Opinions And Interests On Alcoholic Beverages Consumption Among International Students

Literature Review

This report contains an analysis and evaluation of international students’ perspective and interest regarding alcoholic beverages consumption. Methods used include data analysis and literature reviews.

This report shows that the majority of international students in Australia have interest in alcoholic beverages and some making it as a lifestyle. The side effects of alcohol including passing out and emotional irritability do not become a major problem as they can drink responsibly.

The focus areas are:

• The frequency of having alcoholic drinks
• Emotional attributes
• Ability to control the drinking habit

The major participants are Monash College and University students, also outside students who currently live in Australia

The project occurred in Australia. The survey questions were shared and answered starting from 10 December 2018, and responses of the survey collected on 13 December 2018.

The results indicated that most students exercise responsible drinking especially after staying in university for more than one year. Moreover, most students engaged in alcohol consumption manipulation of their emotional attitudes when stressed up in college or during special occasions thus contributing to controlled drinking habits.

Alcohol consumption has become a lifestyle of most adolescents. Although it is very popular, the youths have different views of alcoholic beverages in terms of consumption and restriction. Among this emotionally unstable group of age, an alcoholic can become a threat in adolescents’ lives. Surprisingly, only a few of them reported bad experience due to alcohol consumption due to restrictions and knowledge of drinking responsibly. The aim of this survey is to determine opinions and interests on the alcoholic beverages consumption among the international students, which results can be used for businesses and further studies.

Some scholars have pointed out that one adult in two has been admitted into college or university education in the western countries (Brockett and Hiemstra, 2018). It has also been acknowledged that these students, in essence, referred to as freshmen by most colleges are usually exposed to transition period which comes along with changes in living arrangements, social activities, and groupings. However, these changes are often associated with risky behaviours such as consumption of excess alcohol among the students. Moreover, different literature reviews have indicated they sought to determine how the college environmental aspects have taken part in the shaping of the alcohol drinking habits among the college and university students (Tyler, Schmitz, and Adams, 2017).

For instance, a web questionnaire conducted by the Belgian University in 2010 with a 39 per cent participation of 7015 students examined the drinking behaviour, college environmental factors, the drinking norms, social involvement, and the positive drinking consequences (Jessor, Costa, Krueger, and Turbin, 2017). However, the findings indicated that the students had 1.8 per cent drinks on a single day on average with 2.9 episodes due to abusive drinking a month. The study established that the more the student was exposed to the college environmental factors, the more the chances of frequent, heavy, and abusive drinking. The consumption of alcohol was higher among the participants residing on campus than the commuters. These involvements attributed to social factors such as pre-partying, normative expectations, and college folk fare activities.

Methodology

Another study conducted by the Pennsylvania State University sampled varied views from their international students as the reasons why students involved in alcohol consumption to the following factors (Turrisi, 2009). A significant number of students from the data expressed that alcohol consumption is one of the ways of fitting in different situations such as missed work, failed courses, and general victimisation. Moreover, alcohol consumption was considered as a means to reduce stress. The international students lamented that at times adapting to the new environment is quite challenging where they experience cultural shock among other factors thus resolve to drink to lower stress and reduce the worries as supported by (Belhadi and Ayad, 2017).

Additionally, the respondents of the study associated drinking to helping the moods. They demonstrated that alcohol helps when one is feeling sad or stressed to lighten the moods and cheer up. Concisely, a great divide of the participants also acknowledged that drinking adds to a celebration of an event such as birthdays, an accomplishment of the semester or an academic year, welcoming the international students into the university, and after functions such as sporting activities among other activities. Another reason for drinking was the ability to express oneself among individuals. Some students expressed confidence afterwards such as talking to opposite members, which they say it is difficult without a few bottles of alcohol. (Sayette, 2017, pp.76-89) agrees with most of these findings as he elaborated that the international students who involve in alcohol consumption are less likely to be depressed than those who do not as he advocated for responsible drinking through his work.

