How can alcohol use and abuse be prevented among college students?

Psychology
How Can Alcohol Use and Abuse be prevented among College Students?
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HOW CAN ALCOHOL USE AND ABUSE BE PREVENTED AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS?
Introduction
Thesis
Body
Background
Primary Prevention
Policies
Institutional policies
Policies from the ministry
Media related policies
Control of availability and access
Control of retail joints inside institutions
Vigorous screening
Change of alcohol-related laws
Secondary prevention
Alternative activities and extended learning
Promoting nonalcoholic drinks
Social activities
Parents’ involvement
Social norms mediations
Use of skills as a change agent
Conclusion
Introduction
College can and ought to be an institution where people are enriched with knowledge in specific areas and also regarding the general life. To achieve this, parents as the student would want to select colleges that foster their students’ social and academic development as well as promote college and community safety. One of the critical issues preventing this is the culture of alcohol use in colleges. It has been reported that alcohol is the major problem among the student and although the issue has been raised to the relevant authorities, the recent updates indicate that it has escalated the more. The modern college students have immersed into ‘binge drinking’ which is characterised by drowning five or more drinks in a row for males and four or more for females. This substantiates that alcohol consumption amongst youths is taking a new toll with many peers falling into the cycle.

Although many avoid the use of alcohol to unsafe levels, they are likely to conform to the trend due to peer pressure. According to Hallgren, Leifman, and Andreasson (2012), college students are the largest groups of abusers nationwide in America. It thus proves to be an issue worth concern if the cultures were to be broken. By informing the parents, authorities and institutions, and establishing proactive strategies for mitigating the trend alcohol use among college campuses can be prevented (Abar, Morgan, Small, & Maggs, 2012).
Background
Students who directly engage in the high-risk consumption of alcohol are not the only affected. The consequence bursts into the immediate friends, families, general school community, society and the country as a whole. Previous reports indicate that it is only a fifth of the college students that abstain entirely from alcohol use. Out of the students who live in the residence halls and sororities, two-thirds recounted having experienced some secondary effects due to their colleagues drinking. Some of the consequences include disruption of study or sleep due to increased commotions, insults and public humiliations, damage of property and at times forced to take care of their drunk friends. Females testified having received unwanted sexual advances, serious quarrels, mishandled (hit or pushed) and even sexually assaulted or forced into a date rape. The eventualities are unwanted pregnancies, disruption of study times and expulsion from school, fatal injuries and indifferences among students. In the past, institutions have tried to address the issue. The most common strategy has been the introduction of policies, awareness programs and involvement of treatment, therapy and counselling lessons which have all proven futile. This clarifies that the issue of alcohol use in the colleges is not an institutional failure but a combined course of oneself, peer, community and public policies. Momentum must be built for both the primary and secondary litigation measures. These include reestablishing better strategies for the physical, legal, social and economic environments around the students and within the institutions.
Relevance to Community Psychology
Taking alcohol among the college students is regarded as an initiation to adulthood in most parts of America. With time, this develops into a culture where at every level there are beliefs and customs mainly dictated by the students’ environment. The customs have been handed over to incoming generations who continue the belief that alcohol is the vital ingredient for social cohesion. The culture is promoted through public events such as sports and entertainment functions. However, the more the students continue to engage in these activities, the more they become addicted to alcohol. Their relationship with other students, the community, and management, deteriorates bit by bit. This is because they try to derive their expectations of alcohol from one another and the environment, an insecurity that drives them into a new social milieu. According to Kagan et al. (2011), the solution to this is to create an all-round critical community psychology that delves into social change, liberation, social action, peer pressure as well as the adoption of cultural, social-economic and political make-ups that can impact positive changes.
Primary Prevention
Alcohol consumption among the teenagers and youths start from gaining an informed consent about the products and access to the same through the dense retail outlets. It all starts with information access and non-controlled retail outlet density within the student’s reach.
Policies
For so long, policies to ban alcohol consumption among the youths have been imposed on the institutional managements. However, the policies should be applied in coordination with other institutions such as the Ministry of education, local authorities and the media. Policies in the school should be combined efforts amongst neighbouring colleges so that the entire region has an equal stand regarding the issue of alcohol use in schools. These guidelines must be availed to the students at the time they are reporting. However, since the dogmas have been in use across all institutions, the problems lie in their implementation. The administration must ensure that the policies are enforced to the dot so that college students can understand the importance of following them. This includes implementation of strict measures for any student found drunk or in possession of alcohol. In the past, institutions have employed the policies to impact change of knowledge, behavioural intentions and attitudes (Lewis & Myers, 2010). However, they should take a comprehensive approach where the basic infrastructures are employed to formulate, evaluate and implement the approach. Most students who engage in binge drinking are not new entries but those who have been in the school for not less than one term. This means that after being introduced to the policies there is little the institution does to identify and apprehend those who indulge in the activities (Butler, Rayens, Hahn, Adkins, & Staten, 2011). The management must act hand in hand with the student leaders and other secret informers within and without the colleges to ensure that information reaches them in time.
