A provocative take on the subject matter and facts for my group project in ENG 202A regarding a new study on the long term effects of college drinking habits and how they apply locally.
Quite recently, I ran across some very encouraging statistics which boost my faith in peers I might otherwise venture to classify as: perpetually drunken idiots. Now, endowed with the spirit of optimism (thanks to a surprising new study), I believe I can redact that classification. They are not perpetually druken idiots, only temporarily so.
“College is often perceived as a risky environment for problem drinking, but seldom have people looked at the long-term consequences of attending college on substance-use patterns according to Stephanie Lanza, research associate professor of health and human development” (Lajeunesse, 2013).
This is why I was stunned when the research of Lanza and her colleagues uncovered that, “Despite high levels of binge drinking that take place on campuses, college enrollment does not lead to substance abuse problems later in adulthood,” and that, “college enrollment may actually prevent adult substance abuse among youth who might not be expected to attend college” (Lajeunesse). “Specifically, they found that adults would be more than six times more likely to engage in problem drinking at age 33 if they did not attend college, compared to if they did (Lajeunesse). So, hypothetically, my party-hard college peers are less likely than my old high school classmates (who chose not to go to college) to develop drinking problems later in life.
However, something tells me this probably has less to do with a responsible campus culture than it does socio-economic status. If someone has the ability to graduate from Pennsylvania State University and enter the field of their choice, they will (hypothetically) have higher job satisfaction and a salary. It only makes sense that the people who don’t hate their jobs and can afford better entertainment than a six-pack would be less likely to regularly drink themselves into a stupor. They have more to lose.
While this is great news for someone thinking long term, besides being a Penn State student I am also a local and therefore care about what this means for the short term.
We never get to see the responsible adults these college students grow up to become. We batten down the hatches as every March snow storms and State Patty’s Day rip through leaving destruction and vomit-covered sidewalks in their wake. Everyone with a cop, EMT, doctor, nurse, fire fighter, or prison guard in the family knows when they’ll have to work overtime. Every elementary student knows that there is a weekend in March when they’re not allowed to play outside, and every sixteen-year old with a driver’s license and a mother knows when they’re not allowed on the road around State College.
So, why on earth would people care that these college students grow up to be responsible when they’re currently and consistently plagued by barely-adult wild stages. True, State College expects a certain amount of rambunctiousness (it comes with the territory of being a college town), but we shouldn’t be driven to looking up Mat Dillon in the yellow pages every March.
Therefore, as a college student I am very heartened by a study stating my peers are not at an increased risk of developing drinking problems later in life. As a local, I don’t give a hoot.
Perhaps this is why another study meant slightly more to me.
“According to the “2012 Freshman Norms report,” conducted by UCLA’s Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) each year since 1966, only 33 percent of college freshman reported drinking beer in 2012, down from 35.4 percent in 2011 and far lower than the 73.7 percent who were knocking back drinks in 1982, when many of their own parents were in college” (Alphonse, 2011). Now those statistics are music to the ears of State College residents!
I sincerely hope these new statistics mean that students are thinking more responsibly about their safety while in college and becoming the productive adults they’re meant to be earlier in life.
Frankly, I know some students feel they are being unfairly persecuted and stereotyped by an ungrateful puritanical town when State Patty’s Day rolls around. It’s really not that locals don’t want students to “have their fling” or live strict lives of sobriety. It’s just that this is a town which sees it all the time. Students move on and more move in. Students don’t remember the other students found dead fallen from parking garage ledges or vehicle accidents or the ones who died of alcohol poisoning 15 years ago, 10 years ago, or 5 years ago. Locals do, and they feel bound by their conscience to send as many kids home alive from college as they can. (That, and they hate vomit covered sidewalks.)
Sources:
Alphonse, Lylah M. “Drinking Among College Freshmen Hits Record Low, Major Survey Finds.” Yahoo! Shine. Yahoo, 29 Jan. 2013. Web.28Mar.2013.<http://shine.yahoo.com/work-money/drinking-among-college-freshmen-hits-record-low-major-185900788.html>.
LaJeunesse, Sara. “College Enrollment Does Not Lead to Problem Drinking in Adulthood.” News.psu.edu. Penn State, 25 Mar. 2013. Web.25Mar.2013.<http://news.psu.edu/story/268078/2013/03/12/research/college-enrollment-does-not-lead-problem-drinking-adulthood>.