<p>There was plenty of binge drinking when I was in college when the drinking age was 18, then the age changed to 19 and they were still binge drinking, then it changed to 21, same story. It’s not new, we maybe just hear more about it… educate your kids about alcohol and it’s effects. I have had a talk with S18 about the difference in chugging a 16 ounce glass of beer and a 16 ounce glass of vodka. And he’s a GOOD KID, who has not partied in high school… but I’m not stupid and I’m not going to stick my head in the sand. He IS a social enough kid who one of these days (if he hasn’t already) is going to be in a situation where he needs to have the knowledge to make the smarter choice…</p>
<p>Yes, to the posts by jc40 and Proudpatriot. Very well stated.</p>
<p>The kids have the knowledge. They binge drink anyway. The downside of drinking will happen to the other person. Not me.</p>
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</p>
<p>No, as has been stated, the binge drinking HAS changed…both in the type of alcohol consumed and the number of drinks consumed per session when compared to past decades.</p>
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</p>
<p>Mini, do you think there are other factors which explain the shift to this taste for hard liquor in great quantities? I’ve wondered how this has all come about.</p>
<p>Interesting comments. Yes, students need to take personal responsibility. However, when colleges refuse to reprimand organized institutions on their campuses that permit/condone binge drinking, they are expressing tacit approval for this behavior. </p>
<p>If colleges had a true “zero-tolerance” policy on hazing/bidding or whatever you want to call it, that occurs at Greek organizations and that includes alcohol among other destructive behaviors, colleges would be assuming appropriate and necessary responsibility. This is not being “overprotective.” This is no different than offering other supportive/protective services for students. Schools offer guidance, counseling, mentoring, etc. to help students, but fail them by looking the other way when highly destructive behaviors are condoned on their campuses.</p>
<p>Mini- my daughter is studying in London this semester and she recently made a remark about how refreshing it is to NOT see drunk students stumbling around. She said that every young person she’s met in London drinks responsibly and that the few drunk students she’s seen were from the US. She lives and studies in the city of London and has not experienced what you claim is happening there.</p>
<p>She isn’t s big partier and takes school seriously but she loves being able to go to the pubs and have a beer with her friends. She is twenty and finally feels like the adult that she is. Her flatmates agree and she said that they all love the fact that they no longer have to “pre-game” before going out. That is what the 21 year old drinking age has done. </p>
<p>and</p>
<p>As I said, the plural of anecdote is not evidence.</p>
<p>[Underage</a> drinking in Britain ‘among worst in the world’ - Telegraph](<a href=“Underage drinking in Britain 'among worst in the world'”>Underage drinking in Britain 'among worst in the world')</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9327098/Online-alcohol-retailers-fuelling-underage-drinking-in-Britain.html[/url]”>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9327098/Online-alcohol-retailers-fuelling-underage-drinking-in-Britain.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6121619/Britain-leads-the-world-in-under-age-drinking-OECD-study-shows.html[/url]”>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6121619/Britain-leads-the-world-in-under-age-drinking-OECD-study-shows.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“Shocking figures reveal more than 3,000 schoolchildren as young as 12 were treated for alcohol problems last year | Daily Mail Online”>Shocking figures reveal more than 3,000 schoolchildren as young as 12 were treated for alcohol problems last year | Daily Mail Online;
<p><a href=“U.K. Reaches Its Limit on Binge Drinking - WSJ”>U.K. Reaches Its Limit on Binge Drinking - WSJ;
<p><a href=“http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20515918[/url]”>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20515918</a></p>
<p><a href=“Special report: Binge drinking | Daily Mail Online”>Special report: Binge drinking | Daily Mail Online;
<p><a href=“Binge Drinking: Figures reveal young girls aged 11-15 down as much as boys | Daily Mail Online”>Binge Drinking: Figures reveal young girls aged 11-15 down as much as boys | Daily Mail Online;
<p>“Mini, do you think there are other factors which explain the shift to this taste for hard liquor in great quantities? I’ve wondered how this has all come about.”</p>
