Campaign against binge drinking shows success

There’s some good news on the alcohol front from BGSU. Fewer Bowling Green students are engaging in high-risk drinking compared to two years ago, a new survey has shown. And the University’s program to combat this dangerous behavior recently garnered a 2003 Ohio Exemplary Prevention Program Award from the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services (ODADAS).

The BGSU Wellness Connection and the Student Health Service were presented the award in December at the annual Ohio Prevention Education Committee meeting in Columbus. Co-investigators on the ODADAS grant that helps fund the program are Barbara Hoffman, health promotion coordinator and Wellness Connection interim director, and Terry Rentner, journalism, both of whom have been involved with the program for several years.

Results recently in from last fall’s American College Health Assessment survey of all current BGSU students shows high-risk drinking has declined by 2.3 percent since the survey was last administered in fall 2000.

Other changes from 2000 include:
• Among BGSU students, 4.3 percent more reported not having drunk at all in the previous 30 days;
• A 2 percent increase in those who chose not to drink the last time they socialized and, of those who did drink, a 4 percent decrease in the number who consumed five or more drinks at a time,
• A 2.8 percent decrease in students’ letting alcohol affect their academic performance.

However, while the percentage who drank actually decreased, students’ perception of how much drinking was going on increased by 4 percent.

Correcting these misimpressions of typical drinking behavior at BGSU in order to keep the perception from becoming reality is the crux of Bowling Green’s prevention program, Hoffman said.

High-risk drinking, defined as consuming four drinks on a single occasion by women or five in the same period by men, is a national problem among college students and is implicated in many other undesirable incidents such as sexual assault, injury and low academic achievement. Research has shown that two of the contributing factors to binge drinking are: first, students’ perceptions of what is typical drinking behavior in college have a large impact on their own behavior and, second, their perceptions are far off base.

For example, Rentner, said, in a survey of high school seniors who are college bound, respondents estimated that 73 percent of college students engaged in binge drinking. In reality, 59 percent participate in this type of drinking.

Also, 25 to 40 percent of respondents said they planned to increase their drinking when they got to college; of the fewer than 50 percent of high school students who did not drink in high school, some said they planned to start in college.

“You know when you read these figures that we’re inheriting a problem before the students ever step foot on campus,” Rentner said.

The American College Health Assessment administered to current college students also showed respondents overestimating how much their peers are drinking and an attendant desire to keep up.

Part of Bowling Green’s approach to the problem is what is called “social norming,” that is, informing students about the true rate of drinking in an effort to reduce what they feel as peer pressure to binge drink, in addition to educating them about the laws regarding underage drinking.

The campaign is waged in the residence halls, through UNIV 100 classes and in peer education programs, which have been very successful, Rentner said. Students entering Bowling Green hear the message along with their parents in orientation and registration sessions and again in their freshman orientation programs.

The University is also seeking to “bridge the gap between high school and college” by reaching out to area high schools to begin the social norming before students arrive on campus, Rentner said.

Faculty, staff and parents have also been brought into the campaign, as have local tavern owners and civic leaders.

The ODADAS award “gives kudos to everyone involved,” said Jewel Neely of ODADAS ‘s Division of Prevention Services. “One of the things we look for in our higher education prevention programs is that they have strong collaboration with community partners so everyone feels a sense of concern and responsibility.”