In an article "Substance abuse" edited by Rivers, P, C & Shore, E.R. (1997) states that alcohol and drugs in US heavily affect young adults and adolescence. As well this article points that substantial proportion of adults and adolescence uses drugs and alcohol to the extent they suffer from health consequences and poor performance in class.
It also states that alcohol and drug use in campus is a complex issue. According to this article drug and alcohol problems in young adults are due to behavioral, cognitive and psychological as determinants of alcohol and drug use by adults. Drug and alcohol problems in college are not biological alone and it is due to multivariate factors affecting young adults to take different paths in alcohol and drug use in colleges. This article also emphasizes on the personality factors, which to some extent affect their alcohol taking behavior in colleges, and this explains to some extent why some drink heavily and others don't in the colleges and peer group pressure as an important variable affecting some students than others in the college environment.
In an article "Teen-Age Alcoholism" by Haskins (1976) the author points that if one asks a young adult why you take alcohol they will respond to this question by answering that he or she drinks alcohol because they feel good or they may respond to this question or they may answer that they drink alcohol because of parental influences and societal influences or for sociability reasons or they may answer that they drink because they have serious emotional problems or for stress related reasons.
In this article as alcohol is integral part of societies attitudes and sociability in every day life young adults are exposed to alcohol early in their age in most western culture the young start drinking because of this reason. It also stresses in the article the impact of advertisement, parental attitudes and behavior, peer group pressure in society in general, customs on the drinking habits and drinking behavior of young adults and teenagers. There fore this article portrays that the social factors have some association to young adult drinking behavior
And social factors as an important variable associated with adult drinking behavior in general.
Conclusion
As discussed above drugs and alcohol use by young adults in colleges is a complex issue. There are many factors in varying degrees affect individuals to take alcohol in college. As well the alcohol taking behavior is resilient even after some measures are taken to reduce the negative impact on students health and their well-being and to reduce anti-social behavior in colleges and also outside college. In addition it is clear binge drinking and heavy drinking and heavy drinking is a serious issue socially and economically to US today as the percentage of heavy drinking is considerable in colleges. The above discussion also shows the drinking of alcohol starts for many college students before thy attend colleges.
As well the college environment and availability of alcohol and the role alcohol plays in social functions is an important factor for some student groups to become heavy drinkers depending on their motives for drinking and their norms as well as their activities and types peer groups they belong and their religious back ground.
The above also indicate that age, gender differences, ethnicity/ race, to some extent related to alcohol drinking behavior in colleges. For example some researchers have found that minority groups of college students drink less compared to other student groups as well females drinking rates are less compared to men drinking rates in colleges in addition when age increase from 18-20 normal drinking, and binge drinking increase with age.
In addition social factors are also affecting students to start drinking earlier as alcohol plays an important role in sociability in western cultures and young adults and teenagers take alcohol in an early age and also they take alcohol to be part of a peer group.
In a college environment the alcohol drinking behavior whether it is infrequent, moderate, binge or heavy drinking depends on several factors and different factors impact differently on different student groups. The major factors related with college drinking behavior are peer group pressure, activities students pursue, type of peer groups the students belong.
Involvement in institutional activities, whether they play sports or take part in any athletic activities in college, age, gender, religion, socio-economic factors, family background in terms of their relationship and control methods of students when they are living with them. Social factors such as social norms and sociability and the role alcohol plays in social situations, resilience of young adults to peer pressure, alcohol availability within colleges. Rules and regulations regarding taking alcohol and drugs and information regarding the negative effects of alcohol and counseling services, personal characteristics and personality of students, reasons for drinking alcohol, whether they live with their parents or their parental relatives, advertisement about alcohol.
This explains the multiplicity of factors related to drinking alcohol positively and negatively and there fore affects drinking alcohol and drug use patterns in colleges and why it is difficult to control problem-drinking students in colleges.
However informed with this complexity by adopting different strategies for different students groups within colleges may able to minimize the percentage of students drinking heavily and binge drinking, by colleges, parents, community groups, counseling services, government agencies providing services for problem-drinkers, advertising of alcohol, restricting access to alcohol to young adults in colleges and in society in general and encouraging responsible behavior of young adults in colleges and is society in general, educating parents about the negative impact of alcohol and improving skills of parenting.
