Consumption Presumptions

Grant bolsters efforts to educate about excessive drinking

February 6, 2007

Students serve up delicious beverages at a non-alcohol event sponsored by Public Safety.

At first glance, the man whose office walls are adorned with cult-horror movie posters hardly seems like a licensed psychologist who studies the serious challenges of substance abuse. Yet like many of the issues he tackles and helps others deal with, John-Paul Checkett, associate director of the Counseling Center, is complex and multifaceted.

Checkett's fun side helps bring balance to his image and mission of developing and implementing effective strategies, based on research, to counter alcohol and drug misuse and its attendant consequences on the Dickinson community.

Because of his efforts, Dickinson has received, for the second year in a row, a grant from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, which regulates the alcohol-beverage industry in the state. The grant is intended to fund a variety of education, training and research strategies that support efforts to limit underage and high-risk college drinking.

"The grant is not given to us to 'solve' the problem of substance misuse," Checkett makes clear. "The goal is to educate and mobilize the broad range of stakeholders in the Dickinson and Carlisle communities about the problems and impact of substance misuse and adopt best practices to create an environment that can better manage it."

Perception and reality

Results from the Core Alcohol and Drug Survey, which the grant helps fund, illuminate the gap between what students think is common behavior and what is actually happening. The survey attempts to measure alcohol and other drug use among college students and to understand their attitudes and perceptions about substance use and abuse.

The survey, administered at Dickinson last spring, showed that 27.9 percent of respondents do not consume alcohol and that 23 percent had not had a drink in the last 30 days.

"The survey undermines the belief that everybody here drinks regularly," says Checkett. "This is important because our behavior tends to be influenced by what we consider normal. If students consider drinking to be the norm, then they are more likely to choose to drink than to abstain."

Yet the survey also found that 53 percent of respondents reported binge drinking (consuming five or more drinks in one sitting) during the previous two weeks. The national average among colleges participating in the survey was 47 percent.

"The reality is that most students, about 85 percent, behave responsibly and in a way that does not bring them into the disciplinary system. But a substantial minority of students is actively involved with alcohol, and other students don't confront them about it, even when it is obviously a problem," notes Checkett.

The perfect developmental storm

The combination of adolescence and pervasive social attitudes about drinking produces a lethal psychological cocktail for many students. Drinking is seen by many college students as a rite of passage and a way of testing limits and their newfound freedom. Moreover, in the United States, young people are often "socialized" into the use of alcohol by other adolescents; this contrasts with some other cultures, where young adults' initial drinking experiences are in social settings where older adults can monitor and discourage excessive drinking.

Along with these factors, "research also shows that adolescents have 'knowledge deficits' when it comes to weighting the consequences of certain high-risk behaviors," Checkett points out. "They will take chances that older adults will not."

Further exacerbating the situation is the fact that, in our society, alcohol is often an all-purpose excuse for bad behavior, making it easier not to take responsibility for personal actions.

"When you put these all together, you can get very bad consequences, like when sex and alcohol meet. Alcohol gives some young people a false sense of reality in romantic situations and can lead to sexual assault," Checkett says. "Eighty-five percent of rapes are acquaintance rapes and, in many of these cases, drinking is involved."

A culture of accountability

On the flip side of personal freedom is individual responsibility, Checkett makes clear. "In a small community such as ours, your behavior affects others. We give people the information to make responsible choices and then hold them accountable for their actions."

"Perhaps many students don't appreciate the position the college is in," he adds. "We are required to enforce the laws and demonstrate that we are doing so. There also are liability issues for the college."

As in so many other areas, Dickinson is ahead of the curve in trying to implement workable policies to deal with underage and high-risk drinking. "We focus on public safety and use 'proportional response' as a criterion for how to deal with various situations," Checkett points out.

In addition to enforcement strategies, the grant provides funding for creative ideas to build a better community environment. Non-alcohol events, such as Midnight Movies, can discourage alcohol consumption during high-risk hours and provide a social function with wide appeal.

While Checkett likes thinking about such fun events—especially given his own status as a cult-horror fan—he understands the need to couple choice and responsibility. "Substance misuse is a serious matter. One of the best things we can do for students is to impose what are relatively small costs on them now so that they can avoid more serious consequences later."