Students often feel pressure to conform to their peers. Such feelings arise within college students who want to fit in on their campuses. They feel that they need to attend parties and drink excessively in order to achieve a complete “college experience” and establish connections to a community of their peers. This need to relate to their peers often causes them to succumb to peer pressure.

The same is true for students who abuse alcohol. Approximately 31% of US college students report symptoms of alcohol abuse (Juergens 2022). As defined by Harvard Health Publishing, alcohol use becomes alcohol abuse when a person’s drinking causes harm to themself and those around them (2014). A Johns Hopkins research study concluded that the most common form of alcohol abuse on college campuses is binge drinking (Clapp and Mcdonnel 2000). Binge drinking is defined by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) as having five or more drinks in a two hour period for men and four drinks in a two hour period for women. (Wrye and Pruitt 2017). Josephine M. Palmeri, a researcher at New York University, reported that 40% of college students binge drink on occasion, which is a far greater rate than that of their non-college peers (2022). This in part due to the fact that college life presents the opportunity to fall into alcohol abuse as there is easy access to alcohol, inconsistent enforcement of underage drinking laws, unstructured time, and limited contact with parents and adults (NIAAA 2019). The increasing reports of students falling victim to binge drinking is extremely concerning, especially considering that the majority of college students are below the legal drinking age. Furthermore, there are serious short and long term side effects of alcohol abuse. According to Doctor Misch M.D., alcohol can cause horrific events on college campuses including aggravation of campus-community relations, damaged personal relationships and reputations, academic failure, legal consequences, property damage, sexual assault, unintended and/or unprotected sexual intercourse, physical violence, accidents, injuries, and even death. Dr. Misch also found that from 1998 to 2005, unintentional deaths due to alcohol use among college students (ages 18-24) rose from 1,440 to 1,825 per year (2010). Additionally,  696,000 students are assaulted each year by another student who had been drinking (National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism 2019). Moreover, participation in binge drinking at young ages contributes to development of alcohol addiction and other alcohol related problems during later adult years (Wrye and Pruitt 2017; Crawford and Novak 2007). Clearly, the effects of alcohol abuse on college students are extremely harmful, even fatal, proving that this issue is a great problem in urgent need of solving. Despite being aware of all these consequences, college students continue to participate in excessive alcohol use as a result of conforming to numerous societal pressures such as predetermined social norms, the desire to belong, and peer influence.  

All students crave “the college experience” that is raved about by adult figures in one's life, glorified in tv shows, and displayed in movies. A big part of that expected experience is attending college parties - which leads to consuming alcohol. Although the “college experience” cannot be explicitly defined, a poll done by Vidya Pingali at Santa Clara University concluded that when asked to define the college experience, about 20% of students mentioned drinking alcohol (2017). Similarly, the Washington Square News, New York University’s Independent Student Newspaper, found that 27% of college students attend college with the intention to party (2020). Therefore, students are aware of the negative effects of binge drinking, yet dismiss them because it is what they expect of life at college. For example, in the study “Perceptions of Binge Drinking as Problematic among College Students'', participants communicated that they did not think binge drinking was problematic because it is a normal, expected behavior for college students (Wyre and Pruitt 2017).  The desire and expectation of drinking to achieve the “college experience” causes students to ignore their better judgment in order to conform to having a typical college life and ultimately fit in with their peers. Dr. Wrye and Pruitt B.S. described the college environment as a place where alcohol is normal and accepted, and students will be encouraged to continue or worsen their unhealthy drinking habits (Palmeri 2022). This acceptance of college drinking culture has caused binge drinking among college students to become normalized. In the aforementioned study conducted by Dr. Wrye and Pruitt B.S. at the University of Middle Tennessee, it was found that students about 20 years old believed that their peers drank about 5.9 drinks per sitting (2017). This means that most students believe they are constantly surrounded by binge drinkers, yet fail to be concerned by their behavior as a result of the normalized nature of alcohol abuse on college campuses. Consequently, students that choose not to participate in such drinking behaviors will feel isolated from their peers. Because students believe that college students are supposed to drink every weekend and they are constantly surrounded by people taking part in binge drinking, they conform to those notions in order to become socially liked, accepted, and relatable to their peers. 

Another important factor in the normalized acceptance of alcohol abuse is the glorification of excessive drinking in the media. For instance, social media depicts drinking in a positive light. Social media allows students to display themselves drinking to friends during all hours of the day. Research done by the NIAAA shows that college students who post on social media with references to drinking including drunken posts, blacking out, and partying, are more likely to engage in dangerous alcohol use then students who do not (NIH 2011). Furthermore, the American Psychological Association conducted a study that found that students who interacted with social media posts regarding alcohol use were more likely to engage in excessive drinking (2013). Along with social media, movies and tv shows show scenes that portray college parties in a light-hearted, fun manner. According to a study published in the National Library of Medicine, exposure to movies with positive associations of alcohol positively correlates with the amount of alcohol students drink (Wills et al 2010). Because movies present excessive alcohol use at colleges as harmless, students conform to those drinking habits. Overall, the romanticization of the “college experience” and drinking in the media contributes to the normalization and acceptance of unhealthy binge drinking habits which causes students to conform to such habits.  

