College Students and the Effects of Binge Drinking Dan Reed Rochelle Wescott Eric Sharkey Evan Picariello

Background Info Binge drinking is defined as “a pattern of drinking that brings a person’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08 grams percent or above. This typically happens when men consume 5 or more drinks, and women consume 4 or more drinks, in about 2 hours” One drink is defined as 12 ounces of beer, 1.5 ounces of hard liquor or 5 ounces of wine.

Background Info (cont.) There were 599,000 students between the ages that were unintentionally injured due to them using alcohol each year. And the big number that stands out was that 1,700 college students die each year from alcohol-related unintentional injuries.

Research Question Why do college students binge drink and what are the effects? What would influence them to change their behavior?

Significance of the Problem Binge drinking causes many detrimental side effects. Some of them include, alcohol poisoning, liver disease, high blood pressure, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases Some other side effects not directly to binge drinking but may happen when partaking in binge drinking would be STD’s, unintended pregnancy and other physical injuries possibly from being intoxicated and hurting yourself.

Significance (cont.) Academics are affected by binge drinking and about 25% of college students have reported academic consequences of their binge drinking. These consequences included missing class, falling behind, doing poorly on exams and receiving lower grades overall.

Subjects The total amount of subjects we surveyed added up to 50 students. We found our subjects at multiple places, such as the Recreational Center, Library, Student Center, classes, and those who were walking around on campus. We also posted our survey on Facebook after creating a group and limited it to Rowan students.

Tools Upon creating our survey we took into consideration that some people do not drink. We adjusted our questions to fit those who did not by designing questions with the answer of “0” or N/A.

Timeline We did our survey by a certain date so we could collect our data and analyze the results.

Results As you can see the majority of the students we surveyed at Rowan University drink.

Results (Cont.) No one selected that they binge drink 6-7 days a week. Those who answered that they binge drink 0-1 days a week were 38% out of 50 people. The 26 people who answered 2-3 days a week fell in the percentage of 52% and the 5 people who answered 4-5 days a week were only 10% out of the 50 surveyed.

Results (Cont.) Of those who were surveyed 66% or 33 people answered that it’s very easy for them to obtain it. The other groups, such as those who found it just easy to access it were 30% or 15 out of 50 people, and 2 people found it very hard to get it, which is 4% of those surveyed.

Results (Cont.) The majority of the people, or 56% of them, answered that they drink 7 or more drinks in a weekend night. Thirteen people, or 26%, answered that they drink 4-6 drinks a night on the weekend, 5 people answered 1-3 drinks a night, which is 10%, and 4 people said that they do not drink on the weekends, which makes up 8% of the population asked.

Results (Cont.) Twenty-seven, or 54% of those surveyed answered that out of the 5 days of the week they don’t drink at all. According to the others, 10 have 1-2 drinks, or 20%, 5 have 3-4 drinks, which falls as 10%, and 8 consume 5 drinks or more on a regular weekday, which makes that percentage fall at 16%.

Results (Cont.) This question spread out evenly among the answers at 0-1 and 2-3 drinks chugged. Out of the 50 people, 19 people answered for both of those answers, which are 36% each. The others asked fell in the category of 9 people who chugged 4-5 drinks, or 18%, and 3 who chugged 6 or more drinks, or 6%.

Results (Cont.) When asked this question 70% (35/50) of Rowan students answered they were influenced by their friends. 4% (2/50) answered to fit in 14% (7/50) answered to have fun 12% (6/50) were not applicable.

Results (Cont.) When asked this question 86% (43/50) of Rowan students answered drinking a lot in a little amount of time 14% (7/50) considered binge drinking as blacking out.

Results (Cont.) When asked this question 88% (44/50) of Rowan students said they binge drink at parties 8% (4/50) said they binge drink at bars 4% (2/50) were not applicable

Results (Cont.) When asked this question 12% (6/50) of Rowan students said they started binge drinking is middle school 70% (35/50) said they started in high school 18% (9/50) said they started in college.

Results (Cont.) When asked this question 80% (40/50) of Rowan students said they binge drink because of social reasons 36% (18/50) said they binge drink because of sexual reasons 30% (15/50) said they binge drink because of peer pressure 32% (16/50) said they binge drink because of stress.

Results (Cont.) When asked this question 28% (14/50) of Rowan students said it was very likely 20% (10/50) said it was likely 24% (12/50) were not sure 20% (10/50) said it was unlikely 8% (4/50) said it was very unlikely

Results (Cont.) When asked this question 40% of Rowan students said it was very likely 26% said it was likely 10% said they weren’t sure 12% said it was unlikely 12% said it was very unlikely

Results (Cont.) When asked this question 32% of Rowan students said it was very likely 34% said it was likely 18% said they weren’t sure 10% said it was unlikely 6% said it was very unlikely

Results (Cont.) When asked this question 40% of Rowan Students said they use one every time 12% said most of the time 8% said they weren’t sure 14% hardly ever 10% said they never use one

Results (Cont.) When our surveyors were asked if they “pregame” before going out to drink, 45, or 90% of the surveyors said that they did Only 5 people or 10% said they do not “pregame” before going out to drink more.