Literature Review Blog #2

"College Student Drinking Research From the 1940s to the Future: Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going"

1. Visual.

Dr. Clements Collard Fry

2. Citation.
Kilmer, Jason R., et al. “College Student Drinking Research From the 1940s to the Future: Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going.” Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, Supplement, no. s17, 2014, pp. 26–35., doi:10.15288/jsads.2014.s17.26.

3. Summary.
This article summarizes the past several decades of alcohol related research. While college drinking is an age old tradition, analysis on the topic is more recent. Using a collection of past entries in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, as well as various other publications, this article gives a complete summary of all that was influential when this was a new field for researchers. Specifically, it reviews our longstanding relationship with alcohol within the college age group and presents an understanding of what our progress in research to understand drinking culture thus far means for the future. Each article that composes this comprehensive journal explores a new aspect of college drinking as they each explore their own case studies, producing results and analysis that had not been focused on before. Every article that composes this journal was selected based on their relatability to where we currently stand in terms of drinking and prevention related research.

This article begins in 1945 when the first publication was produced on the topic of college drinking with Dr. Fry, who opened many to this as a whole new branch of research.  Dr. Fry and his specific focus on college drinking set the ball rolling for what would come to be a decades long approach to learning the specifics of college drinking culture. Dr. Fry's efforts analyzed the tendency of college students to drink in relation with specific, mostly drinking fueled events, but his most important focus was on how many people, be it Greek life or veterans now attending college, used alcohol to cope with emotional stress. Dr. Fry's research came to a close with the idea that alcohol disorders are more relevant than most had previously thought and called for these alcohol disorders to be seen as a health concern. This point would later lead to what would become preventative science efforts. Following Dr. Fry came a series of research that made specific conclusions that each added their own take on drinking. Some of the most notable include Hecht, Berezin and Roth, then Straus and Bacon, then followed by Williams. Many of these studies had a cause and effect relationship on the studies that were to follow.

In this sense, Hecht in 1948 and Berezin and Roth in 1950 were two studies related very closely. The two focused on social aspects involving college women and alcohol. It was found that many aspects, from dating to sorority membership affected how much the women would consume. The most significant findings from these two would be how sorority membership went hand in hand with higher alcohol consumption. This is an important point that would later come into play frequently, such as in an article done by Armstrong and Hamilton with their term the 'party pathway'.

Following this was Stratus and Bacon in 1953. Their focus was on conducting a more widespread study then the studies that have been done before. This was a journal that helped the efforts of Dr. Fry, drinking as a health concern, and prevention programs on the radar. Stratus and Bacon were especially important as they delved into the often unhealthy relationship between fraternity members and drinking, as well as the effects of upbringing and peer relations on this dynamic. It was this study that set researchers on a different path as drinking health concerns were not the norm. While previously they had mostly been focused on the climate that would cause heavy drinkers, now they were starting to consider the psychology behind a trend towards heavy drinking. It is this trend towards heavy drinking that would be the cause for much debate in the later part of the century.

Next came Williams in 1965-1968. Whereas he started with studies on the personality traits of heavy drinkers, his later studies focused more on what would be useful for my paper as it was geared towards the effects of alcohol. His study asked college students questions based on how much they had drank. It showed that the majority of students were more likely to engage in bold, rash and sometimes dangerous behavior when drinking that they would not normally do sober. Williams believed that the more these students drank, the likelier they would be to become dependent on alcohol. Williams studies were thought provoking and so set the standard for the future of alcohol related studies. It was around this same time that punishment and consequences for alcohol related misbehavior became under more scrutiny. This was despite Dr. Fry's earlier claims on how consequences were sometimes covering a deeper issue with alcohol.

 Where Williams left off with his research in the 1970s led to the kick-start of research on 'expectancies' and prevention tactics. Expectancy was another branch of drinking related research that had not been covered even in passing until the later half of the 1970s. The prevention tactics used and utilized then are still in use in the current day such as no tolerance policies, setting standard alcohol education programs, and regulation from university officials. In the years following the conclusion of these critical studies focus was not on more research about college drinking, but on what could be done to make it less of a hazard and make it less of a social norm.

The next decade covered in the journal entry coincides with the time the drinking age moved to 21. It was during this time period that had the most focus on not only working to prevent drinking, but to educate about and document these habits. These years were the guinea pig years as no one was sure what the best approach to dangerous drinking would be. One of the tests used was a skills training program, STP, that was designed for students who would not abide by the abstinence suggestion that had been the go-to up to this point. It's aim was to make students who were going to drink regardless do so in a safe, healthier way.

