Assessing Drinking and Academic Performance Among College Students

My chosen topic is Assessing Drinking and Academic Performance among a Nationally Representative Sample of College Students. The research was based on assessing whether alcohol consumption was negatively related to grade point average (GPA) among a nationally representative sample of college students. After the research was carried out, there were various results which were obtained and some of this included; revealing that respondents with lower GPAs consumed a greater number of drinks compared with those with higher GPAs. Students with higher GPAs engaged in heavy episodic drinking less than students with lower GPAs.

The authors of the article were Anna K. Piazza-Gardner, Adam E. Barry, and Ashley L. Merianos.

From the research carried out, the results show that the grade point average of college students is mostly affected by the amount of alcohol consumed per certain time. This can be evidently seen even in the current world whereby the performance of a student be either from high school to higher learning institutions is much affected by the actions and deeds they do in their daily lives. Alcohol tends to be the leading factor that affects the performance and grade point average in academics. As per the research, it shows each, and every drink consumed then the grade lowers meaning that the higher the consumption of drinks, the higher the academic performance lowers (Balsa, A. I., Giuliano, L. M., & French, M. T, 2011). This also applies to the current society with academic performance lowering each and every day. The effect of alcohol is mostly affecting the male students in the current society with a greater number of them lowering their performance while the females increasing their academic or grade point average due to less consumption of alcohol.

Male students take five drinks and above while female students take four drinks and above in a row, then this has sounded the alarm and become a major concern for the public health and the society entirely thus leaving the society in a dilemma on what to do (Johnston, 2015). From various researches, the exact effects and consequences of alcohol drinking remain the same thus being; physical assault, sexual abuse, unintentional injury, drunk driving, and other alcohol-related issues (Hingson, 2009). In order to reduce this on the students, then the government of United States had to take a step ahead and find a way to regulate the alcohol taking which has been into effect up to now and seem to be doing well in term of regulating the alcoholic taking. The government of United States (a) increase the age and proportion of adolescents who remain alcohol and drug-free, (b) reduce adult average annual alcohol consumption, and (c) reduce the proportion of adults who binge drink (Hingson, 2009). Alcohol taking students after research was conducted, the results that were obtained showed that 34% of those students do not attend the classes which even applied in the current society we are leaving, and 22% do not take part in school work and if they do then they normally fall behind or even fall in the tests or exams (Hemphill, S. A. et al. 2014).

By the use of instrument and procedures, there were different results which were obtained most students seemed to be using alcohol frequently and high number of the students who took the frequent alcohol were engaged in heavy episodic drinking within the last two weeks. According to the research, the students with lower GPAs which is C GPAs are always associated with heavy episodic drinking and consume a lot of alcohol which in turn they produce a poor performance in academics (Anna K. Piazza-Gardner, Adam E. Barry, and Ashley L. Merianos, 2016, p 349). Alcohol-induced blackouts experienced by college students were associated with lower GPAs and that abstaining from drinking was related to higher GPAs among college students. (White, A. M., Jamieson-Drake, D. W., & Swartzwelder, H. S, 2002).

In order to confirm the above study and research, I had to take a step ahead and compare the above study with our current world and society. For me to do that and compare, then I decided to take interviews on different people about their view and the idea of alcohol use in the society, how it is affecting the academics in college students and the regulations or the steps that can be taken to help on this. The interview was carried out on elderly aged people from different perspectives. This was a volunteer interview and the participants were asked to answer freely and with honesty as per their point of view. The interview comprised of 2 participants;

The first interview took place at undisclosed place, luckily the first interview went well it took more than 10 minutes with the interviewee the questions to the first interviewee named Alex Foyth was what is the main cause as to why most of our students associate themselves with alcohol thus contributing to low-grade point average?

Alex Foyth claimed that peer pressure is the co-factor as which contributes to excess drinking in colleges. He claimed that most of the students when at high school, their parents tend to limit their movements and restrict some things that could have prevented the kind of the behavior that they associate themselves when they get into colleges. Therefore, due to lack of freedom when the students were under adolescent, then once they get the freedom they associate themselves with alcohol thus not regulating how they should take their drink and as a result of this, then they forget their main reason as to why they went in to the college thus their grade performance becoming poor. Alex Foyth also claimed that the company is another factor that contributes to the college students associating themselves with excess alcohol taking, hangouts, parting. Mr. Foyth claimed that once a student associate themselves with a company that they are not used to, for example, “if a student was associating him/her self with a company that believed alcohol was a life destructive, then once the student become a friend with a company that believes alcohol is not destructive, the possibility of that student becoming alcoholic addict is high thus affecting the school grades” (Alex Foyth).

Does alcohol consume a lot of time in studies and if it does what are measures that should be taken by parents to increase their student’s grade point average and reduce the alcohol consumption of the students?
The response to the above question was, “Academics and alcohol do not cop therefore to the question whether alcohol consumes a lot of studies, then as per my point of view, alcohol consumes a lot of time. Taking for instance that a student can spend more than 8 hours in a party, drinking, dancing and doing all sort of party things and due to being tired, they end up not studying the following day where they skip the classes” (Alex Foyth). I think if you look carefully unto those events then you will find out that a student has lost two classes due to alcohol. This will lead to a low-grade point average and so their performance low. For the parents to minimize this and protect their students from alcohol consumption, parents should come together and implement a program which can be either guidance and counselling program which will be intended to help the students and explain to them the effects of alcohol and how they affect academics which in turn affects the grade performance leading to poor results in academics (Nelson, T. F. et al. 2009).

