Professor outlines strategies to study, treat alcohol abuse
Jeff Sullivan
Issue date: 11/6/07 Section: Campus
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The limitation of course with implementing a parent-based monitoring system is that there is no way to get reliable long-term data from the parents, because that would take a lifetime of study, Wood said.
Wood also said that the rate of heavy drinking increases dramatically when studying the fraternity and sorority life. He said that the combination of the ability to choose who hangs out with whom and the social situations that go along with Greek life complement each other to produce an environment where drinking heavily is not only accepted but highly encouraged.
"Greek involvement is consistently associated with higher levels of alcohol use among college students," he said. "Even people not directly associated with a fraternity or sorority and just attend the events are more likely to drink excessively than students with no Greek affiliation."
Wood said that there are about 1,700 deaths, 696,000 injuries and 97,000 sexually motivated assaults occurring each year with direct relation to alcohol misuse. He attributed these statistics to Ralph Hingson, Director of the Epidemiology and Prevention Research Division at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
"This is a time of life, inside of college and outside, where a lot of alcohol use and misuse is going on," Wood said. "Our interventions tend to focus on harm reduction outcomes, meaning that we are trying to reduce negative consequences during a developmental period of enhanced risk."
Mark Wood is actively involved in both the Transitions and the Common Ground programs at URI, through which he continues his research on alcohol-related problems.
Wood also said that the rate of heavy drinking increases dramatically when studying the fraternity and sorority life. He said that the combination of the ability to choose who hangs out with whom and the social situations that go along with Greek life complement each other to produce an environment where drinking heavily is not only accepted but highly encouraged.
"Greek involvement is consistently associated with higher levels of alcohol use among college students," he said. "Even people not directly associated with a fraternity or sorority and just attend the events are more likely to drink excessively than students with no Greek affiliation."
Wood said that there are about 1,700 deaths, 696,000 injuries and 97,000 sexually motivated assaults occurring each year with direct relation to alcohol misuse. He attributed these statistics to Ralph Hingson, Director of the Epidemiology and Prevention Research Division at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
"This is a time of life, inside of college and outside, where a lot of alcohol use and misuse is going on," Wood said. "Our interventions tend to focus on harm reduction outcomes, meaning that we are trying to reduce negative consequences during a developmental period of enhanced risk."
Mark Wood is actively involved in both the Transitions and the Common Ground programs at URI, through which he continues his research on alcohol-related problems.
