Binge Drinking Among College Students

Joel Castaneda August 3, 2011 HSC 421 Prof. Garrido Binge beverage Among College Students With extreme rates of engorge throwing among young adults, college assimilators conduct to be a primary focus for a range of alcoholic salute taproom efforts. The rates of lug insobriety among college students is nearly double the rates for full(prenominal) school students, which may indicate that the college environment encourages high risk drinkable. Many students view strong imbibition as a rite of passage that everyone mustiness go through in life and be looked at as existence cool. Young adults elder 18-22 enrolled full-time in a college were more likely than their peers not enrolled full time to intent alcohol, drink heavily, and binge drink (Cremeens, 1). Half of these binge drinkers who binge drink do so more than formerly a week. Binge tipsiness on college camp physical exercises has become a recognized activity to do being baffles from either an opposite(prenomina l) college students or friends, followed by harmful effects on a students body even resulting death. Binge tipsiness results from a students submission to peer pressure, the lack of outside restrain over the student, and the denial that potable gaietyctions to severe consequences.Binge tipsiness is defined as five or more drinks in a row for men and four or more drinks in a row for women in about two hours. Many students participate in binge drinking to be socially accepted into a group, but other students find it difficult to crystallise the choice to be the sober. Many binge drinkers realize that there is little immediate outside bewitch to push them by from the alcohol and they ab function their independence (Norman, 2011). to the highest degree binge drinkers do not consider themselves to be occupation drinkers which adds to the difficulty in solving this college epidemic.They associate binge drinking with a good time, but some are blind to the harm it causes, such as failing grades and chance(prenominal) sexual encounters which may lead to sexually transmitted diseases or unplanned pregnancies. Binge drinking has become an accepted part of the college pick up for many students. Although there are other reasons a student may choose to binge drink, the influence of friends, the lack of outside control and the denial of drinking-related lines are the main forces driving the need to consume alcohol to the point of physical harm.The extreme denial that the alcohol can cause severe problems lies at the calm of the college binge drinking crisis. Once students have an established binge drinking habit, they do not compliments to rely that something that helps them forget their responsibilities could be harmful. In many situations, binge drinking goes undetected because people believe if their friends are engaging in the same drinking habits, they must be acceptable. Women who regularly compare their drinking to mens drinking are more likely to unde restimate the severity of their drinking.When young girls start drinking at such an early age, their brain starts developing and it interferes with their brain activation. This can become a problem because it might have negative impacts on concentration and can cause problems when driving, playing sports involving complex moves, using a map or remembering how to get somewhere. Since this has become such a problem on college campuses, many universities have implemented a variety of programs as a means to cast down heavy drinking to try and reduce the misperceptions of college drinking of students.The theory of Planned port is utilized as a framework for predicting binge drinking among young college students. According to the TPB, the cause of this behavior is due to the individuals intention to engage in the behavior which is determined by ternary constructs. First, is the individuals location towards the behavior. Second is the individuals perception of the social pressure from important others to perform or not perform the behavior. Third is the individuals perception of the ease or difficulty of performing the behavior, which is seen to chase the influence of both internal and external control factors (Norman, P. Conner, M. , 26). Constructs that make up the Theory of Planned Behavior are attitude toward the behavior, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, intention, and behavior. The Health Belied Model is another theoretical tail for researching binge drinking. This theoretical account is a value-expectancy theory, meaning everyone has the desire to avoid an illness or get intumesce and the belief that a specific behavior willing prevent the illness from occurring.In relation to this study, a parent wants their child to avoid heavy drinking during their college years, and the belief that a parent has some influence on their child behavior to prevent heavy drinking (Cremeens, 3). Constructs that make up the Health judgement Model are per ceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, and cues to action. As a model of health behavior, the Transtheoretical Model potentially offers a mechanism to identify and describe processes that are purported to motivate, prepare and assist individuals in realizing behavior change.This model has also had a significant impact on the way the substance use disorders are understood and treated. It has also examined the extent to which the TTM stage paradigm offers an apt description of individuals with substance use problems, and their readiness