Factors affecting level of alcohol consumption by students
The Effects of Alcohol Consumption and GPA on College Students in the US
Variable | VIF 1/VIF
————-+———————-
Age | 1.09 0.913478
Cost per drink | 1.07 0.936112
Drinking rate | 1.01 0.985858
Gender | 1.01 0.987843
————-+———————-
Mean VIF | 1.05
Alcohol consumption by college students has increased over the years and the behavior has lowered GPA in most colleges such as Harvard School of Public Health. Students are either heavy drinkers or occasional drinkers who take alcohol at least once a month. There are many factors that dictate the level of alcohol consumption and its effect on students GPA. The most common determiners of these behaviors are age, gender, cost per drink and drinking rate. All these factors play a significant role in the students concentration and class attendance, thus reflect on their academic performance. To determine the how these two concepts are related; alcohol consumption and GPA, a research that is SATA based is used to analyze how each of the alcohol determinates contribute to the level of alcohol consumption.
The first step of the experiment proved that the different variables contributed to the level of alcohol consumption. The highest variable that affected the level of consumption is student age, followed by cost per drink, then drinking rate and finally gender. Students’ age proved to have major effects due to the level of peer influence especially for first year college students. This was as a result of their high involvement in social activities and their struggle to fit in. The experiment also brought to light the fact that the cost per drink affected alcohol intake since students that had more money purchased alcohol more frequently. Drinking rate also reflected the amount of alcohol student consumed. This was clearly evidenced by the number of beer bottles that first year consumed. During the initial days of college life, students purchased beer according to the level of alcohol they can handle. However, more than 60% of the students purchased more than they could handle and this brought negative effects. Further, all the variables attained positive values after differentiation this meant that they all had significant influence on the amount of alcohol consumed.
The STATA experiment further proves that the level of alcohol consumption negatively affects GPA. The model represents a comparison of full time college students and their level of alcohol dependence. The equation that alcohol abuse equivalent to 7.7 percent of academic time spent by the student shows that alcohol affect the concentration of the students. The research also shows that student problems such as sexual assault are attributed by alcohol abuse. 62 percent of male students lay blame on alcohol for most misconduct. Female students on the other hand state that they had consumed alcohol before a negative act such as rape had occurred. Further, the research also reflected that new students especially those of lower age group were more likely to be influenced by alcohol because the behavior affects the way they adapt to college life.
The statistical significant of the research revolving around full time college students in Harvard College of Public Health is well portrayed by ratios and mean attained after computation. The ratios of al variables age, gender, drink number and cost per drink all provided a positive ratio of at least 1:2 when compared to the student GPA. The statistics was also useful since it compared the students capability based on age and academic background to academic performance, the conclusion is that the students that abused alcohol performed lower than expected even though there was a 0.0035 level of confidence.
While interpreting the experiment output we can pay attention to the magnitude given to each variable since they all have different levels of elasticity. Some variable are more elastic than others, meaning that some are likely to affect the research outcome more severely than others. For instance, the experiment shows that age is a strong factor which is quite influential in the behavior of students. First year students consumed more alcohol than the rest of the student. This is also the case when analyzing the third variable which is gender, male students consumed more alcohol than female students, and though the difference in their level of performance is not too pronounced, male students that abuse alcohol performed poorly while compared to female students that did. It is assumed that the difference in the two performances; female and male students is mainly on the level of alcohol that each abused. Further, the other two variables are also elastic to influencing student performance especially on long term bases. For instance, drinking rate which depicts the amount of alcohol a student takes and also the cost of drink which also influence the amount of alcohol that the student can purchase, show that in the long run the student is likely to increase the amount of alcohol in case their level of income increases as well as their tolerance.
In conclusion the STATA based experiment that relies on student age, gender, drinking rate and cost of alcohol proves that students alcohol abuse reflect in their GPA. Students who abuse alcohol more due to their age, gender and drinking rate are likely to have lower academic performance or GPA.
