Why Many College Students Binge Drink
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to examine the factors that lead to binge drinking for college students. Binge drinking is defined as is the consumption of four or more alcoholic drinks in one sitting. Binge drinking has become increasingly prevalent on college campuses where it seems almost as a necessary part of socializing during events. Drinking games, pregaming before athletic events, and being involved with Greek Life, have all contributed to the likelihood of binge drinking among students. Individual, environmental, and demographic factors have been linked to binge drinking in college students. Binge driving is a serious issue with serious consequences. It causes serious health, legal, and academic problems.
“Work hard, play hard” is a phrase a lot of college students take literally. Students feel the pressure to succeed not only in the classroom but socially as well. Alcohol is a part of many social aspects of college. When teenagers come to college, they feel that they are expected to participate in something similar to “The Carolina Experience.” “The Carolina Experience” supports the mentality that students can drink as much as they want on the weekends without it affecting their academic success. Students want “The Carolina Experience” so they can celebrate after working hard all week and then go out to have a good time with friends (Kemp, 1995). Often binge drinking behavior is glamorized by society as forty-four percent of college students reported that it was a part of the culture (Clapp, Shillington, & Segars, 2000).
Binge drinking can be measured by quantity, which is how much alcohol is consumed, or frequency, which is how alcohol is consumed. Quantity and frequency both matter when it comes to drinking. If someone consumes ten drinks over the course of a week, that is only one or two drinks a night which is not too worrisome. However, if someone consumes ten drinks in one night, that is cause for alarm. Binge drinking is defined as drinking four or more alcoholic drinks in one sitting for females or five or more drinks in one sitting for males (Kemp, 1995).
The Culture of Drinking on Campus
While all colleges and universities have their own special culture and traditions, the excessive consumption of alcohol seems to be prevalent at most. Colleges’ unique ways of unrestrained drinking may vary from campus to campus, but the need to drink as a way to socialize and have fun with others does not change. Most students binge drink during drinking games, before athletic events, and if they are a part of Greek Life.
Drinking Games
Drinking games allow students to consume a lot of alcohol quickly. Some games are highly competitive while others do not require much skill at all. One of the most popular games today is Beer Pong. The most common way to play beer pong is to make a triangle out of six red solo cups that are filled with beer on a ping-pong table or a similar table while you try and throw the ping-pong ball into one of your opponents’ cups. When a player makes it into one of their opponents’ cups, the opponent must then chug the beer inside the cup. Whichever team runs out of cups first, loses. Another popular drinking game is Flip Cup, where players try and chug a cup of beer and see who can flip it upside down and get it to land on the table first. Drinking games are very prominent as sixty-three percent of students who participated in a self-reported survey said they played drinking games (Bhullar, Simons, Joshi, & Amoroso, 2012).
Athletic Events
For many college students, an athletic event such as a football game, is just an excuse to drink. Tailgating typically begins hours before the game starts which provides plenty of time and opportunity for students to drink. Some students even chose to continue to drink rather than attend the game. Sometimes students are too drunk to make into the sporting event or authorities do not allow them in to the game. Students typically drink significantly more on a game day than the last time they partied or socialized. Drinking before athletic events is very popular among college students (Glassman, Werch, Jobli, & Bian, 2007).
Greek Life
Many people associate being in a Greek organization with drinking lots of alcohol and this view is not completely inaccurate. In a study that investigated the relationship between Greek membership and heavy alcohol use, it was suggested that the Greek system provides a social environment that facilitates a heavy-drinking lifestyle among its members. The study showed that Greeks consistently drank more heavily than non-Greeks. When college students arrive on campus for the first time, they are usually pretty lonely and are looking for ways to meet people and make friends. Fraternities and sororities promise a brotherhood or sisterhood that consists of lifelong friendships that sound appealing to many students so many students join a Greek organization. They quickly learn that fraternity houses are often referred to as “party houses” as the friendships that are built within Greek organizations are often because of alcohol (Sher, Bartholow, & Nanda, 2001).
Factors That Influence Students To Drink
Environmental
The environment a student is in plays a role in influencing their behavior. When a student is surrounded by other people drinking, drinking games being played, or alcohol is easily available, they are more likely to participate in drinking. Drinking with family and drinking at a dating event are also two main causes of binge drinking. While these environments are more likely to get a student to drink, we also have to consider if binge drinkers are more likely to be in these environments because they want to drink. It is difficult to figure out if a student played beer pong because of the environment or because they wanted to hang out with binge drinkers who happen to be playing a drinking game (Clapp, Shillington, & Segars, 2000).
Developmental
College is a new experience for students and it takes time for them to adjust as they are also trying to figure out who they are. In addition, college students typically have the most freedom that they have had in their entire life. Because their parents are no longer monitoring them all day, they can make decisions on their own. With decision making, undergraduates want to not only do adult things, but they also want to feel like an adult. Teenagers may drink alcohol in order to feel like an adult. Students also want to experience new things. Underage drinking, especially binge drinking, is shamed by most parents. This can contribute to students wanting to binge drinking once in college. The development that comes when a student transitions to college can cause them to want to participate in binge drinking (Wechsler, Lee, Kuo, & Lee, 2000).
