UNDERAGE DRINKING OF COLLEGE STUDENTS

By: Ethan P Duran

STATEMENT:

Question: Why do underage college students drink?

The reason why I chose this question is because I was wondering how

many college underage students drink.

I also wanted to know the following questions?• Why do they drink underage?• What makes underage college students drink?• How much and when do they drink?

The importance of drinking underage of college students is important to

communication and media studies because it can look at the college

setting and try to figure out what it going on to see how they communicate

to one another.

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Research shows that more than 80 percent of college students drink alcohol…

(National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism)

From age 13 to 21, the percentage of people who report binge drinking

increases from an estimated 1% to 50%. (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and

Alcoholism)

Almost half of all the alcohol consumed by students attending four-year colleges

is consumed by underage students.(National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and

Alcoholism)

Young people may drink to change their image or to fit in when moving to a new

school or town(National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc)

The holes that my research will find out is that I personally did a survey that

people could relate to.

Young people may drink to change their image or to fit in when moving to a new school or town

EXPECTATIONS

What I expect to find in my study are the personal

reasons why college students who are underage

drink.

I think that underage college students drink

because they think that it is cool because one that

they are underage and two they think that they wont

get caught.

STUDY DESIGN/ METHODS

How I conducted my study was by using a survey. I found that this method

was the best.

Here is my survey:• http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/X37NZJF

The reason why I used this method was that it is quick and easy to get the

results. I made the survey short so that people would not get overwhelmed.

How I used this method was that I used a survey site called surveymonkey.

I created the survey that I wanted and I emailed it to people and also I put

it up on Facebook. I got around 17 people who filled out my survey.

RESULTS

When looking at my results for the first time I noted that:• Most of the people who answered my survey were female• The average age was about 24 • The questions that people could type in to had really good

comments• “What makes underage drinking happen” The top answer for this

question was “peer pressure.”

My last question that was about providing alcohol to minors

was very good feedback. The result of this question were that

the people who answered were all about family and close friends

when giving alcohol to minors.

RESULTS II

When looking deeper in the peer pressure question

I read the responses. What I found was that it was

very wide open. One person said the expectations of

a college campus. Another response was that living

with people over the age of 21 and they just wanted

to try it.

When I first looked at the results I found that more

women took my survey then men by a huge margin.

RESULTS III

Question 4 that asked about what people think

about underage drinking. • The total number of people who answered this

question so far is 13. • 53% said that it is ok to drink underage• 23% said that it is both fine and wrong to drink

To me that is a good number because it is about

half when looking at the 53%.

CONCLUSION/ DISCUSSION

What I found out is that underage college students are going to continue

to drink. It has happened for many year and will continue to happen.

The best way to slow it the drinking down is to educate them on how

much to drink so that they don’t end up dead.

When looking at past finding I noted that universities and colleges have

in their handbook a fact sheet about drinking and how it effects college

life

The larger implications of this study is to be aware of what might

happen if a underage college students drinks to much.

REFERENCES

http://

www.edgarsnyder.com/drunk-driving/underage-drink

ing/underage-statistics.html

http://

www.ncadd.org/index.php/for-youth/underage-and-co

llege

http://

pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/CollegeFactSheet/Co

llegeFactSheet.pdf