History, scope, and patterns of college binge drinking

Binge Drinking on College

Campuses

The problem of binge drinking on college campuses has become a great concern over the past few years. With an estimated 1700 drinking-related deaths per annum on college campuses, the growing interest is not surprising (Dowdall, 4). Before the problem can hope to be curbed, it is necessary to try and understand it. It is the intent of this paper to give some insight into the history, scope, and patterns associated with college binge drinking.

The paper will first examine the concern, expressed by George Dowdall in his book, College Drinking: Reframing a Social Problem, that the public's view of the issue has been skewed in the past few years by greater media coverage of binge drinking fatalities and its secondary effects. By looking at the percentage of binge drinkers on college campuses, the paper will attempt to show the true extent of the problem. Furthermore, by looking at recorded instances of binge drinking on campuses over the past few decades, it will try to ascertain if indeed instances of binge drinking among college kids have increased. It will examine what, if any, changes in the college environment might have helped facilitate the increase in binge drinking and the public's perception of it.

The next section of the paper will focus on conditions that increase the possibility of a college student's becoming a binge drinker. First it will look at the kinds of family dynamics and social norms and the personality types that increase the adolescent's risk. Having examined the formative causes for a predisposition to binge drinking, the paper will then turn to the environmental influences on the campuses themselves. It will look at specific social groups that appear to promote the occurrence of abuse.

What is binge drinking? The answer to that question is the foundation for any discussion of its current expanse on college campuses. There is debate over the specific elements that define a binge drinker; scholars propose variations in the number of drinks, the ratio of body weight to volume consumed, and the time span in which the drinking occurs. For example, the Wechsler study conducted in 1999 defines binge drinking as, "consuming five or more drinks in a row one or more times during a two weeks period" (Kellogg, 2). Other studies disregard the frequency of drinking and define it as merely "consuming five or more drinks in one sitting" (MacLachlan & Smyth, 24). Despite these inconsistencies, binge drinking is universally and fundamentally agreed to be, "drinking a large quantity of alcohol in a short period of time, usually with the specific aim of getting drunk" (MacLachlan & Smyth, 22).

According to an article on the Wechsler study published by ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) in 1999, 85% of college students drink, 44% of those students are binge drinkers and 14% are frequent drinkers (Kellogg, 2). Even more staggering is the fact that 33% of the campuses surveyed in the Wechsler study are binge-drinking campuses, defined as having 50% or more of their college students labeled binge drinkers. With such overwhelming numbers, it is no wonder the issue has risen in American consciousness.

It is important, however, to realize that college drinking is not a new phenomenon. Alcohol abuse has always been present on college campuses (Kellogg, 2). According to George Dowdall, newspapers have consistently presented the issue of college drinking; the frequency of articles has mirrored the increase in college populations (17). In 1966, there were 2,329 colleges and universities in the U.S. with an enrollment of 6,390,000 students. In 2006, that number rose to 4,216 institutions with 17,648,000 enrollees (Dowdall, 14). New colleges formed to meet the rising number of students and many established institutions reorganized themselves into universities changing their focus from undergraduate education to graduate education and research. Though newspaper coverage of the binge drinking occurrences has risen with the increase of college populations, the Chronicle of Higher Education (a weekly publication that covers the institution of higher education) has been woefully lacking; reports of college drinking only appeared for the first time in the publication during the late 1980s. Even then there were significantly fewer reports than in secular publications (Dowdall, 17). Dowdall states:

Several decades ago, [binge drinking] was primarily viewed by [colleges] as a personal aberration (Joe drinks too much, Joe is an alcoholic or soon will be).

Now it is more likely to be seen as a problem for higher education as a social institution." (2)

The reason for increased awareness about the problem of binge drinking seems to be two-fold. One, a larger percentage of the population attends colleges; therefore, it has become an issue for more people. Two, when colleges began acknowledging binge drinking as a problem not isolated to individual campuses or students but as an issue for higher education as a whole, it altered public perception from individual addiction to an institutional epidemic.

Conclusion

There are two interesting elements associated with college binge drinking that came out of the Wechsler study. The first is its discovery of the kinds of students who tend to binge drink in college. The Wechsler study showed that most of the students in these Greek houses were already heavy binge drinkers before leaving home: they drank heavily in high school. Dowdall asserts, that "prior high school drinking by itself is one of the most important predictors of freshman drinking" (58). Such an observation moves the sole focus of the national obsession with binge drinking's being a problem of higher education to its being a problem for the culture as a whole. It returns the gaze to the fundamental causes for a predisposition for binge drinking mentioned in the previous section. If the student was drinking before college, than the problem is not solely an effect of being at college. The problem lies just as much, if not more, with the parenting of the child. As Dowdall relates, "although there are many good reasons to focus on 'college drinking' as a national health problem [ . . .] we need to view early college drinking as embedded in the context of ongoing adolescent development" (43). Focus needs to turn toward successful parenting skills.

The second interesting result of the study is that it found a disconnect between student perception of peer drinking levels and their own. The Wechsler study found that students generally thought that other students on campus drank more than they did (Kellogg, 6). At a college:

Where the actual binge drinking rate was 43%, students indicated that their perception was that 69% of students participated in binge drinking. If students believe that "everyone else is binge drinking" than binge drinking rates are likely to rise because of the influence that "everyone else is drinking."

Whether it is accurate or not, the perceptions of drinking norms have a strong influence on current and future drinking behaviors and they eventually become self-full-filling prophecies.

(Kellogg, 6)

During the course of this study, a campaign was launched to change the perceptions of drinking levels on the campus. By realigning perception with actual statistics, the drinking levels on the campus fell 18%.

Such results suggest that despite genetic predispositions or inherent personality types, it is social environments -- whether they are familial or peer oriented -- which have the greatest effect on a student's drinking. As social perception can be more easily altered than physiognomy, the problem of college binge drinking becomes conquerable. Perceptions of drinking norms can be corrected through administrators' efforts; the result of such action is already documented to lower drinking levels. The habits of the institutions, such as fraternities and sororities, can be addressed and regulated by administrators to subdue excessive drinking. A student can be educated about the impact their choice of social groups can have on their personal health. Most fundamentally, people can be instructed in successful parenting skills, thereby lessening the predisposition of binge drinking caused by familial influence.