Alcohol And Safety

Running Head: Alcohol and Safety

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Executive summary:

Alcohol consumption affects coordination, accuracy, reduces the ability of an individual to acquire information from more than one source and memory loss. Chi square and correlation tests show that who feel that their safety is important go out less frequently and that are less likely to be involved in accidents. Further tests show that there is no association between age and alcohol consumption frequency. Tests also show that there exist no association between gender and alcohol consumption frequency, this means that frequency of alcohol consumption doe not differ with reference to age and gender.

1) Contents:

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2) Introduction

3) Literature review

4) Methodology:

5) Results and description of the data

6) Discussion and interpretation

7) Conclusions

8) Bibliography

Introduction:

This paper reports the results of a study aimed at determining the effect of alcohol on safety, data was collected from 75 respondents using questionnaires, all complete questionnaires were compiled and data analysed using SPSS. Statistical test of association and correlation were also undertaken to establish the relationship between variables included in the study using SPSS.

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The impact of alcohol on behaviour of individuals has been studied by a number of scholars including Begley (2000) who studied the effect of alcohol on brain development. Other studies such as Mitchell (1985) concentrated on the immediate effect of alcohol; the following is a discussion of some of the studies undertaken regarding effects of alcohol.

Literature review:

Begley (2000) in his study on brain development found out that the teen brains are not usually fully developed, development of parts of the brain that guide self control, judgement, organisation and emotions occur between the age of 13 to adulthood and this explains why individuals at this age are poor decision makers and sometime reckless, the impact of alcohol consumption at this alcohol will therefore be more undesirable than the impact on adults. (Act for youth, 2002)

During this age there is an increase in the production of brain matter, pruning then occurs where parts of the developed parts that are not used wither, this process strengthens connections of parts of the brain used often and this makes the brain more efficient. Therefore this process is crucial to development of the brain which will serve an individual for the rest of their lives, Giedd (2002) refers to the pruning process as hard wiring of the brain, and therefore individuals at this age should make decisions on whether to hardwire the brain for drinking alcohol or other useful activities. (Act for youth, 2002)

Mitchell (1985) states the immediate effects of alcohol consumption include impaired coordination especially when tracing moving objects, Other impacts of alcohol consumption on the brain are that alcohol reduces the ability of an individual to acquire information from more than one source, and that it also affects the accuracy when undertaking tasks. A study by McFarland (1980) showed that individuals will experience memory loss which may occur when alcohol is consumed in high dosages, individual will find it difficult to process and recall events that occurred and finally alcohol reduces self consciousness and therefore individual behaviour changes.

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Another study on the impact of alcohol on cognitive control and memory was undertaken by Cohen (1999); results showed that there was a significant difference in the mean response time to complete a task when one is under influence of alcohol. Another study by Steinmetz (1999) showed that there was a significant decline in accuracy when individuals were under influence of alcohol.

Methodology:

A total of 75 individuals were randomly selected from York St John and York University, All respondents were above the age of 18 years and questionnaires were used to collect data, the questionnaire was aimed at finding out the number of respondents who believe they are totally sensible when under the influence of alcohol, The number of respondents who get taxis or walk home and The number of respondents who cannot remember what they did when they drink alcohol

Other questions were also aimed at establishing the number of respondents who suffer injuries or loose property, the number of respondents who think of the consequences before they do things, how respondents think their night would be without alcohol, why individuals drink alcohol, how respondents feel after drinking alcohol, the age of respondents and gender.

Collected data was then analysed using SPSS, measures of central tendencies of data, dispersion, mean differences, chi tests and correlation test were undertaken to test whether alcohol affects the important decision to be safe.

Results and description of data:

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This section describes the main findings of the studies including percentages and frequencies for each variable.

Gender:

Out of the 75 respondents 56 or 74.7% were female while only 19 or 26.3% were male; the pie chart below shows the distribution by gender

This shows that the majority of the respondents were female

Age:

With reference to age majority of the respondents (76%) were aged between 18 to 21 years, 8% were aged 26 years and above and 16% were aged 22 to 25 years, the chart below summarises the results:

The pie chart shows the distribution by gender, and from the chart majority of the respondents were aged 18 to 21 years.