The study utilised questionnaires to collect the data. Twenty-seven respondents who were mostly the international students in the Monash College and University volunteered to participate in the study, which took place from 10 to 13 December 2018. The questionnaires involved a series of 19 general questions that could not disclose the personal information of the participants, which took minimal time to fill to encourage more participation. However, before a respondent was interviewed, they were informed in advance about the purpose of the study to have a prior consent and the importance of the findings of the research as a code of ethics acknowledged by (Mumford, 2018, pp.513-516).

The approach used include both the quantitative and the qualitative data that was collected from the interview. The collected data was analysed and varied against the findings of the literature reviews to give inferences and insights on the views and the implications of alcoholic beverage consumption among college students especially the international ones. This was done through the web questionnaire survey technique that attributed to the minimal time taken for conducting the study as an advantage ascertained by (Brace, 2018). The data were evaluated using descriptive analysis method as explained below.

Results

From the analysis, 78.8 per cent of the participants were between 18-21 years while the rest were above 21 years with most participants being Indonesians by nationality. However, the study had more male participants than their counterpart female while a smaller percentage reserved their identity as illustrated in the graph below.

Figure 1: Percentage of respondents in the study by gender

The higher ratio of male to female was linked to a higher number of male students joining international universities than the women. This is in line with the studies of (Lombardo and Deaner, 2018, pp.91-119) who established that boys adapt faster to new environmental changes thus most male students travel for studies than female students.

Out of the 27 responses, 92.6 per cent claimed that they consume alcoholic beverages with those drinking more than three times a month registering 48.1 per cent followed by those who drink twice a month being 33.3 per cent as demonstrated below.

Figure 2: Frequency of alcohol intake

Those who consume more than three times a month drank alcoholic beverages every weekend while out with friends whereby they gave varied reasons. This attributed to addiction that leads to continual drinking among the students. Some of the reasons are depicted below.

Figure 3: Reasons for alcohol consumption

Additionally, this category claimed that 88.9 per cent of their peers perceived alcohol consumption as normal. This was claimed to be the potential reason why most participants, 59.3 per cent ascertaining that the alcohol consumers are not a threat in any way while 18.5 per cent had the opinions that the consumers are a threat in one way or another. The students claimed that most of them could control themselves after drinking thus perceived alcohol consumption as a normal thing to do as shown.

Figure 4: Participants who claimed drinking was normal

There were divergent opinions as to whether the government policies on alcohol consumption sufficient for enhancing responsible drinking. 40.7 per cent of the 27 responses ascertained that the government policies were sufficient and should be up held by the authorities. This contributed up to more consumption, as the policies could not limit the number of beverages taken as long as an individual was of the required age, above 18 years was considered as a responsible person for their own life.

Figure 5: Indicating whether the government policies were sufficient to monitor alcohol consumption

Conclusion

Whereas some participants claimed that the government policies are sufficient, they supported the idea of banning drinking from public areas. The divided opinion was due to the ease to access the drinks by the college students, which was 85.2 per cent from the responses. This was linked to an increased number of students taking alcohol as there are no stern restrictions towards drinking which promoted sales in the sector.

Figure 6: Ease of access to alcohol

The ease of access was the possible reason as to why most student engaged in binge drinking where 51.9 per cent of the respondents could take more than five drinks in a single sitting. Moreover, blackouts after drinking were common where 57.7 per cent acknowledged having experienced a blackout or passed out on several occasions. The analysis further indicates that the students claimed to function better or feel good after taking alcoholic drinks such warm body among others as shown below.

Figure 7: Percentage acknowledging better functioning after alcohol consumption

The allegation of better function and feeling good precipitated curiosity among most participants where the findings indicated 55.6 per cent of respondents were curious of the perception thus started drinking. Some claimed they were given by friends and influence from adults as shown in the pie chart below.

Figure 8: Means of how participants started consuming alcohol

On the other hand, 88.5 per cent of the respondents claimed they could stop drinking if they wanted to, seven participants representing 29.2 per cent claimed to have been violent or emotional due to drinking as depicted below.

