April is
Alcohol Awareness month and it seems like many young people are getting the
message. The good news is that they're are drinking less than previous
generations. Surveys of 8th, 10th and 12th graders show that rates have been
steadily declining. The current cohort of college students are consuming less
alcohol than in previous years, and their non-student peers are drinking even
less. There is speculation that the
"Generation Z" cohort tend to be conscientious about what they
consume and are not interested in repeating the embarrassing antics of earlier
generations. They seem to be more accepting of others' choices, including not
drinking.
But overuse of
alcohol is still taking a big toll on college campuses. According to the
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, nearly 696,000 students
between the ages of 18 and 24 are assaulted by another student who has been
drinking, about 97,000 students between
the ages of 18 and 24 report experiencing alcohol-related sexual assault and
nearly 1,825 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die from
alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including motor-vehicle crashes.
The drinking
culture can vary from college to college but at schools where spectator sports
are big, drinking rates tend to be higher. A study on the correlation between
March Madness participation and college drinking found that one-third of
students over 21 and one-fourth of underage students engaged in binge drinking
when the school team was part of the NCAA Tournament. They also found that when
alcohol was less available at sporting events there were fewer "arrests,
assaults, ejections from the stadium, and student referrals to the judicial
affairs office," -- all unfortunate situations that can have an impact on
a student's academic future.
There is a lot more to this, and you can
read about it at https://www.chooseresponsibility.org/article/view/22712/1/2635/
