Date of Conferral

2015

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

School

Education

Advisor

Billie Andersson

Abstract

This project study addressed the problem of alcohol and binge drinking at a local rural college campus in the Northeast United States and the lack of an effective long-term academic intervention program to address the problem. The purpose of this research study was to determine the prevalence of the problem of the alcohol abuse problem and to develop a long-term program that would respond to the problem of repeat alcohol offenders. Guided by Mezirow’s transformative learning theory, which holds that transformational learning causes changes in a learner that significantly shift the pattern of a learner’s future experiences, this study examined the awareness by participants of the prevalence of alcohol abuse on the college campus and explored alcohol intervention programs. A qualitative, instrumental case study research design was used and involved interviews with 6 key professional stakeholders and 5 students. Interview transcripts were color coded and thematically analyzed. The themes that developed from the interviews revealed discrepant perspectives regarding the prevalence of the problem, and the discovery that no long-term intervention is available to students who are repeat offenders. The analysis of the data revealed the need for an increased awareness of the problem, as well as the development of a long-term program that contained an academic curriculum that addressed the problem of alcohol abuse and binge drinking for the repeat offender. This project study has the potential to revise to alcohol abuse programs and may spawn an awareness of the problem of heavy alcohol consumption. Student participation in the long-term program may offer greater student academic success and the avoidance of academic expulsion, thereby creating an important social change for those students who are repeat alcohol offenders.

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