Reflection - Penn State Student Drinking Behavior

The first two observations I made about the survey data were that college age drinking habits have not changed from year to year in a drastic way and students still tend to experience drinking and partying early in their college studies.

About age 18 to 19 students transition from high school to this huge opportunity to be out from under the parental “house rules” for the first time in their lives. According to the Pulse survey, 83% of the 1,174 respondents were between the ages of 18 to 20 and 68.7% admitting to light to moderate drinking. These data points are not surprising to me. I think back to my initial college years and my own drinking habits and experiences. I grew up in a college town. Once, I entered college, I quickly learned a way to schedule my classes around evenings I knew I would want to socialize with fellow students which included drinking. I was a typical moderate drinker on weekends and drinking, even though I was under age, was an easy way to wind down and socially acceptable. I think this mentality still holds true with that age range of college students today.

What changed for me and many of my friends by the time we were around 20 years of age (junior year) was our focus. We began to settle down into our studies or decide what our paths were going to be. For me, I began my own business and was engaged to marry and exited college. For many of my friends that continued on with school, they had to curtail the drinking and parties in order to study. Grade point averages were suddenly more of a concern. I think it is a turning point most young adults come to and must reason through. They have had the experience of the freedom and now get to the point of wanting to be more responsible for their actions.

This brings me to an observation on the consequences of drinking.