COMMUNITY
IF YOU'RE CONCERNED THAT YOUR KIDS WILL ABUSE ALCOHOL WHILE AWAY AT COLLEGE, ENCOURAGE THEM TO VOLUNTEER. NEW RESEARCH SUGGESTS IT MAY DETER THEM FROM BINGE DRINKING.
Study co-authors Elissa Weitzman, Ph.D., and Ichiro Kawachi, Ph.D., both of the Harvard School of Public Health, looked at the relationship between "social capital"--measured as community commitment to volunteerism--and binge drinking on college campuses. Based on data gathered from 17,592 student surveys from 140 colleges across the country, the researchers found that students at schools with above-aver age levels of social capital were 26% less likely to binge drink than were students at schools with below-average levels. And while not as effective as a high community level of volunteering, individual volunteering decreased students' risk by 5%.
"The culture at high social capital schools may work to inhibit binge drinking," Weitzman explains. She believes there are a number of possible explanations for her findings, which appeared recently in American Journal of Public Health. In some instances, students at high social capital schools may experience less stress because they feel more connected to others and their community and therefore are less compelled to abuse alcohol. Alternatively, Weitzman suggests these students simply might not tolerate problem drinking.
