Alcohol abuse is the most common problem, nowadays. In fact, majority of people drink alcohol repeatedly to the point where they have difficulty to stop. Statistics show that, as much as, “40% of college students report drinking five or more drinks in one episode” (Walters & Baer, 2006). Alcohol has become more popular over the years as advertisements, simultaneously with commercials of it, filled the media. It also is easily accessible and cheap in comparison to other psychoactive substances. On the other hand, alcohol safety awareness programs are barely noticeable. My research will present how alcohol and its abuse gets into people’s lives and how it influences their physical and mental health, as well as, social existence.
... Alcoholism is a serious problem in today's society. It is extremely important that the public, including the large groups of users and abusers of alcohol, gain as much knowledge as possible about the symptoms and effects of alcoholism if we ever want to see the reduction of statics involving fatalities, injuries, diseases caused from the use and abuse of alcohol. Education and realization of the effects alcoholism can have on the different aspects of a person's life are the best ways that we can help control the number of alcoholics in the United States.