<p>Taste, and government classification. What companies do (and this began heavily 2001-2003) is take “unhopped beer”, take out all the taste, take out all the alcohol, take out all the color, and then add vodka (or gin or rum), sugar and flavors, to create “alcopops”. Because it begins life as beer, rather than as water, it is classified as a “malt beverage”, making it widely available. (A court in Nebraska declared these beverages to be hard liquor, and the legislature there within 48 hours passed a law declaring them “malt beverages.”) Then they marketed the flavors like crazy to 15 year olds. (Yes, I know what the industry says). Then they branded like crazy - with a brand like Smirnoffs appearing on bottles marketed for 15 year olds and for 50 year olds, but all the same brand. Then they created brands that reminded kids of cartoons (“Captain Morgan”). Oh, and there are “ladies’ brands”.</p>
<p>The profit margin is vast!</p>
<p>I went to college in the early 80’s. The drinking age in my home state was 18 when I left. Drinking age in my college state was 21. My campus was extremely strict (women’s catholic college) but our brother school was not as strict. Every single weekend until my junior year we would go to dorm parties in the basement of the dorms at our brother school. We’d pay a cover fee and literally drink out of a garbage can filled with a kool-aid type drink and vodka or some other hard liquor - frequently rumored to be moonshine. I don’t think that college students today binge drink any more than we did back then. I only have my son and nieces/nephews to go from. Our brother college went “dry” my junior year and I distinctly remember protesting on the steps of the administration building. Binge drinking was alive and well in the midwest in the early 80’s.</p>
<p>first of all, what a horrible situation for those kids and their families at uva. mini makes a good point in #53 about white kids and drinking behavior. the same can be said about other drugs, as white kids tend to smoke more marijuana and do other types of drugs more than kids of color, yet with respect to the ‘war on drugs’/mass incarceration, it’s primarily black and brown people who are locked up and labeled felons for life for drug-related offenses. there’s a huge imbalance of justice there. </p>
<p>when my son was in high school, i overheard a conversation he was having with some friends about how much drinking white kids did (and one of the friends in the room with him was white and was in full agreement), and it’s the same in college. i experienced the same as an undergrad in the 90s (that of the friends i had, my white friends drank much more heavily). it’s an interesting sociological question…</p>
<p>A real problem no doubt, but like many decisions we make as adults there are consequences for our actions.We as humans like many other animals are subject to natural laws. We do dumb things bad things happen pretty simple actually. I hope these young adults survive and adapt.</p>
<p>Drinking was prevalent I the late 70s when I was in college. The drinking age was 18 and every weekend a dorm floor somewhere nearby hosted a keg party and sometimes punch was featured as well. However, I do not remember the drinking games or people drinking so much that they were sick. It was the exception rather than the rule</p>
<p>My college freshman son has talked about helping out other sick kids and admits that he has also had too much to drink. It is unsettling. They seem to always mix shots and beer, which is not a good mix.</p>
<p>
In some places it’s just the opposite - little league teams here start “drafting” when kids are as young as eight, and the daughter of a friend of mine was cut from cheerleading at six. I think teams should be “no cut” until middle school, by which time a kid ususally knows what he likes and is good at, and should be able to handle some disappointment. If a kid still likes a sport but doesn’t have varsity level skill, there are rec teams, church leagues, etc.</p>
<p>I agree with maggiedog.</p>
<p>Here’s the bottom line. When we were 18, the drinking age WAS 18. One could drink in the frats and in the dorms legally - and many did and it was up to them, a “legal adult” to accept the consequences of their own behavior.</p>
<p>The drinking age is now 21. Colleges know the law and use scare tactics like “zero tolerance” to enforce the law but in reality they “turn a blind eye” to the underage drinking that goes on, especially in fraternities and sororities. Students know this and take full advantage. Why shouldn’t they? That is until there is a problem and then the schools are there to enforce the rules when it is often too late for many of the students.</p>
<p>US colleges provide a drinking culture and a lot of mixed messages about the appropriate use of and acceptance of alcohol. The pressure to fit into this culture leads many students to make decisions that they may live to regret.</p>
