Alcohol and Learning

Have you ever wanted to come to class drunk so you can actually make it through the class? That class that is just so damn boring that you need that extra little “something” so you don’t go crazy? Yeah.. me uhhh… me neither. Well, coming to class drunk is most likely a terrible idea; if that was not already obvious. So, other than coming to class drunk, how does alcohol negatively effect your learning when drinking outside of class?

Starting off in high school, where many students start to drink; for whatever reason they decide to. Well, as a matter of fact, this is quite the bad idea (again, obviously). But why? A study conducted in 1993 by both Wolaver (2002) and William et al (2003) estimated the impact of drinking captured by the study hours and their GPA. “Both studies found that drinking had a direct negative effect on GPA and an indirect negative effect through reduced study hours” (Balsa, 2011). Alcohol inhibits your motivation and raises your distractibility. These two together are a bad combination for studying, as you begin to study less and less with the more you drink, allowing for higher levels of distractibility. Performance starts to go down and then the student’s grades start to suffer. Another study by DeSimone and Wolaver (2005) used a standard regression analysis to determine the connection between a person’s drinking habits and their GPA. “Their results showed that the GPAs of binge drinkers were 0.4 points lower on average for both males and females” (Balsa, 2011). DeSimone and Wolaver also found that the effect of alcohol and GPA peaked in students in the ninth grade.; the number declined thereafter. Drinking affected the students’ GPA more so by reducing the likelihood of high grades, rather than the likelihood of low grades.

Health is another big factor that comes into play with the effects of alcohol and learning. Alcohol deteriorates a person’s health, especially with long term hard drinking. Add Health, a nationally represented study that catalogues health related behaviors of children between the grades of 7 through 12, and their associated outcomes in young adulthood. The initial in-school survey was given out to 90, 118 students attending 175 different schools during 1994 and 1995. “From the initial in-school sample, 20,745 students (and their parents) were administered an additional in-home interview in 1994–1995 and were re-interviewed one year later. In 2001–2002, Add Health respondents (aged 18 to 26) were re-interviewed in a third wave to investigate the influence of health-related behaviors during adolescence on individuals when they are young adults” (Balsa 2011).  In short, the study showed the connection between alcohol, health, and GPA. When a student’s health starts to go down, the likelihood of that student attending school (for however long they are sick for) is low. Especially younger students, slackers, or depressed students who just want to get away. These students tend to find any excuse for why they “can’t” go to school. Hopefully it is not because they are hungover. That would certainly not be good.

So, why do people continue to drink so much when they know that it can negatively affect their learning? Sobernation, a site that is dedicated to knowledge about the effects of alcohol states the 7 common reasons why people drink; stress, peer pressure, fun, inhibitions, curiosity, preference, and accessibility. Stress is a major factor to why some people drink. “The alcohol numbs them to the various stressors in their life, such as work, school, relationships, money, etc” (Stoddart, 2013). Ironically, when people drink too much, they tend to make the problems that they are stressing over so much worse. This is because alcohol is a depressant and allows for emotions to be amplified. Even worse, there is a likely chance that the person could develop other problems, such as alcoholism.

References:

Balsa, A. (2011). The effects of alcohol use on academic achievement in high school. National Institutes Of Health.

Stoddart, T. (2017). Seven Common Reasons why People Drink | Sober Nation. Sober Nation. Retrieved 17 October 2017, from https://sobernation.com/seven-common-reasons-why-people-drink-alcohol/