Drinking Behavior in Collage Students

Drinking Behavior in Collage Students

Introduction

The age of drinking alcoholic beverages is US according to law is 21 years. Any individual who is found guilty of consuming alcohol below the age of 21 years is subjected to criminal prosecution. Alcohol consumption at the age where it is illegal and excessive alcohol consumption accounts for more than half of adult alcohol consumption in the United States.

According to the study, 19.7% of all alcohol consumed in the United States is accounted for the age group 12-20 years. Although the rate of drinkers in this age group decreased in the last 20 years, with 72.9% in 1979 to 63.7% in 2001, but in the last decade, the dynamics of this indicator is insignificant.

The research paper highlights drinking behavior in youth, specifically collage students. The research will identify some dependent and independent variable to develop hypotheses, and test the relationships. The issues which will be highlighted include the effect of Media and self-image leading to drinking habits.

Research Design

Problem Statement

Alcohol abuse in young age is caused more by Self Image and Media than social problems such as abuse and violence.

Self image can be defined by the following question, “My perception regarding what people think about me?”

There are three variants of self image;

How does a person perceive himself?

How does other perceive you? And;

One's own perception regarding how others see me

The problem statement studies the nature of drinking behavior that either young people develop the habit due to personal circumstances such as violence and abuse, or it is the media influence which motivates self image. Media is crucial part of our lives and most of college students spend hours in front of television and drive their self image from watching different so called ideals. The behavior is motivated to broad cultural context, as media is reflection of the culture of a country.

Research Questions

What is the role of media in the development of drinking habits in college students?

How does self image influence the development of drinking habits in college students?

Does Violence and Abuse leads to the development of drinking habits in youths?

Literature Review

Media, Alcohol and Self Image

There are widespread concerns from parents regarding the impact of media portraying alcoholic advertising, product placements, and drinking behavior. Popular music, film, radio and television are identified as major variables (independent variables), which lead to the habits of alcohol drinking in college students (dependent variable). Media is often first and main source of alcohol exposure for college students (American Academy of Pediatrics, 1996; Gerbner, 1995)

Television is heavily watched by young Americans. According to a research data, 11 to 14 years old watch more than 20 hours of TV, and youth aged 15 to 20 watches around 20 hours of TV in a week. They are heavily influenced by television through programs and advertisements which include drinking scenes and promotions. A content analysis of television programming indicated that around 60 percent of overall programming depicts alcohol drinking (Christensen et.al, 2000).

According to a prospective study consisting of ...