Binge Drinking Among High School Students

Binge Drinking Among High School Students

            Binge drinking is the consumption of large quantities of alcohol at a single drinking session. Definition of binge drinking depends on the gender where for a man binge drinking is defined as drinking five or more drinks at a time. For a woman, binge drinking is defined as the practice of drinking four or more drinks at a time. Most high school students who consume alcohol prefer binge drinking pattern. High school students are involved in binge drinking mostly during holidays or when they have parties. Binge drinking has adverse health effects to the high school students because most of the high school students are underage. Binge drinking causes health risks to high school students, and several intervention strategies have been implemented to prevent underage alcohol consumption among high school students.

Binge drinking is a common drinking pattern among high school students who consume alcohol. The rates of binge drinking among the students depend on the age and the education level of the students (Esser,2017). As the students advance in education level, they increase the rate of binge drinking. In 2015, data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey was used to analyze drinking patterns for United States high school students. The data from 1991 to 2015 was used in the analysis. The data showed that binge drinking among United States high school students increased from 31.3% in the year 1991 to 31.5% in the year 1999. Binge drinking among high school students then significantly decreased to 17.7% in the year 2015. The data also revealed that among the high school students who drink alcohol, most of them are binge drinkers. The research showed that high school binge drinkers binge drinks at very high intensity of more than eight drinks in a row.

High school students binge drinkers involve both girls and boys. Most high school students who binge drink are provided with alcohol by either friends or parents. Binge drinking is common for high school students who consume alcohol and the practices have adverse health and behavioral effects to the students.

Most high school students binge drink due to various reasons without considering the effects of high alcohol consumption on their health (White,2018). High school students binge drink because they consider the pattern of drinking alcohol as a modern lifestyle. Also, high school students binge drink because they want to compete who is going to take many quantities of alcohol in a short period. Culture is also another factor that exposes high school students to binge drinking. Some students are brought up in families where family members binge drink, and this kind of culture exposes the students in binge drinking. Peer pressure is also another factor that has contributed to the increased trend of binge drinking among high school students. Many high school students are at an adolescent stage where the students want to do all that what their friends are doing. Also, some high school students binge drink because they think that the practice is a way of reducing the stress they acquire when they fail in their exams. Binge drinking involves consumption of different types of alcohol at the same time, and the act has been labeled as a major public health issue. Binge drinking can result in death to high school students who are underage because of the huge amount of intoxication over a short period. Other adverse health effects of binge drinking are neurological problems, cardiac problems, and alcohol-related psychiatric disorders. Due to the adverse effects of binge drinking, several policies have been formulated to prevent high school students from binge drinking.

Raising of legal alcohol drinking age is one policy among others that have been implemented by various states to prevent high school students from binge drinking (Siqueira,2015). Other interventions such as educating high school students on the adverse effects of alcohol consumption have been effective in preventing high school students from binge drinking. Most of the students acquire the money to binge drink from their parents and guardians. Programs have been initiated to educate parents on the amount of money they should provide to their students for their upkeep while in school to ensure that high school students do not have excess money to engage themselves in binge drinking. Also, some states have raised the taxes imposed on alcohol products to ensure that high school students cannot afford binge drinking. The measures of preventing binge drinking among high school students have been effective in recent years.

In summary, binge drinking is the practice of drinking several brands of alcohol products at one drinking session. For the male, binge drinking is defined as drinking five or more different alcohol drinks at the same time. For the female, binge drinking is the practice of taking four or more different alcoholic drinks at the same time. Binge drinking pattern is most preferred drinking pattern for high school students who consume alcohol. High school students who binge drink increase the binge drinking rates as they age and advance in their high school education. Binge drinking practice has adverse health effects to the high school students including death. Intervention strategies have been implemented to prevent and reduce the harmful practice of binge drinking among high school students.