Binge Drinking on College Campuses

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.

Contributing Social Factors

Studies show that several foundational factors contribute to form a predisposition to binge drinking among college students. Family influences, such as "genetics, parent's drinking style, and parenting skills" are foremost components in forming an adolescent's predisposition (MacLachlan & Smyth, 29). According to Adrian Furnham, there are factors beyond the child's home life that can also make the adolescent more disposed to binge drinking. The adolescent's personality type is major concern as well: is he an extrovert / introvert, is he impulsive / conservative? The third contributing factor is the adolescent's social environment (Mac Lachlan & Smyth, 17).

According to multiple studies, family influences are the most critical factors to developing a predisposition to binge drinking. This sentiment is echoed in multiple studies. Furnham asserts that "the way parents bring up their children is the central and causative issue in determining their preferences" (MacLachlan & Smyth, 34); Grace Barnes, Michael Farrell, and Sarbani Banerjee in their 1995 study likewise found that "quality of parenting is critically important for adolescent outcomes" (Boyd, Howard, & Zucker, 27). How do these findings relate to the problem of binge drinking? Simply put, a parent who has an unhealthy relationship with alcohol is likely to have a child who drinks; in other words, "adolescents learn to drink by observing parents drink" (Blane, 34).

It is not, however, just rout mimicry that causes an adolescent's predisposition to binge drinking. There are multiple elements of the parent-child relationship that are implicit in its development. A study by Howard Blane shows that "unclear expectations for behaviour [sic], poor monitoring of behaviour [sic], few and inconsistent rewards for positive behaviour[sic] [ . . .] and family management practices increase risk of problem behaviour [sic] in adolescents" (35). To look at it another way, the way "parents bring up their children is central and causative issue in determining their performance" and subsequently their predisposition to abuse (Furnham, 34). By setting distinct boundaries and defining behavioral expectations, parents provide a firm foundation for their child to interact in the world with and with which to make strong choices.

The mother-child relationship has been shown, most specifically, to affect the formation of healthy coping methods and has been linked to the infrequency of binge drinking. Robert Zucker in his 1978 study of the "Developmental Aspects of Drinking through the Young Adult Years" found a direct correlation between this relationship and binge drinking; he discovered a link between "low alcohol consumption" and "high mother-child interaction"; the extent of the correlation increased as the "quality of emotional interaction" between mother and child increased (Blane, 120).

The influences that promote binge drinking among college students do not end with their entering college. The social groups a student chooses to be involved with while at college have been shown to have a great impact as well. Though the occurrences of binge drinking are high across college campuses, there seem to be certain social groups that fall victim to higher instances of binge drinking. As the Wechsler study showed, the highest percentages of binge-drinking students are male, involved in a fraternity or a sorority, white, and under the age of 24" (Kellogg, 3).

As out of the 87% of students who drink on college campuses across the country, the greatest proportion of those students seem to be associated with the Greek system, this brief section will focus on that subset of binge drinkers. The main reason for disproportionate numbers may be that alcohol is inherent in the socialization process of fraternities and sororities; "Greek members believe that alcohol facilitates the brotherhood/sisterhood bonding process and enhances social activities (Kellogg, 3). The Wechsler study found that 80% of sorority and 86% of fraternity members are binge drinkers. Such an ideology mixed with the constant exposure to alcohol and the social pressure to drink in the Greek system is most likely the reason for their housing the highest percentage of binge-drinking students.

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.