This study argues that late adolescence and early adult alcohol use along with binge drinking can be usefully conceived as a purposive action directed toward the pursuit of developmentally normative goals. As the text states; it is a particularly interesting time (transition to postsecondary education) to study risk behaviors such as alcohol use due to several factors. First, moving away from home to college leads to a dramatic change i

n the physical context and in normative expectations for social and academic behavior. Second, moving away from home leads to significant changes in opportunities in many domains, especially since their parents/guardians are not present and University administrators cannot care for each individual adolescent. This factor alone creates opportunities for potentially risky activities such as eating unhealthy foods, drinking excessively, using drugs and having risky sex. These independent living situations increase desires to experiment and be involved in risky situations since they are no longer being suppressed by a strict living environment.

Overall, I found this study intellectually stimulating, especially since I can relate, being a college student and using alcohol on a time to time basis. There are a few factors I think may have affected this study; one being it was done in the first week of the semester. Students at this time have no intense school work. They are also away from home and this new environment alone; being around hundreds of adolescence their age, promotes drinking in its self. Another factor is that this study was done in Canada. There the drinking age is younger and the consumption of alcohol by adolescents or young adults is more widely accepted compared to America. I would have liked this study to have taken more into consideration the psychological effects the media had on adolescent alcohol use and binge drinking. The advertising of alcohol is everywhere now, magazines, television, the movies, radio its everywhere all the time. This affects the psyche of adolescents and young adults, with alcohol companies and advertisements making alcohol seem to be a safe and fun alternative to being sober. Commercials are filled of young adults laughing, smiling, and having nothing but fun on television, hence adolescents relate this with the consumption of alcohol. Alcohol today is a problem in our country and the media is doing nothing but making it worse, and diminishing the youth and innocence of adolescents.

Personal Goals: Students we asked next to rate the importance of achieving certain goals during the upcoming school year. Three categories of goals were assessed: Social Goals, Academic Goals, and Health Goals. Possible responses ranged from 1= not at all important to me to 5= very important to me.

Beliefs About Drinking Alcohol: Participants indicated how fun and risky they thought it was to drink alcohol. These two single-item measures ranged from 1= not fun at all to 4= very fun and from 1=not risky at all to 4= very risky.

The action perspective assumes that human development is initiated and directed by the intentions and goals of developing individuals. That is, humans shape their own development through goal-directed action (Silbereisen and Eyferth, 1986). Thus drinking can be viewed as rational, goal-directed action. ‘The present study viewed students alcohol use as a purposive behavior direc

Some topics in this essay:
Canadian American, Canada Alcohol, Silbereisen Eyferth, Discussion Overall, Participants Procedure, Donovan Costa, Research Peer, Planned Alcohol, Emotional Tone, Presson Sherman, binge drinking, alcohol binge, alcohol binge drinking, actual drinking, goals beliefs, belief drinking, health goals, risk behavior, drinking alcohol, goals health goals, psychosocial adjustment, alcohol participants, academic goals health, fun strongly related, extent psychosocial adjustment,