Still Pre-gaming Post-College?

While it is expected for students transitioning from high school to college to party hard and be influenced by their peers to drink, what happens after the four years is up?  Young adults are now supposed to have jobs and all sorts of responsibilities.  Well that is the plan, so most likely no more time for partying and getting totally wasted.  This particular transition phase that these young adults go through is called “maturing out,” this term is suggest that a developmental trend of alcohol use peaks during late adolescence and rapidly declines as students enter adulthood (Jochman& Fromme, 2010).  Students are expected to “mature out” of drinking habits and things but this is not an over night thing, the process is gradual. One thing to remember is that, not every college student experiences “maturing out” it heavily depends on who influences them to drink and the drinking habits that they developed their four years at school.

While they are young, peers highly influence each other and parents not so much, maybe parents push them more towards not drinking.  Studies show that over the years after students are done doing the college thing that their parents and immediate family members are more likely to influence their drinking habits.  Prior to college the drinking habit or attitude that their parents have towards alcohol predict drinking habits the student may develop during that transition into college.

The study was composed of males and females from all different ethnicities. The students were tracked biannually and they were asked to complete the Daily Drinking Questionnaire.  In the assessment they were asked to assess their drinking habits and then continue to on to report their immediate family members drinking tendencies. They did find that students who surrounded themselves with a peer group of heavy drinkers in college tend to have that same pattern after they graduate from college.

 ABSTRACT

Boyd, S. J., Corbin, W. R., & Fromme, K. (2014, September 1). Parental and Peer Influences on 

Alcohol Use During the Transition Out of College. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors