Binge drinking is defined as four or more drinks in a row for women and for men, five or more. It is “estimated that nearly one third of college students qualify for a diagnosis of alcohol abuse, and 1 in 17 qualifies for a diagnosis of alcohol dependence; however, few students who drink at these high levels report that they are heavy or problem drinkers, and even fewer report that they have sought treatment or counseling for their drinking.” (Lenk, Erickson, Winters, Nelson, & Toomey, 2012)…
The article What Colleges Need to Know Now: An Update on College Drinking Research, published by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS), looks at the different aspects of college drinking as well as its consequences and the measures taken to intervene and prevent the repercussions of drinking, such as serious injury, death, DWI, and assault (USDHHS, 2007, p. 1). , What Colleges Need to Know Now: An Update on College Drinking Research examines several ways of intervening and treating college alcohol addiction and puts them into action ranging from individual approaches where one would monitor a student mandated for alcohol use. For instance, in a study 10 students, mandated to partake in a substance abuse prevention program…
The article “Health and Behavioral Consequences of Binge Drinking in College: a National Survey of Students at 140 Campuses” talks about a survey the authors mailed out to college students around the United States. The colleges they sent the surveys to were 4-year colleges located in 40 different states and the District of Columbia. The purpose of the survey was to “examine the nature and extent of binge drinking among a representative national sample of students at 140 US 4-year colleges and details the problems such drinking causes for drinkers themselves and for others on college campus” (Wechsler). Nine colleges were originally dropped from the survey because they were “inappropriate.” Two thirds of the sample was public colleges and the…
Do you know someone that has consumed alcohol at an early age? Growing up alcohol was very evident in my local junior high and high school. My peers consistently talked about going out on the weekends, sometimes even the week and boasting about being the biggest drinker at a local bar they snuck in to or even going as far as describing extravagant narratives about not remembering the night before from partying too extensively. Underage drinking on college campuses are a common issue nationwide. While students and faculty alike are all aware of the issue not much is done or can be done to end underage consumption.…
Binge drinking. We have all heard of it whether from conversations or seen it in television and movies. Binge drinking has been around for a long time and shows no signs of disappearing any time soon. Binge drinking is prevalent on college campuses and even shows signs in high schools. The act of binge drinking is deemed as consuming four (females)/ five (males) or more alcoholic beverages in a span of two hours CDC.…
Recently, many colleges were faced a lot of criticisms about binge drinking among who agrees and disagrees. Binge drinking is a dialectic problem because some people look at it as a unimportant problem whereas others look at it as a big problem that needs to be solved. Harvard Professor Henry Wechsler, in his article (1997) " Binge Drinking Must be Stopped " discusses that binge drinking is a serious problem that affects college students and some students have died. Wechsler supports his claim by providing some statistics of the consequences of binge drinking around universities campuses. In another article, "Stop Babysitting College Students" Forma Harrop is an Editorial and Columnist for the Providence Journal.…
We shop in bulk, we eat in bulk, and we drink in bulk. Drinking is probably where the heaviest evidence of bingeing can be found. About 90% of the alcohol consumed by youth under the age of 21 is in the form of binge drinking. (cite) This statistic shows that there is a serious problem in our culture with alcohol. Presidents of some of the countries best-known universities including Dartmouth and Duke have publically supported a lowering of the national drinking age in efforts to end binge drinking by coeds (cite).…
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Sciences finds that over 90% of alcohol consumed by underage drinkers is consumed in an episode of binge drinking - a danger particularly apparent among college students. Yet in spite of these distressing statistics , there…
Underage drinking has been a problem in many states especially during teenagers’ college years. College students are abusing their freedom privileges by drinking excessively putting themselves in danger. Having the freedom to do anything without parent guidance has caused may teenagers to lose their lives because of immaturity and being irresponsible. Universities are trying to find ways to reduce the problem in fear that the student will be hospitalized, injured, or even dead. Deaths and injuries from alcohol has been a major concern at universities and even though it may be out of the official’s hands, they can contribute a lot to help reduce these problems.…
Experimentation with alcohol while in college is a fairly common occurrence. Alcoholic beverages, while allowed on campus for those of legal drinking age, find their way into immature hands all too often. Attending college is hard work and as such, students usually want to attend parties and enjoy life in their off time. When this happens, individuals who otherwise would not make bad choices have found themselves either as a victim of an assault or as the perpetrator. Now I will get to the preventative measures I want to put in place to, at a minimum, reduce the statistics for these horrible…
Applying Conflict Theory to Binge Drinking Society is broken down and understood through the use of theories. Social theories are analytical frameworks used to understand social problems that plague society. (Hungerford, 2008). Conflict theorists explain how society is structured to benefit few at the expense of the majority (Hungerford, 2008).…
This answer seems to be more wrapped up in the belief system one holds towards college drinking. It has been documented that 90% of underage drinkers are binge drinkers and these numbers are more established amongst college students. The problem is far more serious than some are willing to admit. In order to solve the problem we must consider what the causes are and how to change the thought processes that are intertwined within the culture.…
College is an exciting time for many young adults. It is the first step towards adulthood and for a majority of students it’s the first time they experience independence. “Alcohol consumption in humans is the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States (McGinnis & Foege, 1993). A common abuse pattern called binge drinking contributes to a substantial portion of alcohol-related deaths (Chikritzhs, Jonas, Stockwell, Heale, & Dietze, 2001)”. Though with freedom comes responsibility.…
However when the teen goes to college is the most important, it's when they are the most vulnerable. It's been estimated that nearly half of all college students and 80 percent of students who live in fraternity houses engage in binge drinking (consuming four or more drinks in a row (Binge 7). College is a place where alcohol is highly available to just about anyone all it takes is some older friends or friends with fake IDs. Students under 21 are actually more likely to be binge drinkers than are older students (Binge…
Research on the cost of underage drinking conducted by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation revealed that medical expenses, job loss due to alcohol-induced sickness, auto accidents, deaths, and arson collectively cost an estimated $53 billion annually (Meier, 2006). This cost does not include the estimated annual $116.2 billion spent on the purchase of alcoholic beverages such as beer, wine, and spirits by underage college students. A common trend that is fueling the increasing rate of excessive alcohol consumption on college campuses is a form of heavy drinking known as “binge drinking”. Wechsler & Nelson (2010) defines “binge drinking” as a situation where a male consumes five or more bottles or a female consumes four or more bottles consecutively. By definition, it can be inferred that an estimated 40 percent of college students are engaged in binge drinking on weekly basis.…