By 1999, real change was feasible. The National Institutes of Health's National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, NIAAA, made it their mission to find a conclusion that would work. They published a study in which they described and experimented with different ways to approach alcohol with students. Their efforts were to produce a study worth showing to college educators, and ended up sending the analysis of their experiment to college presidents around the country. This experiment, along with later statistics relating death and alcohol use, gained national media coverage. NIAAA also created the Rapid Response to College Drinking Problems in 2002, where special alcohol researchers were paired with universities that were in desperate need for help with their students and alcohol. These efforts by NIAAA helped to open more eyes to the subject and increased drinking prevention. The article concludes that while there has been a lot of progress since the first study was published back in 1945, there is still room for improvement today.

4. Authors.
This article was composed by Jason R. Kilmer, Jessica M. Cronce, and Mary E. Larimer. All three of the authors have obtained their Ph.D. Jason Kilmer is currently employed by the University of Washington and holds a focus on research. He has spent the past 20 years on several studies all involving alcohol and drug use by college students with a specific focus on prevention and intervention. He has been in affiliation with several alcohol related organizations, including Health and Wellness for Alcohol and Other Drug Education and Addictive Behaviors Research Center. Kilmer has won several awards and recognitions for his efforts in this field. Jessica Cronce is currently employed as the head of the Family and Human Services department at the University of Oregon. She has had her specialization of health risks associated with college students, including drinking, for over a decade and a half. She has co-authored many academic works on the subject and has an affiliation with NIAAA. Mary Larimer is currently employed at the University of Washington, where she obtained her Ph.D. and has been employed for more than 20 years. College drinking prevention is only part of what she has set her academic focus on. She has published over 100 articles and book passages on her topic specializations. Larimer currently holds several research grants. 

5. Key Terms.
Prevention Science: the application of a scientific methodology that seeks to prevent or moderate human dysfunctions before they occur.
Epidemiology: the branch of medicine that deals with the incidence, distribution, and possible control of diseases and other factors relating to health.
Heavy episodic drinking: a modern epithet for drinking alcoholic beverages with an intention of becoming intoxicated by heavy consumption of alcohol over a short period of time.
Normative interventions: policies, actions, regulation, publications, reports, public announcements, and overall customary practices of institutions that by force of time and authority are assumed culturally and politically in societies as norms.
Expectancy: the state of thinking or hoping that something, especially something pleasant, will happen or be the case.

6. Quotes.
"...speculated on the role of alcohol in coping with stressors. Fry concluded with a plea that alcohol disorders be seen as a health concern: 'It is the obligation of the university, which should be concerned with the health of its students, to view alcoholism as a possible symptom of emotional disturbance, in need of psychiatric attention, rather than as a form of behavior calling for customary disciplinary action'." (Kilmer, Cronce and Larimer, 2).
"...Hecht and colleagues (1948), Beresin and Roth  (1950) explored other social factors affecting college women's drinking....The most significant contribution of Berezin and Roth was inclusion of sorority member status. Results indicated that sorority women consumed more alcohol than non-sorority women..."(Kilmer, Cronce and Larimer, 3).
"Williams emphasized factors that put heavy drinking students at risk for dependence and set the stage for alcohol expectancy research in the 1970s and 1980s" (Kilmer, Cronce, and Larimer, 3).
"...the creation of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) marked a key turning point for prevention science" (Kilmer, Cronce, and Larimer, 4).
"...researchers continued and expanded their efforts to document trends in drinking on college campuses. Noted a shift from parental to peer influences on drinking and a reduction in drinking for sedative effects among students at 17 colleges from 1971 to 1975. There was a decrease in the amount of alcohol consumed over this period..."(Kilmer, Cronce and Larimer, 5).

7. Value.
This article is important to my paper because it provides a summary of events that were important in shaping the history of college drinking culture. The article and the studies within are part of what led to the current social climate regarding drinking on college campuses. It reviews the history of the time period leading directly up to the events I am going to be using as my case study, the release of the movie Animal House and the increase in the legal drinking age. The results of  the studies covered in this journal entry had major impact on the nation at the time of their publication as the harmful side of drinking was something that had only started to be focused on. It was this cause and effect that produced many of the later organizations, laws, and reforms that were influential and will help me outline the history of college drinking culture. I intend to use Dr. Fry's study as the starting point of my paper because his research was the start of a new direction taken that is still prominent today. I believe this piece to be sufficient backbone for the claims I will be making in my own analysis.

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