Figure 9: Incidences of emotional and violent involvement due to drinking

Finally, 57.7 per cent of the respondents claimed that their family and friends have never been concerned about their drinking habits while 42.3 claimed their relatives, doctor, and friends have ever been concerned about their drinking habits.

Figure 10: Concern on the participants drinking habits

This reflects the level of parenting negligence and assumption that students joining colleges can take care of them. However, psychology scholars have insisted that those parents who make a follow up on their children in higher learning institutions are likely to raise a responsible generation than those who do not make a follow-up.  

Conclusion

The findings indicate that alcohol consumption is popular among the international students who have acknowledged that it has more advantages than the disadvantages. The study indicates that the students have indulged in drinking to relieve the stress and worries due to the social and cultural changes they had to undergo during their transition period in international and national colleges. The results showed a higher number of alcohol consumers are male and are more than those who do not drink.

However, both the findings of the literature review and the survey acknowledge that students involve in drinking to manipulate their emotional attitudes with a higher number being responsible consumers with the ability to control their drinking frequencies and habit. Most students claimed they occasionally took alcohol only during special events. However, in both studies, peer influence and curiosity are the main reasons among other social arrangements why students involve in alcohol for the first time, which turns into habits.

However, for future studies or guidance on similar studies, the Monash professional writers should consider using a bigger sample than the one used in this research. (Stone and Rosopa, 2017) Pointed out that a larger sample would help the researchers achieve more reliability on the findings, which could enable the interested parties to generalise the results or replicate them to another population. Additionally, allocating a longer time for research could help the professionals to attain an intensive engagement with the respondents and design of semi-structured questions for the collection of more insightful data on alcohol consumption (Coathup, Smith, and Boulton, 2017, pp.24-32). Moreover, more time could enable the researchers to obtain data from other colleges for comparative analysis thus achieving results that are more reliable.

Although the results indicate that most students are responsible alcohol consumers, parenting has been neglected among the university students that could help in increasing the percentage of responsible students who are getting prepared into adulthood via the university as seconded by (Karatekin, 2018, pp.36-45). This could help in the provision of counselling to the students as an option n of drinking when stressed up especially in foreign universities. Additionally, the government policies should limit the availability of alcohol consumption to university students especially those below 21 years as they are the larger group involved in drinking alcoholic beverages.  

References

Belhadi, F. and Ayad, S., 2017. Culture Shock Among International Students: A Case Study at The University of Tlemcen (Doctoral dissertation).

Brace, I., 2018. Questionnaire design: How to plan, structure and write survey material for effective market research. Kogan Page Publishers.

Brockett, R.G. and Hiemstra, R., 2018. Self-direction in adult learning: Perspectives on theory, research and practice. London: Routledge.

Coathup, V., Smith, L. and Boulton, M., 2017. Exploration of dietary patterns and alcohol consumption in pregnant women in the UK: A mixed methods study. Midwifery, 51, pp.24-32.

Jessor, R., Costa, F.M., Krueger, P.M. and Turbin, M.S., 2017. Problem Drinking in College. In Problem Behavior Theory and Adolescent Health (pp. 123-138). Springer, Cham.

Karatekin, C., 2018. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), stress and mental health in college students. Stress and Health, 34(1), pp.36-45.

Lombardo, M.P. and Deaner, R.O., 2018. On The Evolution of The Sex Differences in Throwing: Throwing is a Male Adaptation in Humans. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 93(2), pp.91-119.

Mumford, M.D., 2018. Psychology of the Informed Consent Process: A Commentary on Three Recent Articles. Ethics & Behavior, 28(7), pp.513-516.

Sayette, M.A., 2017. The effects of alcohol on emotion in social drinkers. Behaviour research and therapy, 88, pp.76-89.

Stone, D.L. and Rosopa, P.J., 2017. The advantages and limitations of using meta-analysis in human resource management research.

Turrisi, R., 2009. A parent handbook for talking with college students about alcohol.

Tyler, K.A., Schmitz, R.M. and Adams, S.A., 2017. Alcohol expectancy, drinking behavior, and sexual victimization among female and male college students. Journal of interpersonal violence, 32(15), pp.2298-2322.