Students drink more and more often if living in coed dorms

Ashley Villanueva
Blog #7

This article was taken from usatoday.com. A new study found that when compared to single sex college dorms, students living in coed dorms are more likely to drink alcohol on a regular basis. It also found that they are two and a half times more likely to drink to excess every week. More recently, dorms have become coed and only about 10% of dorms are still single sex. In this study 510 students were surveyed that lived on five different campuses. Out of these students 87% lived in coed dorms. The students living in coed dorms were more likely to say they drink alcohol at least once a week and excessively. Forty one percent said they binge drink compared to seventeen percent in single sex dorms. This coincides with another study done by the Harvard School of Public Health that found that 44% of students attending a four year college binge drink.
This is an example of social control because the environments these students are in are controlling their behavior. The environment of living in a coed dorm has fueled their need to drink more. I think this is because they want to fit in with the other people and drinking will help them to be more social. Many people meet each other and college parties and the majority of them are drinking. It’s the pressure of being liked and “cool” that controls these students to drink in order to do this. In single sex dorms there isn’t as much pressure to meet someone so there isn’t as much drinking.