Alcohol Consumption Among Athletes and Non-Athletes
On college campuses, the consumption of alcohol amongst undergraduate college students continues to be a maladaptive college health behavior. The recreational use of alcohol effects the student population and the health of the students who excessively drink alcohol. The issue caused many research studies to focus on the effect of alcohol consumption based on being an athlete and non-athlete. This study is important because it provides college campuses with a perspective on alcohol consumption behavior between athletes and non-athletes. Additionally, students who consume alcohol can affect school environment. For example, previous research has suggested athletes are more likely to consume more alcohol than non-athletes. According to past research a reason is athletes may deal with more pressure preparing for a game and handling school work than non-athletes. Nonetheless, athletes face more peer pressure from team members, coaches, and family members; therefore, consuming alcohol would be a method of relieving stress. The purpose of the study is to identify a behavioral link of alcohol consumption between athletes and non-athletes.
College students who are in athletics are one of the most recognized student organizations on campus that engage in health-risk behaviors (Ward & Gryczynski, 2007). According to Ford (2007), college athletes are at greater risk of engaging in risky activities, such as getting drunk to forget about problems. Many athletes stress over maintaining a balance between academics and a high level of athletic performance. In order to relieve stress athletes consume more alcohol. Furthermore, most athletes assume that alcohol consumption does not effect their ...
... middle of paper ...
...ey used to conduct the study had questions were participants could have exaggerated their answers. This could have led to a common study limitation known as participation bias. Another limitation could have been due to the sample size for this study. This sample size did not compare to the sample size of previous research. For example, this sample size did not contain many participants who identified themselves as being a member of NCAA sports team.
Even though there is no difference in alcohol consumption among student athletes and non-athletes this study is important. Alcohol consumption is still a problem among college campuses. Many articles target athletes as a health-risk group for alcohol consumption. However, health educators should focus on promoting alcohol prevention programs that target both athlete and non-athlete students equally.
The representative sample used in this study was large enough but yet randomized. The reason being was that the researcher used subjects from the ages of 20 through 50 instead of being bias and basing it off of one particular age. Milgram had a diverse of men that were either skilled or unskilled workers, white-collar ages or business-men, and professional men. In addition to the representative sample being randomized, its contribution was from newspapers ads that were posted and the direct-mail solicitation with money being offered. It allowed the men who were interested in this study to
Scrivo, K. (1998, March 20). Drinking on campus. CQ Researcher, 8, 241-264. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/
Drug use is happening in the NFL and one of the most heavily used drugs is alcohol. This paper will analyze the effects of alcohol on players and discuss what the NFL can do to better combat the problems of alcohol usage and abuse. The NFL Substance Abuse Policy can be tweaked and modified so it more focused on helping the players, rather than disciplining them. In addition, the paper will discuss the sociological issues associated with NFL players abusing alcohol and the negative impacts this deviant behavior has on society.
Dr. Pietro Tonino stated that “College athletes are putting themselves at risk for health problems that could persist long after they graduate.” (sciencedaily.com). College athletes today risk their health when they step onto the court or field for college, and get little in return. According to sciencedaly.com, there was a study published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine. Researchers at Indiana University organized an analysis of two groups of people.
...them when they take just one drink of alcohol, even if it is just one shot or one beer, it affect you. Most college student drink to socialize and that is not a good thing to do. When a students, or anyone, drink to be social there are more likely to have more then what they intended. Alcohol will affect the way that students think, feel, act, and socialize with others. Drink is a dangers action to participate in but that is a choice that one needs to make on their own. It is always fun at the time, but at that same time one does not think that they are permanently arming to their bodies. Whether children and teens drink 15,25 or even 30 percent of the alcohol consumed, the reality is that America has an underage drinking epidemic and alcohol is by far the drug most used by children and teens and poses the greatest threat to their well-being” (Underage, CNN.com pg2).
Although high-risk drinkers are a minority in all ethnic groups, their behavior is far from a harmless “rite of passage.” In fact, drinking has pervasive consequences that compel our attention. The most serious consequence of high-risk college drinking is death. The U.S. Department of Education has evidence that at least 84 college students have died since 1996 because of alcohol poisoning or related injury—and they believe the actual total is higher because of incomplete reporting. When alcohol-related traffic crashes and off-campus injuries are taken into consideration, it is estimated that over 1,400 college students die each year from alcohol-related unintentional injuries. Additionally, over 500,000 full-time students sustain nonfatal unintentional injuries, and 600,000 are hit or assaulted by another student who has been drinking. Administrators are well aware of the burden alcohol presents to the campus environment. In addition, the 1997, 1999, and 2001 Harvard surveys found that the majority of students living in dorms and Greek residences, who do not drink excessively, still experience day-to-day problems as a result of other students’ misuse of alcohol. The prevalence of these “secondhand effects” varies across ...
...or example, all students of color are not African American, the students in this survey do not represent students everyone in the world, the students did not have to follow up after a nine year period, and female students took the survey more than male students. The female population is overly represented in this data set.