Importance of safety:

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Respondents were asked to rate the importance of their safety, majority (48%) rated their safety as very important whereas only 2.7% rated their safety as less important, the bar chart and table below summarises the results:

Safety

Frequency

Percent

Cumulative Percent

Valid

not important

2

2.7

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2.7

2.00

4

5.3

8.0

3.00

11

14.7

22.7

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4.00

22

29.3

52.0

very important

36

48.0

100.0

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Total

75

100.0

From the chart the distribution is skewed to the left meaning that the majority of the respondents rated their safety as important.

Alcohol consumption per week:

Respondents were also asked to state the number of times they went out per week, the chart and table below summarises the results:

Number of times per week

Frequency

Percent

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Alcohol and Safety

Cumulative Percent

Valid

once

8

10.7

10.7

2-3 times

29

38.7

49.3

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3-4 times

32

42.7

92.0

more

6

8.0

100.0

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Total

75

100.0

From the chart majority of the respondents went out 2- 4(81.4%) times per week with only 10.7% or 8 respondents going out once per week, 6% went out more than 4 times per week.

Purpose of drinking alcohol:

Respondents were also asked to state why they drink alcohol, 57.3% stated that they drunk alcohol for fun while 6.7% of the respondents did not drink alcohol. The table and chart below summarises the results:

Alcoholic drink

Frequency

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Alcohol and Safety

Percent

Cumulative Percent

Valid

fun

43

57.3

57.3

friends

15

20.0

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77.3

I would be bored

8

10.7

88.0

I don’t

5

6.7

94.7

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other

4

5.3

100.0

Total

75

100.0

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From the above chart majority of the individuals drink alcohol for fun, 205 drink due to influence from friends and 10.7% stated that they would be bored if they did not drink alcohol.

Alcohol and confidence:

A question was also designed to find out how much more respondents felt confident after drinking alcohol, the respondents were to rate the confidence the felt on a scale of 1 to 5 whereby 1 would mean lot less while 5 meant lot more confident, 8% stated that they felt lot more confident while only 6.7% stated that they felt lot less confident, the chart and table below summarises the results:

Confidence

Frequency

Percent

Cumulative Percent

Valid

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don’t drink

5

6.7

6.7

lot less

18

24.0

30.7

2.00

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22

29.3

60.0

3.00

17

22.7

82.7

4.00

7

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9.3

92.0

lot more

6

8.0

100.0

Total

75

100.0

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The distribution of the chart resembles a normal distribution meaning that the majority of individuals felt slightly more confident and only a few felt less or more confident.

Feeling after drinking:

Respondents were also asked to indicate how they felt after drinking, respondents were asked to state whether they felt vulnerable, brave, care free, careful, happy, Independent, confident, frightened and up for anything sensible.

The chart below shows the results:

Only 2 respondents felt frightened and 5 respondents felt vulnerable, majority of the respondents felt confident(43 respondents), happy(46 respondents) and carefree(34 respondents). This shows that alcohol consumption increases a feeling of care free and confidence.

Alcohol consumption and accidents:

Respondents were asked to state whether there were any accidents that they were involved in after consuming alcohol, the table and chart below summarises the responses:

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Accident

Frequency

Percent

Cumulative Percent

Valid

no

30

40.0

40.0

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yes

28

37.3

77.3

more than once

17

22.7

100.0

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Total

75

100.0

Majority of the respondents (60%) stated that they were involved in an accident after consuming alcohol, while only 40 % stated that they were not involved in any accident. 22.7% of the respondents were involved in an accident more than once after consuming alcohol.

Regrets after consuming alcohol:

The participants were asked to rate their association with the statement “I have done a lot of things under the influence of alcohol that I regret” the table below summarises the results:

Statement

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Frequency

Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Valid

strong

33

44.0

44.0

fairly

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22

29.3

73.3

little

16

21.3

94.7

not at all

4

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5.3

100.0

Total

75

100.0

Majority of the respondents strongly agreed that they had done things after drinking that they regret.

