THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL CAPITAL AND ALCOHOL USE American College Health Association Annual...

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL CAPITAL AND ALCOHOL USE

American College Health Association Annual Meeting, June 4, 2010

Julie A. WhiteNahoko Kawakyu O’ConnorUniversity of Rochester, Warner Graduate School of Education

About Us Julie

Health Education, Social Norms, Gender and Health

Critical Sociological and Multicultural Theories

Community Colleges Financial Aid Policy

Nahoko Financial Aid Policy Social and Class

Stratification and Reproduction

Assessment and Evaluation

Research Methods

About the Research Team

Margaret Yerdon, Ph.D. candidate

Andrew Wall, Ph.D.

Presentation Goals

Re-examination of current framework: Ideas to Consider

Idea to be Addressed Desired Learning

Alcohol has an under-articulated rationale for institutional

concern.

Examine and critique the primary rationale for alcohol as a

concern.

Alcohol use by college students is too often treated without specific higher education organizational

context.

Examine alcohol within higher education organizational and

cultural framework.

Alcohol in college has been overwhelmingly examined from a

medical or psychological perspective.

Examine alcohol from a sociological and political

viewpoint.

To consider how our legal, public health, and education rationale

for higher education action related to alcohol use might be

extended.

Propose an overarching social justice rationale for addressing

alcohol use in college environments.

Re-examination of current framework: Current Paradigms

Paradigm Description

Medical Model Physical and biological, individual

focused

Psychological (Psycho-social)

Attitudes, beliefs, cognitive function of individuals

Public Health Environmental - Prevention

Conceptual Framework: Social Justice

North, 2006

Conceptual Framework: Social Justice

* Alcohol consumption as a social justice issue:

Ensuring our institutions are just, equitable environments, rather than social structures that reify social inequities.

Re-examination of current framework: Reasons for Drinking

Conceptual Framework: Sociological Framework

Symbolic Interactionism

Social Capital Theory (Bourdieu, 1989)

Consider…

Social capital is “the thesis that privileged individuals maintain their position by using their connections with other privileged people” (Field, 2008, p. 31)

Re-Examining College Alcohol Consumption

Research Questions

Methods

Preliminary Results

The Students

N= 530; response rate= 47.41%1st year students Athletes Community College

students

Sex

Male

Female

39%

61%

56%

44%

23%

77%

Housing

On campus

Off campus

100%

0%

98.8%

1.2%

3.4%

96.6%

Employment

No employment

Part-time

Full-time

62.4%

37.6%

0%

20%

80%

0%

38.3%

44%

17.7%

Student Organization

None

Low

Moderate

High

11.4%

21.1%

53.7%

13.8%

14.5%

31%

42.5%

12%

86.8%

9.8%

2.9%

.6%

Are there differences and similarities in the different student populations in alcohol consumption and its role in accessing social capital?

Research Question #1:

Different populations

• Students who are in an NCAA team drink more than students who are not members of a NCAA sports team.

Drinks/week = 5.613 + 3.858 (athlete)

• Fraternity members drink more than non-members.

Drinks/ week = 7.126 + 14.124 (fraternity)

• Women have a significantly lower rate of alcohol consumption than men.

Drinks/week = 5.323 + 6.286 (men)

• Students at 2-year institutions report significantly lower alcohol consumption than students at 4-year institutions.

Drinks/week = 4.714 +4.045 (4 year institution)

Goal 3: Results Athletes report a significantly higher access to

social capital through alcohol consumption than those who are not part of this social network (mean = 3.89, s.d.=.893, t(293)=-5.26, p≤.001).

Members of community service organizations do not differ in their perception of access to social capital through drinking than non-members (mean=3.45, s.d.= 1.34, t(10.84)=-.45, p>.05)

Academic Greek organizations do not differ in their perception of access to social capital, but social Greek organizations report an increase in access to social capital through drinking.

Access to Social Capital

Research Question #2:

How does the consumption of alcohol in certain social networks allow members of the network to gain social capital?