This study failed to mention details regarding the participants’ gender, race, or religion. With this being said, they may not be an accurate representation of the general population. To elaborate,
We all know what it is like to wake up in the morning, with our head aching, and our body feeling like it was just hit by a train. College students world wide know this feeling. These are the results of binge drinking. The question of why college students continue to submit themselves to alcohol is unknown. While many reasons are given, the cause generally falls into one of three categories, peer pressure, insecurity, or to help solve there problems. But the one thing students don’t realize are the consequences and effects that binge drinking can have, health and social problems are just a few.
Initial analysis revealed the prevalence of heavy alcohol consumption among this student athlete population; with 68.9% of participants scoring +8 on the AUDIT. This is consistent with and adds to the rising body of research regarding the high rates of hazardous drinking behaviours in university sports people (Brenner and Swanik, 2007; Doumas, 2013; Leichliter et al., 1998; Nelson and Wechsler, 2001; Weschler et al., 1997). Furthermore, as predicted, we found greater levels of hazardous drinking in male athletes compared to female athletes. This is in accordance with previous research (O’Brien et al., 2007; Weaver et al., 2013) highlighting the significant gender differences in relation to alcohol consumption and confirms the need to control for this variable. Young and White (2000) suggest that women tend to be more health conscious than men; and therefore it is possible that women drink less due to the negative health consequences associated with heavy alcohol consumption.
It has been stated in each research source that hazing and particularly binge drinking is the most serious problem affecting social life, academic life, and health on college campuses today. The journal article pertaining to this issue, How Harvard’s College Alcohol Study Can Help Your Campus Design a Campaign Against Student Alcohol Abuse (CAS: Campus Alcohol Study for short), focuses more heavily on binge drinking and prevention than it does on the Greek system itself. The authors, Wechsler, Nelson, and Weitzman, contend that binge drinking is a nationally recognized problem but has not been studied efficiently enough to warrant effective prevention plans. The purpose of this article is to share with the public the results of a survey representing 50,000 students in 140 colleges, in 39 states. This is the first nationally representative survey of its kind and the analysis of its outcome by the authors of this article has resulted in seemingly sound prevention ideas. To begin interpreting the binge drinking phenomenon, a solid understanding of the term must be presented. Binge drinking is defined by all the articles as consuming five or more drinks in rapid succession (four or more for women) at least once in a two week period. Shockingly, the College Alcohol Study (CAS) found that two out of every five college students binge drink. The authors of this article argue that binge drinking has negative effects not only on the drinkers, but also on the entire student body. The binge drinker might get alcohol poisoning, other related physical injuries, or weakened academic performance, while the non-binging students are subjected to insults, arguments, vandalism, physical and sexual assaults, and loss of sleep due to alcohol influenced peers. The next topic that the article gets into is the different areas that change need be made to lessen the presence of binge drinking and ways in which these changes might be made. The first idea presented is that simply educating students about alcohol abuse and related problems is not effective. The CAS shows that four out of five students have been exposed to anti-alcohol education and still two out of these five binge drink, let alone drink at all. In fact, Wechsler, Nelosn, and Weitzman state that most members of predominant binge drinking groups like athletes and Greek organizations openly admit to being educated in this area. These findings display how ineffective alcohol education on college campuses is.
One of the biggest problems with educational institutions in the United States is alcohol abuse among college students. College students across the United States including Georgia Southern University end up missing class, having unprotected sex, damaging property, and getting injured as a result of abusing alcohol. Also the health risks involved with binge or excessive drinking is very prevalent and risky for any college student who chooses to abuse alcohol. Besides alcohol poisoning, there are many cancers and diseases associated with alcohol abuse that ultimately lead to death. Liver cancer, breast cancer, and skin cancer can all be associated with alcohol abuse (Drinking: A Students Guide, 2001). Also heart and liver disease can be associated with alcohol abuse (Drinking: A Students Guide, 2001). Ultimately the over all wellness among Colleges and Universities in the United States drops dramatically when alcohol is abused. The abuse of alcohol among college students has a direct co...
...the data did not involve member checking thus reducing its robustness and enable to exclude researcher’s bias. Although a constant comparative method was evident in the discussion which improved the plausibility of the final findings. Themes identified were well corroborated but not declared was anytime a point of theoretical saturation Thus, the published report was found to be particularly strong in the area of believability and dependability; less strong in the area of transferability; and is weak in the area of credibility and confirmability, although, editorial limitations can be a barrier in providing a detailed account (Craig & Smyth, 2007; Ryan, Coughlan, & Cronin, 2007).
The study consisted of a significant number of females compared to males, which makes it invalid to conclude that the findings support the general population. A strength was that participants were selected at random. By doing so, the study remained unbiased, thus making the results more credible.
Most people do not realize that alcohol is a drug that claims the lives of youth in college campuses across the world. In my case, it took the encounter with the ORL staff at UCLA for me to come to understanding that I am putting myself and those around me in danger through my risky drinking habits. With hours of self-reflection and the help of a cosmopolitan article called The Deadly Drinking Mistakes Smart Girls Make, I have found that there are several risks associated with alcohol that can put me at a quarrel with death. Even so, drinking does not always need to be deadly, and by keeping in mind the well-being of my fellow bruins and the skills mentioned in the article, I can find a balance between drinking for fun and drinking till death.