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The Relationship between College Freshmen and Underage Alcohol Abuse in Tennessee
According to the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center (2002), teenage consumption of alcohol is a serious problem in the United States. Recent survey revealed that 52% of eighth graders (and 80% of high-school seniors) have used alcohol at some time (Michigan University Institute for Social Research, 2000). The research also found that 25% of eighth graders (and 62% of high-school seniors) have been drunk. Furthermore, while it is illegal for minors to be given access with alcoholic drinks, it seems that such restriction has no, if only little, effect. The MUISR (2000) also found that 71% of eighth graders and 95% of high-school seniors say that they have easy access to alcohol.
There are certain reasons why teenagers can become at risk with alcohol abuse. Brook et al (1992) found that people who begin drinking before the age of 15 are four times more likely to be dependent on alcohol. In addition, such abuse also has a link with past childhood. Caspi et al (1996) stated that teenagers who were aggressive, antisocial, or impulsive, restless, and easily distracted as young children are more likely to have alcohol-related problems in their teenage years. Furthermore, positive peer attitude towards drinking is also one of the main causes (Hughes et al, 1992). These and many other reasons increase the chance that minors would get hooked with alcohol. However, perhaps there is lack of investigation on particular basic influences. For instance, an older youth can more effectively influence a younger youth to drink due perhaps to certain reasons. The researcher decided to focus on this, and will try to use college freshmen and underage teens as substitutes to the framework. The reason for conducting this type of study is perhaps demographic importance of alcohol influencers can be revealed. Because senior teens can possess better motivating or threatening capabilities, there is a possibility that younger underage teens can be easily influenced to drink alcohol. To be specific, the samples will be acquired from Tennessee. On the other hand, the rest of the details will be presented in the following sections of the proposal – including research questions, literatures, procedures, etc.
Statement of the Problem
The problem to be investigated in the study is if there is a relationship between college freshmen and underage alcohol abuse. Of course, we all know that almost all freshmen are already eligible to drink. However, because there are certain schools that offer multiple educational levels, interaction can arise among seniors and those who are still underage. Not to mention, peers can also consist of different members with different ages. With this type of encounter, there is a possibility that college freshmen can easily influence younger peers to drink, due perhaps to intense peer pressure or even threats. The researcher will try to test this assumption through quantitative research.
Research Questions
Dunn and Goldman (1996, 1998, and 2000) stated that children’s beliefs about alcohol appear to shift from predominantly negative expectancies to largely positive ones around the age of ten. One of the reasons this happens is because some children see their parents enjoy drinking alcohol or have positive attitude on it (Zucker et al, 1995). On the other hand, another reason is peer pressure. By late childhood, children may begin to view alcohol consumption in light of positive views expressed by peers (Johnson and Johnson, 1996; Lang and Stritzke, 1993; Pisano and Rooney, 1988; Webb et al, 1995). Thus, positive and negative expectancies will be the main framework for the research questions. Positive could be important in the initiation and maintenance of alcohol use, whereas negative expectancies may be more important in the decision to avoid or delay the uptake of use, or to stop or moderate its use after initiation (e.g., Jones et al, 2001; Lee et al, 1999; Leigh, 1999; Walters, 1998). Cameron et al (2003) stated: “Taking into account both types of expectancies would advance our understanding of the critical period of transition in late childhood when children are faced with decisions about drinking” (p.687). Based on the framework, the researcher will try to answer the following queries:
1. How do underage youths perceive alcohol when they have knowledge that their college freshman peers drink regularly?
2. How do underage youth perceive alcohol in general?
3. Do they or have they ever engaged in a drinking session with college freshmen?
4. Do they view that being a college freshman and having the license to drink all they want as ‘cool’?
5. Can they resist peer pressure when some college freshmen they know invite them for a drinking session?
6. Do underage youths expect positive outcomes from alcohol consumption?
7. Are there any negative expectancy that they feel? Does it prevent them from engaging with college freshmen for a drinking session?
