Binge drinking among university students is a widespread issue among university and college students in North America and there is a growing consensus of its serious threats to students’ wellbeing (Geisner 2012, Pascall 2003, Wolaver 2002). Binge drinking can be defined as the consumption of five or more drinks in one sitting for males, and four or more drinks for females (Geisner 2012). In 2008, Statistics Canada looked at how many young adults, ages 18-24 participated in “heavy” drinking, defined as 3-5 drinks on a weekly basis. The statistics showed that 41% of males and 29.3% of females participated in this weekly activity (Statistics Canada 2008). Additionally, the Canadian Centre of Substance Abuse did a study solely on undergraduate/ …show more content…
Further, research suggests that psychological consequences such as heightened anxiety and depression during binge drinking episodes has further lasting impacts decreasing an individual’s ability to focus and function (Geisner 2012). A study done at Western University in 2014 looked at whether anxiety and stress influence reported urges to drink among University students. Each participant had their anxiety sensitivity levels assessed and were randomly assigned stressed or non-stressed conditions in which a short task was performed. Students in the stressed condition reported greater urges to drink as well as higher coping motives to drink. Further, this indicated that people who were easily stressed out and had overall higher levels of anxiety would be more apt to excessive drinking as a way to cope (Bulandr 2015). Those students who did drink overall experienced an increase of anxiety, however with temporary satisfaction from drinking in the highly stressful scenario. Further studies support this research. In an examination of depressive symptoms and drinking patters among first year students, research has shown that during university, there are increased rates of depression and alcohol consumption and students with increased depressive …show more content…
Many students who engage in binge drinking can often suffer from problems such as missing class and doing poorly on assignments. Further, binge drinkers are more likely to report than non-binge drinkers that drinking caused them to miss a class or fall behind in school, further some reported doing poorly on tests (El Ansari). Similarly, many found a strong association between alcohol involvement as a first year university student and academic challenges (Geisner 2012). Of course a limitation to note is the dramatic change first year students experience from moving away from home and additional stressors. Poor academic achievement may be due to some of these external factors. A lot of research uses methodological approaches in understanding the relationship between these variables. Some studies measured alcohol use solely on drinking (El Ansari, Paschall 2003). However some studies define binge drinking and measure using a set of different possible variables in their research (Porter 2007). Additionally, Wolaver did a study in 2002, which looked at the grade point average of university students and similarly, there was a decrease in academic standing as well as an increase in overall wellbeing. In an additional study, students discussed often feeling lazy the day after drinking and therefore did not feel