Fromme, K. Wetherill, R.R., &Neal, D.J. (2010).
Turning 21 and the Associated Changes in Drinking and Driving After Among College Students. Journal of American College Health, 59(1), 21-27.
The author’s main arguments in this article are examining the idea of drinking and driving before and after turning twenty-one. Participants were drawn from first year college students and examined for four years. The key questions in this article are: Do students who have had a drink before college become more of a risk? And if so are they more likely to get behind the wheel of a vehicle? The conclusion of this article suggest that prepartying is the greatest problem for underage drinking whereas the driving after drinking is the most evident problem for legal-age drinkers. The researcher collected the information through using data by calculating the frequency (how often) of the student’s ages eighteen to twenty-three drank and also the quantity. Researchers found out that driving occurred on 8.7% of occasions two weeks before the student turned twenty-one.
About 15% of students who have already turned twenty one were driving after drinking two weeks after there twenty first birthday. Among the 1,817 students that participated in the study age range eighteen to twenty three there frequency and quantity went up from the ages eighteen to twenty one but the amount they consumed per occasion decreased between ages twenty-one and twenty three. Among the 224 students who turned twenty-one there was a six percent increase of driving after drinking which came out to a relative seventy-two percent increase. The author also states that prior to twenty-one binge drinking, pregaming, and drinking rapidly are problems to students because this increases the blood alcohol content of students which is a risk to alcohol poisoning. Students that have turned twenty-one or older the rates of these methods to drink faster has decreased. Reaching the legal drinking age has decreased the amount of alcohol consumption but on the other side increases the rate of driving after drinking.
Wechsler, H., & Nelson, T.F. (2010).
Will Increasing Alcohol Availability By Lowering the Minimum Legal Drinking Age Decrease Drinking and Related Consequences Among Youths?. American Journal of Public Health, 100(6), 986-992. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2009.178004.
The author’s main argument in this article is that changing the drinking age will still bring along consequences to students or teenagers health. The key question in this article is: Whether drinking at ages either eighteen or twenty-one is the more suitable age for responsibility of this privilege? The risk factor for either age plays a significant role is the determination of which age should be tolerable. Researchers of this article collected past information about the history of when the drinking age was eighteen and also discusses the problems that arise with binge drinking prior to twenty-one, the now present-day legal drinking age. Researchers also collected data that showed the number of alcohol related motor fatalities ages sixteen to twenty four from the year 1982 to 2007. Other things that researchers analyzed were the minimum drinking age among college students. Results like two in five student have been binge drinking every two weeks and about three quarters of college student drank in that same year. Various school policies are created to enforce the drinking age to make the students aware that they are not aloud to drink if they are not of age. Conflicting studies of whether the age should be eighteen or twenty-one have both been found, as too which is the safer route to take.
Windle, M., & Zucker, R.A. (2010).
Reducing Underage and Young Adult Drinking: How to Address Critical Drinking Problems During This Developmental Period. Alcohol Research & Health, 33(1/2), 29-44.
The author’s main argument in this article is that the pattern of alcoholism can be present if the drinking age was lowered. Some of the key questions of the article are: Why does the Drinker start when they do?, Why do some youth cross that threshold before others?, Do the factors of the unrelated by a factor in drinking?. A series of data was collected to explain and clarify the genetic and environmental influences that can be present if the age was lowered. Cognitive development is not fully processed until mid-twenties making the age during adolescence years can make the young adult to fall into alcohol-dependency. Research in the article shows that the amount of drinking between the ages eighteen and twenty are far worse than any other age. Family history of alcoholism is another factor that plays an important role in the article. Researchers state that if the young adult starts indulging at an earlier age they are most likely to become alcohol-dependent. Also in the article also states the problem of drinking versus the dropout rates among races. In the article the primary purpose is to explore the ramifications of drinking during adolescence versus Adulthood and the negative effect that are rooted from this.
Summary of Literature
An overview of literature reveals the impact of early adolescence and young adult life with the addition of the Drinking Age lowered. There are many ways that these adolescence and young adults can be influenced to indulge in alcoholic beverages. Whether it being motor-vehicle accidents to the amount of hospital visits or simply genetics the problem of lowering presents itself with various precautions
Fromme, K. Wetherill, R.R., &Neal, D.J main point to question the amount of college students that participate in drinking and driving and at what ages. The main focus was the amount of students that participated in binge drinking prior to their twenty-first birthday but than the decrease after they turned twenty-one. The amount of students who drove after their twenty-first birthday was increased by seventy-two percent. The article states that the more privileges given to the student the more he or she will break them. Students that are of age believe that it is right to drive just because of their age. Students who are underage participate more in rapid drinking which is dangerous. Overall, if the age were lowered, younger students younger and younger would try to drive after they have been drinking.
Wechsler, H., & Nelson, T.F. primary focus was to explain previous encounters of the drinking age when it was eighteen. Studies from the 1980s were in this article used to show past rules and ramifications of drinking during that time when it was legal for young adults. The main focus was to see If the availability of alcohol to eighteen year olds change and affect them in the future.
Windle, M., & Zucker, R.A. the primary focus of the article was the development of adolescence with the roots of alcoholism and how is could be changed if the drinking age was lowered. Health charts and surveys were used to show how if the student or young adult would starting drinking at an earlier age it would make them become alcohol-dependent and or give them health problems later on in life.
The overview of the literature reveals the constant negatives that are present if the drinking age was lowered. Studies show that motor-vehicle accidents, and health problems show the true problems of lowering the age.