IS PUBLIC POLICY EFFECTIVE IN REDUCING THE DRINKING PROBLEMS of AMERICAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ?

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1992-08-18
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Abstract
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine differences in drinking and driving, health and school, and legal and social problems of collegians related to drinking at four time periods covering the decade from 1982-1991. This study is part of a long term study of college students drinking patterns and problems by the author and David J. Hanson, SUNY, Potsdam NY. METHODS: a cross sectional design was used. Students were administered the Student Alcohol Questionnaire during each time periods. This highly reliable questionnaire (r=.79) contains 6 items on drinking patterns, 17 items concerning possible consequences of drinking along with other scales. A factor analysis of the 17 problems related to drinking revealed three problem groupings which accounted for 55% of the variance. RESULTS: ANOVA revealed a significant (p <.001) decrease in the “Drinking-Driving” factor. Post-hoc Scheffe showed differences occurred between 1982 and each of the later time periods. Results for the “Health-School” factor found a significant (p<.0001) increase in these problems over the 10 year time period. For “Social-Legal” problems ANOVA, revealed a significant (p <.001) increase over the decade. Post-hoc Scheffe revealed the differences for these two factors were between the early 1980 and 1988 and 1991 time periods. CONCLUSIONS: a decrease in drinking and driving related problems began around 1981 and continued over the ten year time period even before the 21-year- old purchase law in 1987. On the other hand, other problems related to risky drinking increased after this public policy. Few differences between the first two time periods, at the beginning of the decade, or between the time periods after 1987 were found. The differences occurred between the early1980s and the time periods after the “21 year old drinking law” had been implemented in 1987. Although research by many authors have reported a decrease in alcohol consumption from around 1980 among all age groups, the proportion of “binge” or high risk drinkers has not decreased. The results of this study leads to the conclusion that among this sample of students, the current drinking law is not effective in reducing problems related to alcohol other than for drinking and driving.
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Other research papers on college student drinking and public policy can be found at:: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/handle/2022/17130/browse?type=title; https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/handle/2022/17127/browse?type=title and https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/handle/2022/17124/browse?type=title. Further information about the questionnaire, calculations used for the study, and the original data base can be found in the following item records within IUScholarworks repository. Details about the reliability and validity of the SAQ are found at: http://hdl.handle.net/2022/17154; http://hdl.handle.net/2022/17181. The classic SAQ is found at http://hdl.handle.net/2022/17153. ALL QUESTIONNAIRES developed by Engs are found in the repository at: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/handle/2022/17141/browse?type=dateissued
Keywords
Underage drinking, drinking and driving, binge drinking, 21 year old drinking law, college student
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Ruth C. Engs (1992) IS PUBLIC POLICY EFFECTIVE IN REDUCING THE DRINKING PROBLEMS of AMERICAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ? Paper presented: 36th ICAA Conference, Glasgow, Scotland. 18 Aug. Retrieved from IUScholarWorks: http://hdl.handle.net/2022/17391
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This work is licensed for reuse under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license. For permission to reuse this work for commercial purposes, please contact Dr. Ruth Engs or the IU Archives.
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