Alcohol has had a significant presence on college campuses for many years. Many researchers have tried to determine why college students drink so much and have come up with many explanations including: an attempt to escape the stresses of intense academic life, social pressures, and newly found freedom among others. In an attempt to curb underage binge drinking, studies have been performed on the cellular responses to excess alcohol consumption. In other words, educators and scientists have tried to illustrate to underage drinkers exactly how damaging alcohol is to your health. Recent research has shown that repeated exposure to ethanol, the alcohol found in beverages, could eventually reduce brain function by wearing away at the connections between your brain cells (Charness, 2002). In other words, think of your brain as a massive highway system with all the cars symbolizing thoughts and commands for different parts of your body. This research has suggested that repeated drinking could damage these roads. The same number of cars with fewer ways to get where they need to go means slower responses. Down the road you may actually be getting stupider.

Something that may affect you in 20 years probably will not influence you while you are waiting on a long line to get your Solo cup filled with watered down beer at a frat party on campus. After all, why should students worry about something so far in the future when there are all these tests and pressures now? But recent research may give the academic minded Duke students a moment of pause before passing out on Main West next Saturday night. A study published by Jenny Williams and Lisa Powell (2003) tracks how drinking affects your grade point average. The researchers surveyed 17,000 college students across the country at a wide range of schools. Students were asked to report how often they drank in a 30-day period and how many drinks (defined as a single beer, a single shot, or a glass of wine) they consumed each time they drank. Information on gender, study habits, race, religion, marital status, and affiliation with a fraternity or sorority were also charted to establish controls. The report showed that for every extra hour per day you spend studying instead of drinking your grade point average will increase, on average, 0.37 points on a 4.0 scale. Also, the survey showed that every extra drink you have, assuming you study the same amount, decreases your grade point average by 0.03 points. Now, this may not seem like that much, but that value is per drink. Think about how many drinks you have each week! Besides decreased grade point averages, the data also suggests that students who drink heavily are more likely to drop out or fail out of college. Another side effect that may concern all the pre-meds, pre-laws, pre-business students, or any other student interested in graduate school who slave away Monday thru Friday only to pass the weekend in a drunken stupor is the decreased rate of acceptance to graduate schools drinkers experience.

If academic side effects are not enough to discourage you from over indulgence, a consortium of researchers at Virginia Tech identify these ‘social’ implications: over exposure to alcohol can lead to decreased sexual performance due to impotence, as well as a more aggressive personality which may hamper your ability to get a date in the first place (Virginia Tech Alcohol Information Study, 2003). Alcohol also lowers your inhibitions and impairs judgment, causing some to do things they would not normally do, such as have unprotected sex or drive recklessly.

Alcohol consumption may not be the sole cause of decreased academic success, but as Williams suggests the time spent away from studying may play a part as well. Using that reason, those who party hard but abstain from drinking would experience the same ill effects in their grade point averages. Nevertheless, Williams found that the extra recuperatory time associated with heavy drinking leads to additional time away from the books, which hurts student’s academic performance further.

Students should consider all these factors the next time they head out to party. While Williams offers little advice to students, it would appear that if students are going to drink the old advice to drink responsibly holds true.

 

Works Cited:

M. F. Wilkemeyer, C. E. Menkari, C. Y. Spong, and M. E. Charness.2002.

Peptide Antagonists of Ethanol Inhibition of L1-Mediated Cell-Cell Adhesion

J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther; 303(1): 110 - 116.

 

Virginia Tech Alcohol Information Study. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. http://www.alcohol.vt.edu/Students/alcoholEffects/brainBody.htm

 

Williams, Jenny and Powell, Lisa. 2003. Does Alcohol Consumption Reduce Human Capital Accumulation? Evidence From the College Alcohol Study. Journal of Applied Economics, 35(10): 1227-1239