The second policies should be enacted at the ministry level. This should be imposed on the institutions so as to trigger them to act towards the problem. It should be included that the institutions whose students are reported to indulge in alcohol abuse be subjected to strict scrutiny. This should be imposed on the management including firing or penalising the managers and school heads. They will have the urge to make their institutions alcohol-less owing to the penalty and exposure. However, to enact these policies, the police force must also be involved so that all the students, administrators or personals involved in students’ access and use of alcohol.
The third set of policies should be imposed on the media and other advertisers or marketers. Many of the students get information about alcohol from their peers and media advertisements. The way the advertisers do it aims at attracting the minors who would turn out the next generation of drinkers and continue the culture. This is to the benefit of the companies as they would have continuous customers and an increase in the market value. At times, alcohol is marketed in social events like fresher bashes in colleges, roadside shows and student based entertainment programs. If the policies adopted by the school, the higher education and enforced by the local authorities were to be effective, any youth-based marketing should be banned from all media. On the other hand, all entertainers who visit the colleges ought to be advised to conduct their events by the institution’s alcohol-free strategies. They could be used to sensitise the college students on the need for a change of attitude and behaviours and to steer an environment that is conducive. One thing that must be put clear is the youth’s misperception that they are in control of their drinking and not take as much as their friends. When consumption of alcohol is a game of similarities and differences, there can never be a limit to the amount one can consume. Eventually, students will turn out to be heavy drinkers as a result of queer misperceptions.
Control of Availability and Access
The second method is to control the availability of alcohol among the students. Although universities and colleges do not have control over where private businesses set up bars, they can at least prevent the bars from being set up inside schools. These happen in third party drinking rooms set up by the seniors. Students then form drinking groups and organise private parties where they engage in alcoholics. According to the survey conducted across institutions in North America, over half of the colleges and universities reported having offered alcohol-free social events. For about 83% of the respondents, the students’ hostels are alcohol-free zones and had running programs to control access to alcohol (Mohr, Arpin, and McCabe, 2015). However, only less than a third of the institutions reported having alcohol free halls. Nearly all had places where students could purchase alcohol. This indicates that the schools themselves have already directly given access to alcohol to the students. Further researches suggest that the students do not require personal identification cards when buying the drinks. It then forms the major loophole for the underage students to start taking alcohol. The schools need to close down all these joints and eliminate residence hall delivery of alcohol purchases.
At the same time, there should be critical screening for students as they access the school to prevent any possibilities of ferrying alcohol into the school and in their rooms. However, the screening must be done in a friendly manner to avoid infringing their rights and their privacy. The school can only control the use of alcohol inside the school. However, by liaising with the police forces, local authority and neighbouring society, they can prevent third party sellers who are the primary vendors for the underage students. In most cases, these are unlicensed individuals who do business in hidden holdings or supply alcohol to private parties. They can only be apprehended by the necessary authorities but through the secret informers from the public. The school must make it known to the community that the issues of alcohol consumption among the underage students affect all and that everyone must take part in the fight against it. With the cooperation of the public, the third parties can be apprehended, and their supply chains closed down.
Another alternative strategy would be to change the allowable alcohol consumption age limit from 18 years to 21 years (Hallgren, Leifman, & Andreasson, 2012). All bartenders must be required to demand identification cards before selling alcohol to juniors. Als, decoy operations should be conducted at retail alcohol outlets and bars, and tough penalties imposed on those possessing a fake ID or attending underage persons. The schools can as well liaise with the municipal governments to restrict licensing of retail sales of alcohol in and around the institutions. In a similar manner, the price of alcohol could be raised so that students will find it too high to afford. Although this may not affect the heavy drinkers, it will shun away those who are starters and discourage those who were about to be heavy drinkers. It would at least lower the culture of binge drinking to taking less than two bottles at a go.
Secondary Preventive Methods
Alternative Activities and Extended Learning
Most students find time to consume alcohol due too many free moments after classes and especially on weekends. The institutions can curb this in two ways. The first is extending lessons into weekends. At this time students could be engaged in group discussions, projects and even attend lectures where they are required to show in person. Equipping them with more practical exercises would help reduce boredom and make them feel at the right place. It could also be a time when they meet with professionals in various fields who have free time on weekends. These individuals could help students in their projects, give advice on specialities and introduce them into the real world. Secondly, the colleges and universities can introduce multiple extra curriculum activities like interclass or interdepartmental tournaments in all games. These could run from the beginning of the semester to the end so that every weekend the students are involved in playing or supporting their teams. The organisers should make sure that every student is involved all through the weekends. Other activities would be community services, site visiting and tour activities. Engaging the students in secondary tasks at their free times and on weekends is part of the solution to having an alcohol-free environment.
