First-Person Language and the “Collegiate Drinking Problem”: Is a Problem a Problem Simply Because "Everyone" Says It Is?

In professional counseling the term “first-person language” refers to how a counseling professional refers to the individual being treated. Person-first language respects the fact that the person is not to be labeled as his or her diagnosis. For example, labeling someone as a diagnosis is to say, she is “a schizophrenic” or he is “an addict.” These forms of labeling are disrespectful to the individual. Person-first language is considerate and respectful. You are a person first, not the diagnosis you may have. For example, the person being seen is “an individual with a diagnosis of schizophrenia” or he or she is “a person with an addictive disorder.” Professionally, this translates into a clinical choice the counselor has to make: am I treating the diagnosis given to an individual I am seeing or am I treating an individual who happens to have a particular diagnosis?

In this post I pose the question: Does the fact that “some students choose to drink” and of these, “some" do so in a high-risk and dangerous ways that results in untoward consequences for themselves and/or others mean that “all” collegiate drinking is “the” problem that needs to be addressed in higher ed? Do not read more into this question than I intend...this is not a prelude to a piece on lowering the drinking age—I am pro-21—neither do I suggest that drinking is a “rite of passage” that all students should be permitted to enjoy; such would be totally naïve. What I do ask, however, is, as regards collegiate drinking, have we correctly identified who or what the focus is to which we should direct our attention and our resources?

Although a sizeable minority of college students choose not to drink—this number is estimated to be about 20% nationally—the majority acknowledge that they do, with perhaps 90%+ of college students in some geographic regions of the country admitting such. With “most” students acknowledging that they drink, at least occasionally, the bulk of the problems related to this collegiate drinking can be attributed to that heaviest drinking minority of collegiate drinkers, approximately 22% according to the Harvard School of Public Health reporting on its College Alcohol Study (CAS) referring to this group as “frequent binge-drinkers.” These are male students who consumes 5 or more drinks (4+ for women) during a drinking occasion at least twice during the two-week period prior to being surveyed. If we add to the “frequent binge-drinkers” those who “binge” only once in the two weeks prior to being survey, the number of collegiate drinkers in this group raises to approximately 44%, a sizeable increase—it doubles. This group accounts for almost all alcohol-related untoward incidents on campus and is therefore an important group to target with prevention and intervention efforts grounded in evidence-based “best practices.”

There is no doubt that these high-risk drinkers account for virtually all untoward incidents and this is cause for concern and represents a significant issue to address assertively. But the question remains, does this minority of student drinkers, however large, with its majority stake in the problems so frequently associated with collegiate drinking make “all” collegiate drinking “the” problem? This becomes a question of some significance when we consider the impact of an affirmative answer has on how policies are developed and where resources are allocated. This is not unlike suggesting that because some consumers eat an unhealthy diet, that fast food restaurants are the cause of heart disease and obesity or because some people commit crimes with guns, guns are the problem. NOTE: This does not mean there should not be gun control...there should. Likewise, this does not mean that I advocate deregulation of any and all industry...I believe that the absence of regulations is partly responsible for our current economic condition. Rather, the question I ask is: Is collegiate drinking “the” problem or is it the way some collegians drink that constitutes the problem?

To return to my opening analogy regarding “first-person language” and its impact on how individuals in counseling are viewed and, as a result, how they are treated...if we consider higher education “the individual,” is “collegiate drinking problem” the diagnosis by which we refer to it or do we recognize that some collegians who choose to drink have a problem and it is that problem that we need to address?

If interested you can read much more on this topic in my monograph, “When They Drink: Is Collegiate Drinking the Problem We Say It Is?” at http://www.rowan.edu/cas/resources/documents/CollegiateDrinking.doc.doc