2008 Woodie Awards
As students mature, drinking habits change
Erica Flint
Issue date: 11/1/07 Section: News
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(U-WIRE) OXFORD, Ohio -- At age 16 students get their first taste of freedom -- their driver's license.
At age 18 students receive affirmation of their freedom -- they are labeled legal adults and given the right to vote.
However, some would argue that it is not until students hit age 21 -- and are given the right to legally consume alcohol -- that they actually begin to act like an adult.
Twenty-one can, by all accounts, be considered a rite of passage in the United States.
Oxford Police Department (OPD) Detective Sgt. John Buchholz has witnessed 32 years of activity in Oxford, and he has found that student's drinking patterns seem to change when they hit that magic number 21.
"The last day you are going to be 'wild' is on your 21st birthday," Buchholz said. "Society said 18, you are an adult, but in college the real rite of passage is 21, that's when you start acting like an adult."
Miami University senior Lindsay Hamilton believes that her drinking habits have changed since she turned 21.
"I rarely pre-game now," Hamilton said. "After I turned 21 I started to pre-game less and go out earlier."
Hamilton went on to explain that since she became of age she probably goes out on more occasions during the week.
Her observations are backed up by "Environmental Correlates of Underage Alcohol Use and Related Problems of College Students," a study done by Henry Wechsler, Meichun Kuo, Hang Lee and George W. Dowdall, published in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine in 2000.
The study shows that of age students tend to drink on more occasions then underage students, but when underage students do drink, they consume more drinks.
"I go out more because I can, I don't necessarily have to drink a lot," Hamilton said.
Leslie Haxby McNeill, acting director of health education at Miami, agreed that some research indicates a change in drinking habits of students as they age.
"What some of the surveys I have seen indicate is that drinking patterns change between freshman and senior year," Haxby McNeill said.
At age 18 students receive affirmation of their freedom -- they are labeled legal adults and given the right to vote.
However, some would argue that it is not until students hit age 21 -- and are given the right to legally consume alcohol -- that they actually begin to act like an adult.
Twenty-one can, by all accounts, be considered a rite of passage in the United States.
Oxford Police Department (OPD) Detective Sgt. John Buchholz has witnessed 32 years of activity in Oxford, and he has found that student's drinking patterns seem to change when they hit that magic number 21.
"The last day you are going to be 'wild' is on your 21st birthday," Buchholz said. "Society said 18, you are an adult, but in college the real rite of passage is 21, that's when you start acting like an adult."
Miami University senior Lindsay Hamilton believes that her drinking habits have changed since she turned 21.
"I rarely pre-game now," Hamilton said. "After I turned 21 I started to pre-game less and go out earlier."
Hamilton went on to explain that since she became of age she probably goes out on more occasions during the week.
Her observations are backed up by "Environmental Correlates of Underage Alcohol Use and Related Problems of College Students," a study done by Henry Wechsler, Meichun Kuo, Hang Lee and George W. Dowdall, published in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine in 2000.
The study shows that of age students tend to drink on more occasions then underage students, but when underage students do drink, they consume more drinks.
"I go out more because I can, I don't necessarily have to drink a lot," Hamilton said.
Leslie Haxby McNeill, acting director of health education at Miami, agreed that some research indicates a change in drinking habits of students as they age.
"What some of the surveys I have seen indicate is that drinking patterns change between freshman and senior year," Haxby McNeill said.
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