In order for the students to increase their performance level and their GPA, do you think that schools should introduce parties in schools every month to eliminate students going to outside parties and skipping classes?
This was an interview which took place at a local brew palace which involved Mr. Taylor Gibs. Mr. Taylor claimed that there are some factors that are considered to be a way to eliminate alcohol in colleges, but he believed that, you can’t put off a fire by fire, when he said that, he simply meant that you can’t eliminate alcoholism in colleges and asking for the students to stop taking alcohol by introducing alcoholism and parties in school. This was an idea from Taylor Gibs. First, not all students in colleges are alcoholic you will find like 20% of the students are the one associated with alcohol. Therefore, if you introduce the alcohol in colleges, then the influence will increase greatly instead of increasing the GPA and the performance. So, by introducing parties in schools will increase the chances of alcoholism and the number of the students who will be consuming the alcohol will rise, remembering that the higher the alcohol consumption the lower the GPA and performance is. Therefore, as the alcoholic consumption increases, then it will be inversely proportional to GPA and the academic performance (Balsa, A. I., Giuliano, L. M., & French, M. T, 2011).

Do you agree with the fact that alcohol consumption lowers GPA and academic participation in college schools? If yes, then what advice can you advise the College Board to try and eliminate this on colleges? Taylor Gibs claimed that alcohol consumption lowers the GPA and affects the class attendance and academic performance of the student. Most of the students who are much in alcohol they normally perform poorly in academics thus producing poor results. As a result of this, Mr. Taylor gave a solution as to what should be done in order to overcome such a challenge. “I think in order to eliminate poor performance in schools and increase the grade point average, the board that is governing colleges should come up with the following strategy in order to overcome this challenge. They should regulate a law that will be strict on the students whereby if a student is found associating themselves with alcohol, they will be arrested, pay a certain Fine to the school which should be paid by the parent or guardian. After that, they will be taken to court and charged with influence where they should be detained for a month which will be followed by suspension for six months from the school” (Taylor Gibs).

As I listened to Mr. Taylor experience below, I saw some sense in it. “Based on my experience in college, I had some of my friend who was an alcoholic and they always had issues with homework’s and performance. The main reason as to why they were much in alcohol was because of the freedom they had, there were no laws that could stop them from alcohol consumption. In case they were caught they were sure that they had nothing to lose since they could not be suspended. If at all there was a law that could detain them and suspend them from school, then they could not be alcoholic since they could reconsider spending a month in detention and other six months under suspension. Thinking about this then would have contributed to the stop taking alcohol. Let’s take for instance that you been caught while under alcohol three times, then it would simply mean that a student will undergo a suspension of one year and six months, this is a kind of suspension a student would never wish no matter how alcoholic the student is” (Taylor Gibs).

Do you believe that alcohol consumption can be done away with in colleges? If so what role should parents and school play in order to eliminate the alcoholism in college and increase the academic in general? “I think a lot has to be done to overcome alcohol consumption in colleges. Generation and young adults are perishing in the world of alcohol and not only alcohol but in drugs generally” (Taylor Gibs). Youths are perishing in the world of drunks and more so alcohol, whereby in the current world we can evidently see that males are being defeated by women in academics since most of the male students are much focused on alcohol and forgetting their academics which I think in turn its effects on how they perform in their academics. Comparing it with women, I can conclude that girls will keep on overtaking boys in the world of academics since girls are not into alcohol that much compared to percentage of male students. Therefore, to both the schools and parents, they need to find a way to help the students overcome the addiction of alcohol which will eventually increase the GPA and academic performance in general.

There are some sociological terms that apply to the analysis. They include; The Sociological Imagination- whereby so as to really get society and an individual’s circumstance, we should not simply take a look at the social issue from an ordinary perspective. We should utilize some innovativeness and creative energy by attempting to comprehend the individual’s story and the general public that they were raised in (or how the social establishments they were included with influenced them). In other words, before judging a student due to alcoholism, people should also consider the society they are from and understand how the student became an alcoholic. This might ease things on side of helping the student.

Socialization- Socialization is the procedure whereby social establishments show its individuals how to legitimately interface in the general public. It additionally enables its individuals to build up a feeling of self (oneself is a novel feeling of character that recognizes individuals from others). This will be a vital thing since it will have helped those students who are non-alcoholic on how to socialize with students who are alcoholic instead of isolating them. This will reduce the high rate of influence on different students.

Social Stratification- Social stratification is society’s method of positioning individuals dependent on a hierarchal arrangement of property, distinction, as well as power. Functionalists view social stratification as beneficial because it rewards the people who work hard and contributes back to their community. Therefore, to those students who are alcoholic and take part in social stratification, they would first control their alcoholic addiction whereby they will have something driving them to quit the addiction whereby once they have quitted the alcoholic addiction they would further help their communities on quitting alcoholic addiction since they understand their communities better.

In conclusion, for the GPA and academic performance to increase among the college students, then I think it is not only work of the parents to find a way to eliminate the alcoholism in their children, but also the school has a responsibility to play in this. Basically, the government can be playing the greatest role in this, to regulate the selling of alcohol to college students is much easier as compared to what the parents and teachers. Also, guidance and counseling are another vital aspect which can help in reducing alcohol consumption by the students. I believe if this is done then sense can be brought in to the addict students thus realizing the effects of alcohol consumption in their academics which in turn will increase the grade point average (GPA).

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