If respondent stopped drinking:

This question was aimed at fining out whether if the individual stopped drinking they would enjoy the night out, results of this question are summarised below:

Majority of the respondents (56%) felt that if they stopped drinking they would still enjoy the night out, while 42.7% felt that they would not enjoy the night out if they stopped drinking.

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Correlation and association:

Gender and alcohol consumption frequency:

This section tests the relationship between gender and alcohol consumption frequency

Hypothesis:

H0: no association between gender and alcohol consumption frequency

Ha: association between gender and alcohol consumption frequency

The table below shows the following results:

Gender * number of times per week Cross tabulation

Count

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Number of times per week

Total

once

2-3 times

3-4 times

more

gender

male

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3

5

9

2

19

female

5

24

23

4

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56

Total

8

29

32

6

75

Chi-Square Tests

Value

df

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Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)

Pearson Chi-Square

1.965(a)

3

.580

Likelihood Ratio

1.985

3

.575

Linear-by-Linear Association

.086

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1

.769

N of Valid Cases

75

From the result the significance level (0.58) is greater than 0.5, this means that the null hypothesis (H0: no association between gender and alcohol consumption frequency) is accepted. Therefore there is no association between gender and alcohol consumption frequency:

Age and alcohol consumption frequency:

The following is a test to determine the association of the two variables: Hypothesis:

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H0: no association between age and alcohol consumption frequency

Ha: association between age and alcohol consumption frequency

Age * number of times per week Cross tabulation

Count

Number of times per week

Total

once

2-3 times

3-4 times

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more

age

18-21

6

24

23

4

57

22-25

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2

5

4

1

12

26+

0

0

5

1

6

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Total

8

29

32

6

75

Chi-Square Tests

Value

df

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Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)

Pearson Chi-Square

6.844(a)

6

.335

Likelihood Ratio

9.117

6

.167

Linear-by-Linear Association

2.348

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1

.125

N of Valid Cases

75

The significance value of the chi square test is 0.335 and given that this value is greater than 0.05 null hypotheses (H0: no association between age and alcohol consumption frequency) is accepted.

Importance of safety and alcohol consumption:

The association of safety importance rating and alcohol was tested and the following tables show the results:

Hypothesis:

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H0: no association between Importance of safety and alcohol consumption

Ha: association between importance of safety and alcohol consumption

Safety * number of times per week Cross tabulation

Count

Number of times per week

Total

once

2-3 times

3-4 times

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more

safety

not important

0

0

0

2

2

2.00

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0

1

3

0

4

3.00

1

6

3

1

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11

4.00

5

9

6

2

22

very important

2

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13

20

1

36

Total

8

29

32

6

75

Chi-Square Tests

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Value

df

Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)

Pearson Chi-Square

34.145(a)

12

.001

Likelihood Ratio

21.771

12

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.040

Linear-by-Linear Association

1.057

1

.304

N of Valid Cases

75

The significance value of the chi square test is 0.001 and given that this value is less than 0.05 the null hypotheses (H0: no association between Importance of safety and alcohol consumption) is rejected. Therefore there is an association between Importance of safety and alcohol consumption.

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Correlation:

Symmetric Measures

Value

Asymp. Std. Error(a)

Approx. T(b)

Approx. Sig.

Interval by Interval

Pearson’s R

-.120

.127

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-1.029

.307(c)

Ordinal by Ordinal

Spearman Correlation

.016

.121

.134

.894(c)

N of Valid Cases

75

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The correlation coefficient value of the two variables is -0.12 meaning that there is a weak but negative relationship between the two variables, this means that as the importance of safety rating increases then the number of days an individual goes out declines.