Additionally, students’ tendency to drink excessively comes as a result of wanting to fit in. Students crave being liked and accepted, so they conform to their drinking habits of their peers to feel like they belong. The most common appearance of this factor is the fact that most students gauge the amount they drink by comparing themselves to their peers. Studies repeatedly demonstrate that students tend to believe that their peers are drinking more than they are, therefore justifying their actions. In reality, students are actually drinking more than their peers in an endless struggle to fit in on campus. (Wrye 2017; Crawford and Novak 2007; Palmeri 2022; Clapp and McDonnell 2000). For example, in the study done by Wrye and Pruitt, one student stated he used alcohol 3 times in the past month, but he believed that the typical college student had used it 9 times in the past month (2017). This student was under the impression that his drinking was acceptable due to the fact that he believed that his peers were drinking even more. Students’ tendency to overestimate the amount of alcohol consumed by others fosters the development of abusive drinking habits (Crawford and Novak 2007). 

Lastly, peer pressure is a driving factor in college students’ alcohol abuse patterns. Dr. Wrye and Pruitt B.S. asked students if they felt pressured by their peers to engage in unhealthy alcohol use. One student reported that many students drink simply because others around them drink (2017). As outlined by Palmeri, there are two kinds of peer pressure: direct and indirect (2022). Direct peer pressure includes being verbally and/or publicly encouraged by others to participate in the group’s activity-which in this case would be drinking. In contrast, indirect peer pressure, the most common type of peer pressure to appear in situations involving alcohol use on campus, includes the modeling of actions and perceived drinking norms (Palmeri 2022). In this case, this would include peers modeling excessive drinking and the perceived social norms surrounding alcohol abuse previously described. These forms of peer pressure entail students seeing their peers indulging in harmful uses of alcohol and feeling pressure to join them, as to not feel left out on campus. Moreover, giving into peer pressure, especially indirect peer pressure, is particularly common among college freshmen. Because first year college students must change from depending on their peers rather than their parents, they mimic their peers' actions to fit in on campus (Palmeri 2022; Wrye and Pruitt 2017). Consequently, freshmen are more likely to give into peer pressure in order to feel socially accepted and have an easier time transitioning to college life (Palmeri 2022). College students face intense peer pressure to conform to the drinking habits of their peers, often giving in to feel included. 

It is clear that college students face immense pressure to conform to their peers and develop habits of alcohol abuse. It is unacceptable that almost half of the college students in the United States participate in binge drinking on a regular basis. This is a serious problem with grave, tangible consequences. As reported in the New York Times, colleges stay away from interfering with students’ personal decisions because students are legally adults capable of making their own decisions (Mcmurtrie 2014). However, it is imperative that colleges do more to dissuade students from engaging in binge drinking and give them the resources they need to stay away from it as students face extreme negative consequences from binge drinking. 

One way to fight this practice is for colleges to provide better education on the consequences of excessive drinking. This method would be effective because students would truly understand the consequences of their risky behavior in contrast to the pressure they face to take part in such risks, giving them the tools they need to fight the pressures encouraging them to. In fact, studies show that college students who were aware and afraid of the negative effects of alcohol abuse were more likely to resist peer pressure (Crawford and Novak 2017). These programs would also correct misconceptions surrounding college drinking. As previously mentioned, college students often wrongfully perceive the amount their peers drink which contributes to the high amount of drinking they do themselves. By correcting these misconceptions, alcohol abuse rates should decrease. Of course, only the students who truly want to learn and want to make a change will allow themselves to benefit from this option. For example, students who participate in a Greek lifestyle place great value on their social image and would rather continue to partake in harmful behavior than lose their social standing.(Wrye and Pruitt 2017; Palmeri 2022). Therefore, simply implementing education programs will not be enough to persuade all students to stay away from alcohol abuse.  

No matter the approach, the campaign against alcohol abuse must be student led. The only way to persuade college students to stop drinking is to have the opposition come from peers rather than adults that students feel are out of touch (Musch 2010). An approach similar to the campaign against secondhand smoke could be applied to this situation. The campaign against smoking used the fact that smoking was harmful, not only to the smoker but the people around them, through the scientific research behind the negative effects of secondhand smoke. Along with making smoking out to be the nasty habit that it is, the campaign gave people around smokers the confidence to voice their opposition to it, causing smokers to decrease their smoking. These ideas can be implemented on college campuses by communicating to college students that their actions, when deeply under the influence, are harmful to those around them. This will in turn allow fellow students to express disapproval of their peers’ actions without fear of sticking out (Musch 2010). Through this method, the peer influence that causes alcohol abuse can be channeled into stopping it.