to change their substance use problems, and their readiness to change their substance user behavior (Migneault, Adams, Read, 438). Constructs that make up the Transtheoretical Model are precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and termination.Using the Transtheoretical Model, heavy drinkers might be asked if they are planning to reduce their drinking to a smaller amount within the n ext six months. Based on their responses they would be assigned to precontemplation, contemplation or preparation stages to see if they do have intent to change their behavior. This model is usually used for behaviors that can be changed in the long run and not immediately. In the other hand the Health Belief Model and Theory of Planned Behavior is used for shorter amount of time.along with, the Health belief Model is used as a framework to explore parent-child communication patterns among first-year college students as a mean of reducing heavy drinking (Cremeens, 4). Parents try to talk to their children and let them roll in the hay what they might expect in college and be aware of the dangers behind it. For example, reminding them of a family member or a good friend of their dying in a car accident due to drunk driving. This will usually help students realize that driving while under the influence is not a fun thing to do.Compared to the other two models, the Theory of Planned Be havior is the only one that deals with the individuals intention to engage in the behavior. Using the other two, someone else has to influence a person to stymie drinking. The individuals attitude is important, they know that drinking is bad for them so they want to stop drinking and stay sober or at least not drink as more. All three of the models have to do with the attitude being the strongest predictor of binge drinking intentions by not care about what harm they can cause to their bodies when they drink.Lastly, models and theories discuss that excessive drinking for a long plosive of time, causes higher levels of temptation to drink and lower levels of confidence to stop drinking. Binge drinking is common and unreliable but is not a well-organized public health program. There are some recommendations that can be done to try and lower the number the number of young adults that perform this behavior. The U. S. Government can aid programs and policies that work to prevent bi nge drinking. They can also provide states and communities with information and tools to put into practice prevention strategies that work.Along with, they can evaluate programs and policy effectiveness that are already in place and bilk trends in binge drinking. States can review interventions that are known to work to reduce binge drinking adopted by local leaders. The state can also reduce alcohol marketing to the youth. Most importantly, they can grow partnerships between schools, community organizations, law enforcement, and public health agencies to reduce binge drinking. Furthermore, doctors, nurses, and other providers can choose not to binge drink themselves. They can screen patients for binge drinking and use behavioral counseling to reduce problem drinking.Lastly, they can support community efforts to reduce binge drinking by passing out flyers explaining the dangers and results of drinking. All people can choose not to binge drink themselves and help others not to do it . Not drinking and driving and if you plan on drinking germinate a sober designated driver. Choose not to drink if they teens, pregnant, or may become pregnant. Talking with a health care provider about their drinking behavior and requesting counseling if they drink too much can be recommended. Lastly, people can participate in community efforts to prevent underage and binge drinking (CDC, 2010).Deciding what role alcohol will play is a choice that every student must make. Having friends who drink, a lack of control from outside sources and the denial of the consequences of binging are not excuses for drinking excessively. Drinking with friends can seem more tempting than studying, feeling stressed out, bored or lonely, but as many students find out, the consequences are not worth the short-term relief. In reality, the emotional regret of an unplanned sexual encounter or failing grades outweighs any temporary negative feelings.Drinking as a result of any of these causes demonstrate s a weakness in character and the inability to make educated decisions. References Centers for affection Control and Prevention, (2010). Binge drinking what can be done? Atlanta, GA Retrieved from http//www. cdc. gov/vitalsigns/BingeDrinking/WhatCanBeDone. html Cremeens, J. L. , Usdan, S. L. , Brock-Martin, A. , Martin, R. J. , & Watkins, K. (2008). PARENT-CHILD COMMUNICATION TO minify HEAVY ALCOHOL USE AMONG FIRST-YEAR COLLEGE STUDENTS. College Student Journal, 42(1), 152-163. Migneault, J. P. , Adams, T. B. , & Read, J. P. (2005).Application of the transtheoretical model to substance abuse historic development and future directions. Drug and Alcohol Review, inside 10. 1080/09595230500290866 Norman, P. (2011). The theory of planned behavior and binge drinking among undergraduate students Assessing the impact of habit strength. Addictive Behaviors, 36(5), 502-507. doi10. 1016/j. addbeh. 2011. 01. 025 Norman, P. , & Conner, M. (2006). The theory of planned behavior and binge drinki ng assesing the moderating role of past behavior withing the theory of planned behavior. British Journal of Health Psychology, (11), doi 10. 1348/135910705X43741