Literature Review #3

1. Visual: Bruce Bartholow, author

2. Citation of Article:

Bartholow, Bruce D.; Sher, Kenneth; Krull, Jennifer. HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY; NOV, 2003, 22 6, p616-p626, 11p. Changes in Heavy Drinking Over the Third Decade of Life as a Function of Collegiate Fraternity and Sorority Involvement: A Prospective, Multilevel Analysis.

(A reference from my last Literature Review, The influence of fraternity and sorority involvement: a critical analysis of research)

3. Summary
This article talks about fraternity and sorority drinking in correlation with the fact that even though being involved in greek life is a huge risk factor for heavy drinking, these researchers think that this may stop after the college years. Models for heavy drinking and its heath risks are discussed in the article along with the fact that heavy drinking percentages of age groups drops off after 30, which intrigues these researchers. 

4. Authors

Bruce Bartholow has done a lot of relevant work related to aspects of social cognition relating to alcohol involvement and how environmental factors and individual differences such as alcohol sensitivity contribute to alcohol involvement in young adults. 

Kenneth Sher is a professor that studies substance use disorders (particularly alcohol dependence) across the life span of college students. He is a director  of the Alcohol, Health, and Behavior Project a high-risk, prospective study of a cohort of college students and alcohol.

Jennifer Krull's research is primarily focused on the development, application, and extension of multilevel random coefficient models in the social sciences. She helped to study the models of exactly why certain people have different effects to social involvement with alcohol.

5. Key Terms

Maturing Out- a term used to describe a pattern that shows alcohol use generally tends to increase during late adolescence, peak during the early twenties, and decline thereafter.

emerging adulthood- defined as the period following adolescence and preceding later adulthood, between approximately ages 18 and 25, distinguished by relative independence both from adult social roles and responsibilities and from the societal norms related to career and family faced by individuals in later young adulthood. This time period is also characterized by increased alcohol use.

6. Quotes

"Findings indicated that although Greek members consistently drank more heavily during college, collegiate Greek status did not predict postcollege levels of heavy drinking (after controlling for freshman year heavy drinking levels). Sher interpreted these findings as evidence that the social environment plays a key role in determining heavy drinking among Greek members."

"If, as we have argued, the central issues in determining heavy drinking among those in the Greek system are socialization factors, then those who spend the most time in and are most involved with the social environment of the Greek house should be more strongly influenced by those factors than those who are less involved. To the extent that Greek involvement serves as a risk factor for heavy drinking, increased exposure might be associated with increased risk."

"Theories related to the development of alcohol and other drug use throughout adolescence and emerging adulthood provide several plausible explanations for the changing heavy drinking trajectories noted here. For example, when viewed from a social control theory perspective (e.g., Shoemaker, 1990), the most important determinants of heavy drinking are environmental or structural influences such as neighborhoods, family structure, and the availability of alcohol."

7. Value

This article adds value to my research because of the amount of models and the comparisons it gives. The authors provide in depth research on the relationship between factors of alcohol sensitivity, age group, amount of involvement in greek life all compared to amount of alcohol they typically consumer. This will help me to dive deeper into why greek life primarily always involves alcohol in their ritual processes even when they know it's detrimental.