Faculty Sponsor: Emmanuel Kaparakis
Live Poster Session: Zoom Link
Tyler Flynn is a current Junior studying Government and playing football at Wesleyan University. He is the youngest of four brothers and grew up in Portola Valley, California. In his free time he enjoys skiing, mountain biking, and listening to electronic dance music.
Abstract:
In our current day and age, excessive alcohol consumption is one of the leading causes of death in the world (Keyes & Hasin, 2008). Excessive alcohol consumption is generally seen as a coping mechanism for individuals with various traumatic experiences or pasts (death, loss of job, stress). However, excessive alcohol consumption can also be a product of immense wealth and a lavish lifestyle. Therefore, in this project, I analyzed the relationship between socioeconomic status and alcohol consumption to determine if overall wealth is a sufficient indicator of how much alcohol one consumes. Surprisingly, my research found that members of the upper and lower classes consumed an almost identical amount of alcohol monthly. In contrast, members of the middle class consumed significantly less than both the upper and lower class respondents. Lastly, I wished to analyze what possible role religion could play in controlling alcohol consumption and unsurprisingly found that respondents who identified as religious, consumed a lot less alcohol on average regardless of their socioeconomic status.