Importance of Safety and accidents;

A test on the association between safety importance rating and accidents show the following results:

Hypothesis:

H0: no association between Importance of safety and accidents

Ha: association between importance of safety and accidents

Safety * accident Cross tabulation

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Count

accident

Total

no

yes

more than once

safety

not important

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0

0

2

2

2.00

3

1

0

4

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3.00

0

8

3

11

4.00

13

5

4

22

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very important

14

14

8

36

Total

30

28

17

75

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Chi-Square Tests

Value

df

Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)

Pearson Chi-Square

20.807(a)

8

.008

Likelihood Ratio

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24.141

8

.002

Linear-by-Linear Association

1.048

1

.306

N of Valid Cases

75

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The significance value of the chi square test is 0.008 and given that this value is less than 0.05 the null hypotheses (H0: no association between Importance of safety and accidents) is rejected. Therefore there is an association between Importance of safety and number of accidents.

Symmetric Measures

Value

Asymp. Std. Error(a)

Approx. T(b)

Approx. Sig.

Interval by Interval

Pearson’s R

-.119

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.122

-1.024

.309(c)

Ordinal by Ordinal

Spearman Correlation

-.071

.116

-.608

.545(c)

N of Valid Cases

75

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The correlation coefficient value of the two variables is -0.119 meaning that there is a weak but negative relationship between the two variables, this means that as the importance of safety rating increases then the number of accidents decline.

Discussion and interpretation:

The chi test and correlation value between importance of safety rating variable and alcohol consumption variable show that there is association between Importance of safety and alcohol consumption frequency, also the correlation coefficient is negative and this means that those who felt that safety was important to them went out less frequently. For this reason therefore those who do not go out frequently may be deterred by their safety fears among other factors, this indicates that these individuals will not go out often given that alcohol consumption compromises an individual’s safety.

Another finding is that there is association between Importance of safety and number of accidents, also the correlation coefficient is negative and this means that those who felt that safety was important are less likely to be involved in accidents. Given the first finding that individuals fear to go out due to safety reason then the correlation between safety and accidents also show that those who go out often are more likely to be involved in accidents.

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Results also show that there is no association between gender and frequency of alcohol consumption, also between age and frequency of alcohol consumption. This means that gender or age does not deter an individual from going out often. Further analysis of the data show that majority of individuals drink alcohol for fun, also that majority of the individuals feel happy and confident after drinking alcohol.

Alcohol consumption will increase the confidence of an individual according to the results, this implies that individuals are confident that they can walk home at night after drinking or even drive safely home, also given that alcohol reduces the response time, accuracy and memory losses then individuals are more likely to cause accidents.

Conclusion:

Results from the above analysis show that majority of individuals in the study were female, a sample n=75 was randomly selected from York St John and York University. The aim of this study was to establish whether alcohol consumption affects the safety of individuals, a study by Mitchell (1985) showed that the immediate effects of alcohol consumption include impaired coordination especially when tracing moving objects, reduced ability to acquire information from more than one source and accuracy.

A study by McFarland (1980) also showed that individuals will experience memory loss which may occur when alcohol is consumed in high dosages, individual find it difficult to process and recall events that occurred and that alcohol reduces self consciousness.

Given the above impacts of alcohol on the brain and individual’s behaviour then these impacts are likely to affect the safety of an individual, this is supported from the result that alcohol consumption increases confidence and therefore individuals are likely to walk home at night or even drive after consuming alcohol. Given that alcohol affects accuracy and response time then

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individuals are more likely to cause accidents if they decide to drive after drinking.

Bibliography:

January, from < http://www.actforyouth.net/documents/may02factsheetadolbraindev.pdf >

Begley, S. (2000). Getting inside a teen brain. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, vol. 135, pages 58 to 59.

Cohen, D., and Schreiber, D. (1999).processing deficits in schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, volume 108, pages 120 to 133.

Finn, P. and Steinmetz, E. (1999) Working memory, processes and the effects of alcohol.

Psychopharmacology Journal, volume 146, pages 465 to 472.

McFarland, R. and Jellinek, M. (1980). Analysis of Experiments of the effects of alcohol.

Journal of Studies on Alcohol, vol. 1, pages 272 to 371.

Mitchell, C. (1985). Alcohol impairment of the central nervous system: Behavioural skills involved in driving. Journal of Studies on Alcohol. Vol. 10 pages 109 to 116.

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