Eating Behaviors in First Year College Students
Drugs and Alcohol
Eating Behaviors in the First Year College Students
Eating Behaviors in First Year College Students
The transition from high school to undergraduate life is perhaps of the most challenging experiences from adolescence into early adulthood. One of the common side effects of this transition is weight gain that occurs during the first or freshman year of college. The paper will discuss how behaviors related to eating habits and alcohol consumption contributes to the general weight gain of first year undergraduates. Among college students, this weight gain is fairly typical and is known as "the freshman 15," referring to the average amount of pounds undergraduates gain over the course of freshman year -- fifteen pounds. It is a requirement of most colleges and universities of the United States that students are mandated to live on campus and eat from a school meal plan for their freshman year. This means that for a lot of young people, it is their first experience of living independently away from their families and parents. Young people in college learn very quickly that they are in charge of their lives at school rather than at home, and they can make their choices without having to directly or immediately defend or answer for those choices to anyone. For students who come from home with many restrictions, the college experience is exceptionally liberating and for the first time these students have the opportunities to explore parts of life previously forbidden or restricted from them. Some of these forbidden aspects of life include food and alcohol. Students who grew up vegetarian may go to college and experiment eating meat. Students who come from strict religious home may go to college and begin experimentation with drugs and alcohol. Students that were varsity or otherwise competitive athletes may go to college and stop exercising as much as they did previously. All such behaviors contribute to weight gain. The paper will discuss factors and offer conclusions as to what factors coupled with appropriate circumstances make for this prevalent phenomenon of accelerated weight gain during freshman year of college.
Lowery et al. claim that separation from the...
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