<p>DH & I have talked about the college drinking comparison a number of times. Back in the days of an 18 year old drinking age, we both drank in HS & college. But the atmosphere was different. Part of it was cultural: DH & I were both 1st generation college students and didn’t live on campus. But besides that it cost $$$ to drink. We both worked, parents weren’t giving us an allowance, so any money we spent was ours that we’d worked for. DH tended towards what ever beer was on sale, while I preferred a nice fruit brandy. Our casual dining spot on campus had a beer bar. It wasn’t naughty or edgy to have a beer on campus; it was probably only $1 and if you spent $2 you could have a greasy piece of pizza too. </p>
<p>Frats on campuses had kegs. And had epic parties. But they were cheap beer kegs, so you had to drink a LOT of beer to get drunk. When the drinking age changed, Greek organizations were told they couldn’t have kegs since the majority of their members wouldn’t be legal (I’m sure Mini & others have specifics on this.) This is when pre-gaming & hard liquor became more prevalent. It’s a lot easier to hide a couple of cases of cheap vodka coming in, than have the distributor truck roll up & bring in 20 kegs of Bud. </p>
<p>As Mini said upthread, there’s been a big change in flavoring & marketing of hard liquor since the early 2000’s. For those of you who haven’t been in a liquor store lately, you should take a walk down the vodka aisle. Marshmallow vodka, candy cane vodka, cherry, vanilla, chocolate vodkas. Now who do you suppose is drinking that? Don’t know too many men looking for a marshmallow martini, nor any women over the age of 30. Most young girls don’t like things to taste “too much like alcohol” so if you make the alcohol taste yummy, there’s a boost in sales & the corporate bottom line. And it takes a lot less vodka to get alcohol poisoning than it does drinking cheap beer. </p>
<p>Mini, are there any studies looking at college binge drinking vs. socioeconomic factors including family income?</p>
<p>I think wealhthier areas are hit hardest by alcohol abuse. I look forward to what mini says.</p>
<p><a href=“Marin County Civil Grand Jury - County of Marin”>http://www.co.marin.ca.us/depts/GJ/main/cvgrjr/2011/marin_youth_alcohol_crisis.pdf</a></p>
<p>The first paragraph or two has a good summary.</p>
<p>In this paper, the flavored drinks are also mentioned. I know young people love the flavored drinks.</p>
<p>Thanks, Cormom</p>
<p>There are a lot of posts here where people are describing their past drinking experiences, or the experiences of their children or other family members currently in college. As others have pointed out, these are anecdotal and do not point to the larger issue.</p>
<p>The primary problem is that we have colleges that endorse the existence of Greek life AND look the other way when hazing and bidding go on where alcohol and other destructive activities occur. While some can say that 18-y/o’s are adults and need to make adult decisions, we as parents are PAYING colleges to do the right thing. We pay them to educate our children, provide safe housing, healthy meals, etc. So why are we paying them to ENDORSE a system that PROMOTES unsafe and destructive behaviors?</p>
<p>When colleges swiftly and aggressively sanction and restrict Greek life when they are involved in destructive activities, this will be a first and necessary step toward providing a safe environment for our students.</p>
<p>Mmm-hmm … like all non-Greeks are teetotalers and other organizations don’t haze …</p>
<p>Most of the studies I know of examine the correlates between factors at the colleges and prevalence of binge drinking, as opposed to individual factors. I’ve cited those before.</p>
<p>One good study on your question found:</p>
<p>“As many college personnel already suspect, being male, being White, having parents who were college educated, majoring in business, being a resident of a fraternity, engaging in risky behaviors, being involved in athletics, indulging in binge drinking as high school seniors, and, most importantly, viewing parties as very important are all associated with binge drinking.” (Other demographic factors have only minor predictive value).</p>
<p>This study (Wechsler, 1995) is fairly old. Obviously, being white and having parents who were college educated will correlate with higher income.</p>
<p>(I had a college roommate in the late 60s who was truly alcoholic. He didn’t party at all. He wasn’t in a fraternity. He wasn’t athletic. He wasn’t in a fraternity. He was never loud. He didn’t engage in any other “risky behaviors”. He came from a working-class Russian family. He began drinking every day at 11 a.m. - straight vodka. Drinking didn’t kill him. He was shot to death two blocks from Harvard Yard.)</p>