This indicates relative resistance to change the behavior of alcohol usage by college students. It also express concern even though the student percentage drinking alcohol is much less compared to earlier periods it is worried that the proportion of heavy drinking is increasing within the students who drink alcohol.
In this article the reasons college students drink alcohol and heavy drinking is related to many factors. According to his students drink alcohol because of their youthful feeling of immunity or invulnerability, peer group pressure, stress of college life, transition to home environment to college, family environment and their alcohol consumption and attitudes regarding alcohol intake, perception by students that other take more than they consume alcohol then they do, developmental needs the students address by taking alcohol and other drugs. This indicates there are several reasons why students consume alcohol in colleges
And it may be due to family, perceptions f students, peer group pressure, situational factors and stress factors, age, gender and developmental needs they address by taking alcohol or drugs and they may differ from one student to the next because of individual differences in terms of attitudes, vales, beliefs and life style.
In an article by Weitzman, E. R. (2004) " Social Developmental Overview of having Episodic or Binge Drinking Among US College Students" highlights that college students drink heavily compared to non-college attending peers. It also has mentioned that college students are mostly prone to mental health and behavioral problems including alcohol problem.
This article also points that 44% of college students binge drink. That is men drink five or more in a row and females drink four more drink in a row within a two-week period. This article also has pointed that young adults come to campus with social demographic, family with drinking habits and states that 10% of students growing up with parents who drinks. It also points to the fact that some students with this background some abstain from drinking in college some binge drink in college. As well this article also stresses that students peers, affiliations, normative surrounds and living context influence students alcohol consumption and harm.
It also states that binge-drinking rates are more among athletes and sports students. According to this article also states that binge drinking exists in fraternity and sorority members and highly social students.
However this article also states that female, racial/ethnic minority, religious, married old and non-traditional students consume less alcohol when they are in college. In addition this article identifies that peer norms, activities, and patterns of social connection and activity correlate with binge drinking.
In an article by Maggs, J. L " Trajectories of Alcohol use During Transition to Adult hood" heavy drinking can be predictive if college students are living with parents who have heavy drinking, greater symptoms of alcoholism or ant-social personality, degree to which the adults having a positive expectancies alcohol effect, their thinking whether it is right to think drunk to cope with stressful situations, personal characteristics, involvement in social institutions, peer group influence, young adults who drink for higher sensation personalities, low-self esteem and self-efficacy, less religious, poor performance in class, peer influence on alcohol use, less resilience to per group pressure.
If these are the factors are applicable to an adult then the young adults have more propensity to drink heavily in college.
Baer, J.S. in an article " Student failures" highlights that genetic factors play a lesser role in young adults of alcohol use because their parents biologically are heavy drinkers and they have the genes so that inevitably they who will become heavy drinkers and must abstain from alcohol. The author of the article says the research on alcoholism does not support this view and several factors determine whether a person will become a problem drinker in college. However the author asserts that increased drinking behavior of parents and their general behavior have some association with college drinking of students of young age.
This shows how family environment and the parents behavior affects young children tendency to take alcohol when they attend college as they become freer to experiment new things and have the opportunity to do so without any control in their behavior. It also suggests that if parents are excessively authoritative in their relationship with their children they may have tendency to embark of drinking heavily when they attend college later in their life. There fore the parental relationship and their behavior towards their children as mentioned above may have an impact on young adults to learn heavy alcohol drinking habits later in life.
Interviews taken by San Francisco State Univ. students about their drug and alcohol use of 14 students shows different inclination to take alcohol as well they mostly are not affected by advertisement to take alcohol in campus. It also shows that some students if they are in a family back round where parents take alcohol they used to take alcohol before they come to college and they tend to continue that behavior in college. As well their peers than others affect some students and some drink alcohol because of their friends and some drink because they want some sensation. These interviews reveal the complexity and individual differences in taking alcohol and some become heavy drinkers but others only infrequently at the same level and some may drink more because of their affiliations and the motives of their drinking in campus.
