College Drinking
There are many stereotypes regarding college life and these stereotypes inform students, rightly or wrongly about ways to behave while attending school. Regardless of whether these stereotypical behaviors are detrimental or beneficial, you see them repeated by students in all regions and most ages. Films and television programs all feature certain aspects of college which are then repeated over and over again, regardless of the frequency they actually occur in real life. Most fictional representations of college life feature outrageous parties where alcohol flows like water and where adventures and misadventures happen because of the imbibing of said alcohol. Examples like Animal House and Old School and Van Wilder just to name a very select few show that in order to be considered cool and fun, you need to be willing to drink to an irresponsible level. Beer and wine and heavier liquors are supposed to be part of the college students' daily, or at the very least their weekend, diet. The key here is in the word "supposedly." Although there are usually parties on some college campuses and in some fraternity houses, this simply does not occur with the regularity that feature films and television would have people believe.
There is a phrase which those involved in health communication use to identify this difference between real alcohol consumption and the imagined. This phrase is "the culture of college drinking." As stated, films and television make it seem that every college student drinks heavily, attends wild parties regularly, and rarely has to deal with any consequences for their virulent alcohol consumption. The idea of the hard-drinking, hard-partying college student has become so ingrained in the cultural psyche, that college students begin their freshman years fully expecting to go to parties and drink heavily. Lederman & Stewart (2005) find that the images of drinking have been created but then are recreated on real-world campuses which add to the mythology of the boozy college party. Therefore, the students attend parties by people who have seen the same sorts...
Psychosocial factors, such as depression, anxiety and social support, also induce drinking. This study confirmed that social cognitive factors drove college students to report on their own drinking. Psychosocial motives drove them to do so only at 1%. Social support was the only significant psychosocial predictor. The awareness of both the positive and negative consequences of drinking was quite likely behind the willingness of college students to report on
A number of states follow sobriety roadblock rules while some states like Minnesota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin etc. have avoided sobriety roadblock techniques and their technique has been general patrolling. Minimum Legal Drinking Age: Minimum legal drinking age has been the topic of debate in this country. In the past minimum legal drinking age was reduced to 18, 19, or 20 in some states. With reducing the minimum
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
Prevention curricula. Sometimes the content of these or similar curricula are delivered in other venues, e.g., youth clubs. (Strategies..., N.d., p. 5) Strategy Priority Level of Effectiveness School policies regarding alcohol use on school property or at school sponsored events (These policies are especially important in high schools, but are even more important in colleges and universities.) This strategy has been found to reduce substance use problems. Media literacy programs to make youth more sophisticated about
In the article "Pregnancy & Treatment," Linda L.M. Worley, past medical director of UAMS Arkansas CARES: Center for Addiction, Research, Education and Services, and Curtis Lowery (2005), maternal fetal medicine expert, report that a number of medical and child welfare groups, including the American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Nurses Association, and the March of Dimes, conclude that threatening
Drinking Inadequate water One must drink enough pure water on a daily basis for good health. However, many people forego water and concentrate on other fluids which have additional ingredients. These cannot be compared to water when it comes to health benefits. (McLennan, 2000) Take the example of young kids, who mostly prefer sweet drinks such artificial juice and sodas. Likewise, teens go for energy drinks and sports drinks in lieu of
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