Promoting Nonalcoholic Drinks
Colleges must also promote consumption of nonalcoholic beverages and foods. This can be done during the social activities. It could be achieved by inviting companies producing products like packed milk, fruit juices, sodas and beverages to facilitate or sponsor activities within the school. They could also be allowed to sell their products and market them to the students as a bid to divert attention from alcohol consumption (Glassman, Dodd, Sheu, Rienzo, & Wagenaar, 2010). With time the students could get used to these products and carry the culture home during the recession.
Underage students do not only consume alcohol when at school but also at home. Parents must thus be involved in moulding a different culture in their children by discouraging them from engaging in uncoordinated parties and social events while at home. Also, they ought to cooperate with the school management to check for any indulgent and instil discipline when their children are caught. This will go far way into creating a normative environment where faculty-student-parent contact is established (Woodyard, Hallam, and Bentley, 2013). The program would require the students to meet regularly with the parents and advisors who should ascertain that the student is following the institutional policies and refraining from the use of alcohol. Both the school’s managements and advisors must work in close collaboration to eliminate sorority and fraternity rush for the first-year students who form the larger population of underage students.
Social Norms Mediations
The other secondary method is social norms mediations. In most cases, students underestimate the rate of alcohol use among them. According to Ringwalt, Paschall, and Gitelman (2011), they will always take as much as their friends and engage in group guided subsequent behaviours. Such conducts can be associated with the lack of self-control, emotional awareness, poor decision-making and problem-solving skills. The first step to stop this is by changing the students’ beliefs and drinking norms. It can be done by advising the students to engage in open conversations about alcohol use during open forums, class times and meetings. This could help delve into making the school community a larger friendly group where the student takes care of one another including helping them make decisions, have self-control and entirely refrain from taking alcohol. At the same time, modified normative feedback interposition should be emulated so as to understand student habits, peer relationships and offer academic support (Dotson, Dunn, & Bowers, 2015).
Use of the Skills as a Change Agent
From the personal assessment, underage students engage into the culture from mere peer influence, enlighten by the media and the perception that they are entering into adulthood. As a change agent, I would first concentrate on the secondary prevention measures. Once there are supplies and influences from the seniors, it will be harder to convince the first years not to start drinking. Once the seniors convert, I would use them to promote an alcohol-free environment to the juniors. This is through ensuring policies are followed, the private parties are monitored, and the links to suppliers are cut. I would combine the conversion and mitigation process with the social activities s that the converted have alternative things to engage in during their free times.
Conclusion
The increase in alcohol consumption among college students is linked to the lack of primary and secondary preventive measures. All the stakeholders including the school management, the ministry of education, local and federal authorities, community and parents must cooperate to mitigate the culture. Even if schools lay policies, they cannot be effective if the municipal gives retail permits to every other local. The control starts from the making of individual decisions, parental guidance, school and state regulations and closer community-student-school relationship.
References
Abar, C., Morgan, N., Small, M., & Maggs, J. (2012). Investigating Associations Between Perceived Parental Alcohol-Related Messages and College Student Drinking. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 73(1), 71-79. http://dx.doi.org/10.15288/jsad.2012.73.71
Butler, K., Rayens, M., Hahn, E., Adkins, S., & Staten, R. (2011). Smoke-Free Policy and Alcohol Use Among Undergraduate College Students. Public Health Nursing, 29(3), 256-265. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1446.2011.01000.x
Dotson, K., Dunn, M., & Bowers, C. (2015). Stand-Alone Personalized Normative Feedback for College Student Drinkers: A Meta-Analytic Review, 2004 to 2014.
Glassman, T., Dodd, V., Sheu, J., Rienzo, B., & Wagenaar, A. (2010). Extreme Ritualistic Alcohol Consumption Among College Students on Game Day. Journal Of American College Health, 58(5), 413-423. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07448480903540473
Hallgren, M., Leifman, H., & Andreasson, S. (2012). Drinking Less But Greater Harm: Could Polarized Drinking Habits Explain the Divergence Between Alcohol Consumption and Harms among Youth?. Alcohol And Alcoholism, 47(5), 581-590. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/alcalc/ags071
Kagan, E., Peterman, J., Carper, M., & Kendall, P. (2016). Accommodation And Treatment Of Anxious Youth. Depression And Anxiety, 33(9), 840-847.
Lewis, T. & Myers, J. (2010). Wellness Factors as Predictors of Alcohol Use Among Undergraduates: Implications for Prevention and Intervention. Journal Of College Counseling, 13(2), 111-125. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1882.2010.tb00053.x
Mohr, C., Arpin, S., & McCabe, C. (2015). Daily affect variability and context-specific alcohol consumption. Drug And Alcohol Review, 34(6), 581-587. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/dar. 12253
Ringwalt, C., Paschall, M., & Gitelman, A. (2011). Alcohol Prevention Strategies on College Campuses and Student Alcohol Abuse and Related Problems. Journal of Drug Education, 41(1), 99-118. http://dx.doi.org/10.2190/de.41.1.f
Woodyard, C., Hallam, J., & Bentley, J. (2013). Drinking Norms: Predictors of Misperceptions Among College Students. American Journal Of Health Behavior.