Cognitive
Cognitive factors have a big impact on the development of binge drinking as a lot of college students believe false information about drinking. They believe myths such as “everyone drinks” and “it’s just beer.” Sayings like this lead teenagers to believe that everyone binge drinks and experiences the negative effects and that alcohol is not actually harmful to the human body. These myths lead students to binge drink “because they deserve it” after a week of school. Another factor that contributes to binge drinking is students wanting the approval of others. If students believe that everyone else around them is drunk, they will want to be drunk. When someone they like approves of something, then students are more likely to participate in it (Turrisi, Wiersma, & Hughes, 2000).
Environmental, developmental, and cognitive factors all influence binge drinking in college students. Students are more likely to participate in binge drinking when they are surrounded by others who are, when they are still adjusting to college, and when they are told false information about drinking. All of these factors contribute to the college drinking culture which is why almost half of college students in the United States binge drink.
The Negative Effects of Binge Drinking
Binge drinking is more dangerous than other patterns of drinking because it leads to intoxication faster which can lead to a variety of problems and issues. One problem is its effect on a student’s health which includes things like include blacking out, hangovers, and alcohol poisoning. Binge drinking also affects students’ academic performance as students who binge drink often skip class, study less, and have lower grades. Additionally, binge drinkers can get into legal trouble by vandalizing property, driving under the influence, or getting in fights. Regardless of these known concerns, many college students still binge drink.
The problem of binge drinking is not something recent. Karen Kemp from The Daily Tar Heel, reported in 1995 that forty-eight percent of UNC undergraduates were binge drinkers compared to forty-four percent of students in the United States. One student who participated in binge drinking was Jamie McGee. Jamie sadly passed away after trying to live “The Carolina Experience” and partying for eleven hours to celebrate the semester ends. Jamie just wanted to socialize with others the “normal” way and have a little fun but it ended in an unfortunate way. Her dad, Ken McGee, said it was her personal decision to drink but it was way too easy for students to obtain alcohol (Kemp, 1995).
Lowering the Binge Drinking Rate
According to an American Addiction Center (2019), it is not much of a surprise that the United States has a high binge drinking rate while most people in Europe drink alcohol without binge drinking. For the most part, Europeans consume more alcohol than other nations but they drink it in moderation. The drinking age in Europe ranges from sixteen to eighteen years old versus twenty-one years old in the United States. This helps display how European kids are taught from a young age that alcohol is something to drink casually, not to get drunk.
The law also has something to do with how people view alcohol. Many families in the U.S. are very strict when it comes to drinking and we all know what happens when you tell a rebellious teenager not to do something. If we taught our children how to be responsible when you reach the legal age to drink instead of always trying to prevent them from drinking underage, we could transform our culture to more like Europe’s and prevent binge drinking in more students.
Matt Sullivan, the coordinator of alcohol and substance abuse at UNC once said “The hardest thing for a freshman is to take a stand against the mainstream culture” and he was not wrong (Kemp, 1995). College students primarily binge drink because of the college culture and because of environmental, developmental, and cognitive factors. The culture alone is not enough to make most students drink while neither are the other factors but when students are exposed to a mixture of these factors it is more likely for binge drinking behaviors to develop.
Works Cited
Bhullar, N., Simons, L., Joshi, K., & Amoroso, K. (2012). The Relationship Among Drinking Games, Binge Drinking and Gambling Activities in College Students. Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education, 56(2), 58–84. Retrieved from http://libproxy.lib.unc.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/docview/1237103834?accountid=14244
Clapp, J. D., Shillington, A. M., Segars, L. B. (2000). Deconstructing Contexts of Binge Drinking Among College Students. American Journal of Drug & Alcohol Abuse, 26(1), 139–154. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=s3h&AN=2877059&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Glassman, T., Werch, C. E., Jobli, E., & Bian, H. (2007). Alcohol-Related Fan Behavior on College Football Game Day. Journal of American College Health, 56(3), 255–260. Retrieved from http://libproxy.lib.unc.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/20455436?accountid=14244
Kemp, K. (1995, December 4). UNC: A Hard-Drinking School? The Daily Tar Heel website. Retrieved from http://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92068245/1995-12-04/ed-1/seq-1/#index=3&rows=20&sequence=0&lccn=sn92073227&lccn=sn92073228&lccn=sn92068245&lccn=sn92073230&ortext=binge+drinking&words=binge+Binge+binging+drink+Drinking+drinking+DRINKING+drinks&page=1
Sher, K. J., Bartholow, B. D., & Nanda, S. (2001). Short-and Long-Term Effects of Fraternity and Sorority Membership on Heavy Drinking: A Social Norms Perspective. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 15(1), 42. Retrieved from https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2001-14466-006
Turrisi, R., Wiersma, K. A., & Hughes, K. K. (2000). Binge-Drinking-Related Consequences in College Students: Role of Drinking Beliefs and Mother–Teen Communications. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 14(4), 342–355. https://doi-org.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/10.1037/0893-164X.14.4.342
Wechsler, H., Lee, J. E., Kuo, M., & Lee, H. (2000). College Binge Drinking in the 1990s: A Continuing Problem: Results of the Harvard School of Public Health 1999 College Alcohol Study. Journal of American College Health, 48(5), 199–210. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/10.1080/07448480009599305
(2019). Global Drinking Demographics. An American Addiction Centers Resource. Retrieved from https://www.alcohol.org/guides/global-drinking-demographics/
