Emerging Adulthood Developing Adults Experience Alcohol

Da Yu Engineering 10, Section 2 Oct. 9, 2015 Emerging Adulthood Paper Outline I. Introduction A. Thesis: While college is a great time for emerging adults experience alcohol, the abuse of alcohol can be consequential to the development of a proper and healthy adult. B. Emerging adulthood is a period of development that coincides with college, around years 18-25 (Arnett, 2000). At this stage, young adults fully learn about themselves, their roles, and who they are. C. In this context, we will use binge drinking to describe the abuse of alcohol. Wechsler and Nelson (2001) defines binge drinking as for drinking 5 or more alcoholic drinks at one time in the span of half a month for men and 4 or more drinks for women in that same time frame.†¦show more content†¦B. Study 1: Weitzman, Nelson, and Wechsler (2003) sought to identify some of the factors that may lead to students’ binge drinking during their college years using questionnaires. 1. One good social indicator for binge drinking was the attitudes of their parents towards alcohol. More students that did not partake in binge drinking reported that their parents did not approve of drinking when they were growing up than students who did binge drink. C. Study 2: Borsari and Carey (2001) also studied social factors in college aged binge drinkers, mainly through the use of questionnaires, but also through student recorded logs of their alcohol usage. 1. Borsari and Carey (2001) suggests that one factor towards the increase in drinking during college years is the temporary removal or slight reduction in parental pressure against drinking. As a result, their peers influence them much more. 2. In addition, they also suggest that the environment that college provides creates a much more alcohol friendly space. In order to create new friend groups, students may partake in social gatherings where alcohol is available. These new friend groups may rely only on drinking and partying to stay together and can lead to excessive drinking in student. D. Social factors are not the only factors that may result in college student binge drinking. Some other