Survey - underage drinking

1.Introduction


Are you under 21 years old? Do you drink alcohol although you are underage? What do you think about underage drinking? Should the law be changed? Today drinking by underage people is increasing, and also underage problems are increasing. Underage youths who drink alcohol have many problems normally, such as driving after drinking, fighting and skipping school. Although a lot of underage people know these facts, they still want to drink alcohol. This is a serious problem in society, because drinking alcohol has a bad effect on underage students.
In “Alcohol Use by Persons Under the Legal Drinking Age of 21” the author claims that “underage drinkers who drive after drinking are at greater risk of fatal crashes than older drinkers because of their lack of driving experience and over-confidence” (The NHSDA report, 2003 P. 1).
So it is dangerous to drink for underage youth because they have not completely grown up psychologically. Many underage people, however, are drinking even now, and problems also keep increasing. Whatever the nation decides, it is sure that underage drinking will continue.

2.Purpose

Our group, EAP1-A, decided to find out how people feel about underage drinking in Carbondale. I wanted to examine whether they drank when they were underage or not. Also I wanted to know the relationship between gender and when they started drinking.

3.Hypotheses

I had three hypotheses about drinking. First, I believed that males started drinking sooner than females. Second, I believed that males drink more than females. Third, I believed that both males and females would think that drinking should be legal for people who are over 18.

4.Methods and Procedures

Our group has 11, and were to ask 6 people each who were different gender and age. And we only were asking Americans. Also we decided to ask SIUC students. We prepared a survey that had nine questions. And the questions are really simple, so it was easy for respondents to answer the questions.

5. Data + Chart

connect here http://eap1.blogspot.com/2008/02/practice-survey-results_27.html

6. Results

In fact, SIUC students said they began to drink at over 21 years old. Thirty-two out of thirty-six, 88.8 %, started drinking over 21 years old. 88 % students drink who are male and 78.9 % students drink who are female. Most students who are both male and female are not binge drinkers. We found that females started drinking sooner than males. More than 80 % students (84.7 %) don’t think too much drink is a problem in Carbondale. 69.2 % students answered that the drinking age should not be lowered.

7. Conclusion and Discussion

I believed that students started drinking underage more than over 21 years old. But it is not true, because our survey showed that more of them started drinking at over 21 years old than underage. I could not believe that because I also used to drink when I was underage, so I thought people usually started drinking underage. And I was surprised because I didn’t know that females started drinking sooner than males. A more interesting thing was that there were not many binge drinkers here; I thought American people had a lot of parties. In Carbondale there were not many problems because of drinking alcohol, so results were the same as what I thought. Since I came here I thought the drinking age was so high, because in Korea we can drink if we are over 18 years old. However American people think different from what I think, so 69.2 % students said that drinking age should not be lowered.
If I get another chance to do this survey again, I want to ask more people who are over 21-year-old, because most students were 18 to 21-year-old. I think if I ask many people, results would be different from now perhaps. This time I was not polite when I asked to do the survey, because I was nervous. So I would be more polite if I could get the chance again.

8. Reference

Alcohol Use by Persons Under the Legal Drinking Age of 21. (2003, May 9). The NHSDA Report. Retrieved February26, 2008, from http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/2k3/underagedrinking/underagedrinking.htm

9. Appendix

Connect here http://eap1.blogspot.com/2008/02/practice-survey-results.html