In certain social networks (fields), there is a social norm (habitus) that alcohol consumption leads to increased social benefits and resources (capital).

There is a difference in perceived access to social capital between different types of social networks.

Using Social Capital Theory

Examples from the Data

Students revealed that the alcohol consumption of a prospective member was a notable factor of fit into the organization.

Data revealed that if students do not want to drink, they will not go to the parties where they know they are serving alcohol and choose to do something else.

It was understood that the norm of certain social spaces was to consume alcohol.

Alcohol use functions as a gatekeeper to social networks. Access to social group membership and benefit is at times restricted based upon self-commitment to non-use.

How do hegemonic notions of masculinity and femininity adhere within different social networks? (community college students)

Research Question 3:

Gender norms and age

There are no significant age-related differences in adherence to hegemonic gender norms for women. F(1, 102) = .003, p=.960.

Average hegemonic gender norms scores of men aged 17-24 (M=15.22 SD=2.16) are significantly different from the average hegemonic gender norms scores of men 25 and over (M=13, SD=2.00). t (27) =2.765, p =.010

Gender and amount of drinking

Women and masculine norms

Women and masculine norms

Implications

Practice of PreventionPractice of Prevention

Group level intervention, culture change (coalition building)

Need to be experts in student life

Prevention as dialogue

Reflective practice

Competence and expertise

Community organizing

Summary

Questions?

Contacts

Julie A. White julie.white@warner.rochester.edu

(585) 262-1665

Twitter: CCEdJWhite Nahoko Kawakyu O’Connor

nahoko.kawakyuoconnor@warner.rochester.edu

(585) 402-0678 Andrew F. Wall

afwall@warner.rochester.edu

References

Bourdieu, P. (1985). The social space and the genesis of groups. Theory and Society, 14(6). 723-744.

Bourdieu, P. (1989). Social space and symbolic power. Sociological theory, 7(1). 14-25.

Capraro, R.L. (2000). Why college men drink: Alcohol, adventure, and the paradox of masculinity. Journal of American College Health (48), 307-315.

Cooley, C. (1902). Human nature and the social order. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

Cooper, M.L. (1994). Motivations for alcohol use among adolescents: Development and validation of a four-factor model. Psychological Assessment, 6, 117-128.

Good, G.E., Schopp, L.H., Thomson, D., Hathaway, S.L., Mazurek, M.O., Sanford-Martens, T.C. (2008). Men with serious injuries: Relations among masculinity, age, and alcohol use. Rehabilitation Psychology (53)1, 39-45.

Lynch, S. (1990). Edgework: A social psychological analysis of voluntary risk taking. American Journal of Sociology, 95(4), 851-886.

Montemurro, B. & McClure, B. 2005. Changing gender norms for alcohol consumption: Social drinking and lowered inhibitions at bachelorette parties. Sex Roles (52)5/6, 279-288.

References

North, C.E. (2006). More than words? Delving into the substantive meaning(s) of “social justice” in education. Review of Educational Research, 76(4), 507-535.

Peters, B. L. & Stringham, E. (2006). No booze? You may lose: Why drinkers earn more money than nondrinkers. Journal of Labor Research, 28(3). 411-421.

Sheffield, F.D., Darkes, J., Del Boca, F.K., & Goldman, M.S. (2005). Binge drinking and alcohol-related problems among community college students Implications for prevention policy. Journal of American College Health, 54(3). 137-141.

Weaver, J. B., III, & Sargent, S. L. (2007). GRI-14: Gender Role Inventory (14 Items). In R. A. Reynolds, R. Woods, & J. Baker (Eds.), Handbook of research on electronic surveys and measurement (pp. 367-370). Hershey, PA: Idea Group Reference.

Wechsler, H., & Kuo, M. (2003). Watering down the drinks: The moderating effect of college demographics on alcohol use of high-risk groups. American Journal of Public Health, 93(11), 1929-1933.

Yeung, King-To, and Martin, John Levi. (2003). The looking glass self: An empirical test and elaboration. Social Forces 81 (3), pp.843-879.