Literature Review
Cameron et al (2003) found evidence of simultaneously held positive and negative expectancies consistent with an ambivalence perspective of alcohol use. Furthermore, based from the cognitive dissonance theory, it was found that college students rate their personal friends as more positive to drinking than themselves but as less positive than students in general (Prentice and Miller, 1993), and the tendency to exaggerate the nonconformity of friends’ attitudes decreases with the closeness of the friendship (Pedersen, 1993). Another finding stated that college students perceive their close friends as drinking more than themselves and average members in their living groups as drinking more than their friends (Baer et al., 1991). However, the tendency to exaggerate peers’ drinking is less marked among 12-year-old boys than among boys who are a little older (Ahlstrom, 1983). But then, there is no demographic specifications on the research as to what age of friends do they exaggerate about or alleviate cognitive dissonance.
There are certain studies that show that perceptions of smoking and drinking patterns among peers have an impact on the respondent’ s own later behavior (Chassin, et al 1984; Chassin et al., 1986; Collins et al., 1987; Sussman et al., 1988; Graham et al, 1991; Iannotti and Busch, 1992; Mark et al, 1992). However, they are less credible in a sense that association is usually relatively weak and sometimes non-existing (Pedersen, 1993). Makela (1997) stated that another contributing factor to the inconsistency is that people project their own behaviors and attitudes onto others.
Colby et al (2004) stated that alcohol use and heavy drinking are commonly part of the experience of adolescence and the transition to young adulthood. Substance use is experimental and socially based for the majority of teens. Lee and Abdel-Ghany (2004) stated that substance abuse often develops during elementary, middle and high school years, and is considered as an alarming epidemic in the US. They cited that The National Institute on Drug Abuse reported that roughly 65% of high school seniors have smoked cigarettes, 80% have consumed alcohol, 23% have smoked marijuana, and 10% have used cocaine.
According to Clark (2004), alcohol consumption changes dramatically from ages 12 to 18. Community survey data revealed that most adolescents have tried alcohol (e.g. 51.7% in 8th grade, 80.3% in 12th grade). Binge drinking, defined as five or more drinks in one episode, is reported by over 30% of 12th-graders in any 2-week period (Johnston et al, 2001). On the other hand, alcohol use and shared propensities toward risky behaviors influence peer selection, discrepancies between perceived and actual peer alcohol use occur and reciprocal influences among adolescents transpire (Clark and Winters 2002). The pressure of drinking peers may be lessened by increased psychosocial maturity and assertiveness (Adalbjarnardottir, 2002; Donovan 2004). However, early psychosexual development may increase alcohol involvement. Hastened alcohol involvement may occur as a result of early maturing adolescents affiliating with more deviant or older peers, increased parent–adolescent conflict, increased negative affect or interactions among these factors (Ge et al, 1996; Dawes et al, 2000).
Methodology
Primary and secondary research will be conducted in the study. Primary research will be conducted through the surveying underage drinkers. These respondents should be 12 to 16 years old and should be studying in high schools under a particular university. Teens will also be qualified as participants given that they have a college freshman peer or know someone from the college freshmen level. Twenty (20) per cent of them will be chosen through random sampling from their total population. They will be surveyed with the use of a structured questionnaire, with the Likert Scale as the measuring tool.
On the other hand, secondary research will be conducted through the gathering of literatures related to the study. This may include books about teenage alcoholism, journal articles, past studies, news features, and Internet articles. These references will be acquired from university libraries and online libraries.
Data Collection/Instrumentation
As mentioned, data will be collected through surveys and research. On the other hand, the survey-questionnaire will have two sections. The first part will intend to acquire the demographic profile of the respondents, while the other section will contain a set of attitude statements. The purpose of the set of attitude statements is to determine the level of agreement or disagreement using a five-point Likert scale. In the Likert technique, the degree of agreement or disagreement) is given a numerical value ranging from one to five, thus a total numerical value can be calculated from all the responses. (Underwood, 2004) The equivalent weights for the answers will be:
Range Interpretation
4.50 – 5.00 Strongly Agree
3.50 – 4.00 Agree
2.50 – 3.49 Uncertain
1.50 – 2.49 Disagree
0.00 – 1.49 Strongly Disagree
Data Analysis
Data will be analyzed with the use of frequency distribution. The results in data collected from the survey will be interpreted with the knowledge and information acquired by the researcher from the literatures collated or cited. Quantitative research is chosen because it follows resolutely the original set of research goals, arriving at more objective conclusions, testing hypothesis, determining the issues of causality and eliminates or minimizes subjectivity of judgment (Kealey & Protheroe, 1996). Furthermore, it allows the research problem to be conducted in a very specific and set terms (Frankfort-Nachmias and Nachmias, 1992).
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