International students consume alcohol – Term Paper

Restatement of the research objective

The research focuses on drawing a comparative analysis between Australian and the international students’ drinking habits. Overall, the data shows that overseas and Australian student’s consumption of alcohol is quite different. As this research shows, on average both international male and female students consume alcohol at least once a month. On the other hand, the Australian students drink alcohol mainly two days a week. In addition, beer is the conceivably the most common drink among the international students while brand choice is evidently differentiated among the Australian students. The majority of Australian female students consume bottled wine while their colleague males predominantly drink beer irrespective of their alcoholic strengths.

Research findings

From the data obtained in this study, the first finding is that that alcohol is definitely the highest indulgence drug among both Australian and the international students. Beers and spirits account for the highest proportion of alcohol used by the international students while higher incidences of bottled spirit use and beer drinking is reported among Australian female and male students respectively. Most male international students drink at least twice a week while international female students only drink occasionally. Conversely, a greater proportion of the Australian students drink mainly two days a week. One probable reason for higher incidences of alcohol use among male than female students is the contemporary youth mentality that associates drug use with masculinity. Moreover, the society assigns females the role of caregivers hence they embrace sobriety early enough in their life.

The second finding of this research is that taste of drink highly influences the brand relished by the international students than it is the case with Australian students. While both the male and female the international students exhibit an almost equal liking for beer, the Australian male students are common drinkers of wine while females relish bottled wine. Therefore, it .means that beer has the most favorable taste than all the other drinks that the international students choose from. On the other hand, there is a marked difference between the drinking of alcohol among international and the Australian students. The probability that psychological attunement of the females towards details such as taste and brands is higher than that of the males. Therefore, males would only consider a few factors before settling on a brand of choice as opposed to the females.

While disposable income among the Australian students is the most important determinant of their respective drinking habits, taste is the most significant determinant of the brand choices among the international students. Due to the differential prices of various types of wine, its use among the Australian students is the most segmented with lower income students less predisposed to drinking cask wine than the medium to high income ones. Price only has an overreaching influence on the brand choices of the international female students. The most plausible reason for the influence of pricing in the Australian students’ choice of alcohol brand is their limited income. However, overseas students mainly come from affluent backgrounds thus are able tis sustain their alcoholic lifestyles devoid of price limitations.

This research determines that a larger proportion of female international student drinkers consume alcohol at least once a week, at least once a month and less than once a month as compared with their male counterparts whose drinking habit is not dependent on time factors. The international male students drink alcohol at least twice a week is higher than female. These findings indicate the high levels of caution that female international students employ to prevent binge drinking or becoming alcohol addicts. Drinking of beer among the Australian male drinkers is differentiated into cohorts with decipherable differences in brand choices between baby boomers, generation X and generation Y. While age is not a determinant in the international student’s brand choices, it is significant among Australian drinkers with baby boomers males drinking more spirits that beer. Among the international male and female students, beer is universally extensively drunk than any other brand irrespective if the drinker’s age. The choice to drink only occasionally reflects the resilience of both the international and Australian female students to the effects of group pressure compared to their male counterparts. In addition, the higher rates of drinking among both overseas and Australian male students can be attributed to the fact that males are more susceptible to group influence, especially with respect to drug use than the females are.

Limitations and recommendation of the study

The research does not provide personalized information that influence differential alcohol use among the international male and female students respectively as it does for the Australian. Factors such as societal expectations and resistance to peer pressure among female students would be rather compelling assertions of the research.  Therefore, future research should focus on the social factors that influence the differentiated drinking trends between Australian and overseas students.