By Brittney Bruner
College attendance is most commonly associated with upward mobility in society as well as social growth. However, sociologists at Bowling Green State University found information that could contradict this association.
According to Tara Parker-Hope of the New York Times, the researchers found that college-bound students may have been less likely to participate in delinquent behaviors during adolescence, but college seemed to spark some “surprising changes.”
“When male students enrolled in four-year universities, levels of drinking, property theft and unstructured socializing with friends increased and surpassed rates for their less-educated male peers,” said Parker-Hope.
So, what causes this increase?
However, the reasons for such changes aren’t all that mysterious. College allows not only limitless freedom, but also lots of “unstructured social time,” whether it be in the dorm or in the fraternity house; college seems not only to extend the adolescent period when compared to peers their age that are forced to deal with more adult situations.
But it is ultimately left unclear throughout Hope’s article whether or not these non-attending students are living at home with their parents or on their own, left with fewer freedoms or fewer opportunities for new experiences.
Dr. Michael Cunningham, a communication professor at the University of Louisville, thinks that issues of delinquency are more complicated once a student reaches college and more rooted in individual and situational differences.
“College is a risk factor, with more access to more people,” said Cunningham.
However, Cunningham also said that students are open to “new ideas, new lifestyles, and new experiences” and “college students work out their own pathways,” ultimately making the bigger difference between “the well-advised versus the ill-advised” student.
“Freedom is an aspect that has a big impact,” said Cunningham.
But Cunningham is in opposition to Hope’s idea that kids who don’t go to college simply have to grow up more quickly.
“There is nothing un-lifelike about college,” said Cunningham. “It is a direct creation of those involved in it,” which he added makes it less phony than the outside world.
“It doesn’t make the outside more real,” said Cunningham, “just more restrictive.”
And Cunningham isn’t alone in this idea that the outside world is not only more restrictive, but lacking in freedoms that come with being a college student.
“I definitely think college students exhibit more bad behavior than in high school,” said sophomore nursing major Christen Dowell. “But I think it is caused by new temptations and fewer and personalities as well as past advising highly influence a student’s behavior in college. These factors also affect the behavior of college students and their non-attending peers.
“I think new students explore the new freedom they have and, in turn, they try new things and don’t know their limits,” said Shonna Paczosa, a junior nursing major and an resident assistant at Kurz Hall. “I think it’s also the parent’s responsibility to inform their kids about what is going to be out there because ultimately it is the student who makes the decisions.”
With the proper guidance and a little discipline, it seems that those attending college are able to avoid the wreckless behaviors.
“There are plenty of students who don’t fall into the bad behavior coming into college and they do just fine,” said Paczosa. “It all depends how much the student wants to succeed.”
