Melting Pot In American Culture

Western culture in the United States of America has been shaped from many different cultures, and is sometimes referred to as a “melting pot” because all these other cultures contribute their own distinct “flavors” to the American culture. Though the contents of the melting pot that is America is so flavorful, the way behavioral health issues are portrayed by members of the media can be quite bland when it comes to accurately relaying information – this can be problem when it comes to coverage on alcohol abuse and dependence among U.S. college students. There are many factors the media should consider and analyze before relaying information to others. I’ve seen many effective articles, public service announcements, TV commercials, and Internet

In the film, it is clear that the problem is alcohol abuse amongst college students, which can lead the driver and his friends off the road and into a deadly situation. The message was targeted for young adults under 25, specifically college students who tell their parents that they’re studying, when they’re really out partying. Causal factors that I suspect lead to this situation are on an individual and interpersonal level. Maybe the young man driving has an alcohol disorder where he abuses and is dependent on alcohol. Maybe his friends pressured him into thinking he was okay to drive. There are actually many factors in play that ultimately caused these boys to suffer a tragic fate; however there are many ways their situation could have been avoided, things might have turned out differently if an individual had access to a taxi service, or if someone in the back seat reminded the driver to keep his eyes on the road. The goal of the message was to encourage young people to speak up when they feel unsafe, but because the only person who speaks up was a passenger, and it was to his mother, I do not think a solution was proposed within the duration of the film. A better solution would be to speak up against the driver so that he doesn’t pick up the keys, let alone put them into the ignition, to start

I also agree with the implied causal factors that lead to the demise of these young men – the driver could have had a dependency on alcohol he may not known about so it could never have been addressed. This brings me to mention why I disagree with the proposed solution for this problem. As a public health major, I also know that a secondary prevention intervention, early identification and treatment of health problems like alcohol abuse and dependence, is the best solution to this problem among college students. A screening would let students at risk to suffering from this condition know that they could be suffering, thus giving them the opportunity to take action against the behavior. My knowledge on this issue forms my belief that if there were a strategy on the college campus for early detection of high-risk drinkers, the driver could have gotten treatment before endangering himself and his classmates. In an alcohol study, more than 14,000 students from over a hundred U.S. colleges completed a questionnaire that included items corresponding to diagnostic criteria for alcohol abuse and dependence. Results show that 31% of students fit the DSM-IV criteria for alcohol abuse and 6% for the criteria for alcohol dependence. That’s over two out of every five students that show symptoms of