Notecards for a Student Paper on the Causes of Alcoholism

ORGANIZATION CHALLENGE I

1. Cut the attached sheets into individual 3x5 notecards. (Cut along the solid lines.)

2. Read the notecards over with care. One card indicates the question the writer is working on; the other cards indicate thoughts the writer has had, as well as viewpoints and facts the writer has collected. Try to put yourself in the place of the writer of the cards.

What does the writer's overall response to his/her question seem to be? Do you find it stated on one of the cards provided? If not, you may decide to formulate it yourself–as a thesis statement and/or conclusion–and record it on one or more of the blank cards provided.

Where, exactly, does each thought or fact noted fit into that response?

3. Sort the cards accordingly. (Some cards may logically belong in groups of two or three cards; other cards may logically be "loners.")

4. Play with different ways to sequence the cards until you believe you have found the best possible way to organize the writer's paper. (Do not hesitate to put aside a card that seems irrelevant to you. By the same token, do not hesitate to insert cards–or to change wording on the original cards–to indicate how thoughts and/or facts are connected, if those connections are not obvious.

My Question:

To what extent does the example set by parents influence their children's future drinking habits?

My Early Hunch:

Parents' example is the biggest factor of all. Very few children of parents who do not drink excessively become excessive drinkers themselves.

On Second Thought:

Even if it were true that alcoholics tend to be the children of alcoholics, that wouldn't necessarily mean that parents' example (behavior) was to blame-Couldn't a tendency to drink be passed on genetically?

My Parents

What did they drink?

Wine, but only with company-and not much. No, mom would also have a glass on nights when she was feeling edgy, but she would only get somewhat quieter afterward-never really drunk-and then she'd go to bed.
Beer once or twice a year at big, extended-family picnics
Kahlua (or Kahlua with cream) to celebrate special occasions-anniversaries, New Years Eve, etc.

My Drinking Habits

Beer only…
Only when offered…
Never much—maybe 1 can at a weekend party, maybe 2 cans during a football game on TV

How My Own Drinking Affects Me

Other than beer, no alcoholic drink tastes good to me.
Even when it comes to beer, I prefer Coke. (I drink beer to be sociable.)
Sometimes beer has a midly warming (or mellowing?) effect on me—so I am happier just to hang out, not to have something clever to say all the time at social events.
Usually it has no effect on me at all.

My Friend Janet

In and out of alcohol rehab programs twice by age 19
Her mother dead at age 43—liver failure from excessive drinking
Too extreme a case to generalize from?

That Phrase "Future Drinking Habits"

What do I mean by that, exactly? How much a person drinks—especially, whether he/she drinks enough to "get drunk."

And by "drunk" I mean…

Lacking judgment needed
To drive
To keep from harming oneself/others, physically/verbally

Quote from If Your Child Is Drinking,
p. 14:

"She [a recovering alcoholic] told [her father] the example he had set for her…and she named all kinds of things that he would do, and in each and every instance, whether it was repainting the outside of the house, reading the evening paper, sitting outside when it was warm, there was always a beer in his hand."

Blatant Contradiction in the book If Your Child Is Drinking

p. 15: "They [teenagers abusing alcohol] can be children of abstaining parents almost as easily as of heavy drinking ones."

p. 16: "…a high correspondence exists between the drinking patterns of adolescents [and] those of their peers and parents."

Besides contradiction…

No evidence
Peers and parents lumped together, as if both consumed alcohol at the same rate.

Complicating Evidence

The Alcoholism Problems: Selected Issues, p.63

Paraphrase:
Research shows that when identical twins (having all the same genes) are separated-with one being raised by his/her natural, alcoholic parents, and the other being raised by non-alcoholic parents-they are still almost equally likely to become alcoholic themselves.

[But what are the actual percentages here? Not specified]

Other Possible Factors Leading to Alcohol Abuse

Peer pressure
Images presented by media (having a great time)
Guilt, low self esteem, depression, or other states of mind that make escape attractive
Desire for sex, combined with the hopes that alcohol will lower one's inhibitions about sex