Chapter 2

Review of Related Study and Literature

Local Literature

Adolescence is a period in which many young people begin to experiment with smoking and

drinking. Most of the teenagers become more curious about this thing. In a young age they

tend to be involved in this case. Most of the teenagers had been addicted or get used to drink

alcohol. Alcohol is widely consumed in the Philippines. One reason for this may be that the

Spanish colonizers not only brought with them the Roman Catholic religion but also their

drinking culture. Alcohol is becoming trendy even though it is not giving any healthy nutrients,

rather giving you troubles within your body. The increasing rate of Filipino drinking alcoholic

beverages and it has been leading to studies what are the effects of drinking too much and

there are several impacts of drinking alcohol to their academic performance.

Joyce P. Valbuena (2017) in her book “Alcohol and media: The situation in the

Philippines” states that:

“The production of beer and other liquors is one of the most profitable industries in the

Philippines. In fact, the country's biggest beer company, San Miguel Corporation (SMC), ranked

number nine in the Philippine's Top Corporations of 1999 with a total sale of $766 million. SMC

sold a total of 327.6 million bottles of beer in 1998. Liquor companies are partly owned by

transnational corporations or wealthy Fil-Chinese industrialists whose businesses have been

established since the Spanish colonization period in the eighteenth century.”

 It is trendier among adolescents because these alcoholic drinks are easy to find and it is also

affordable even for students. “A $40 cents bottle of Tanduay gin, which is stronger or more

intoxicating, can fill a few hours of drinking for a small group. Due to lax monitoring and

implementation, hard drinks can also be bought in many regular stores, even by teenagers.”

(Valbuena, 2017).

For a long time now, advertising has deeply established the need for alcoholic beverages

among Filipinos. It is through advertising that the industry achieves its high level of sales. With

creative strategies in marketing, companies can persuade most people drink beer and other

alcoholic drinks. Beer and Liquor companies spend more than $12 million on advertising.

Alcohol advertisements present a direct link between alcohol and happiness, sexual conquest,

success, and excitement. Alcohol drinkers are portrayed as heroic, attractive, athletic, or

successful. Alcohol appears in the media as part of the day-to-day lives of the Filipinos – as

portrayed in soap operas, comedy shows, basketball league games, music video channels, etc.

(Labajo, 2014).

Students that are having binge drinking might lower their academic performance. A teenager

who is more likely to drink alcohol and spend their time in social events rather than doing their

school works is portrayed as an irresponsible student or either doesn’t have time management.

As a result of drinking too much they tend to experience hangover and the brain might not

function too well and lose their focus, because of their poor performance it can affect the

quality of their grades. (Rivera, 2012)

Alcohol is widely consumed in the Philippines. One reason for this may be that the Spanish

colonizers not only brought with them the Roman Catholic religion but also their drinking
culture. As the islands become more urbanized there appears to be a growing reliance on

alcohol to help people deal with stress. Public drunkenness can be occasionally witnessed and

alcohol problems do cause in some homes and communities. The Filipinos are the second

highest consumers of alcohol in South East Asia (the Indonesians are first), and the number one

wine drinkers. It is estimated that 5 million Filipinos drink on a fairly regularly basis – it is

believed that 39.9% of the population drink on an irregular basis (DARA, 2018).

Jaymalin (2016) states that:

"Despite the fact that 45 percent to 75 percent of the young people in the Western Pacific

region consume alcohol regularly, there is poor public awareness of the harmful effects of

alcohol abuse,"

Many Filipino teenagers, like most youths in the Western Pacific region, are becoming

habitual drinkers and are unaware of the harmful effects of alcohol abuse. Alcohol consumption

among the youth is nearing an alarming level, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported

yesterday, with as many as 75 percent of the youth in the region guzzling booze at an average

of two to three times a week. In Pacific islands countries like the Philippines, WHO noted that

going on a drinking binge is a common practice. (Jaymalin, 2016)

Foreign Literature

Alcoholism is an addiction to the consumption of alcoholic liquor or the mental illness and

compulsive behavior resulting from alcohol dependency. Alcohol use disorder is organized into

three categories: mild, moderate, and severe. Each category has various symptoms and can

cause harmful side effects. Individuals who are struggling in Alcoholism often feel as though

they cannot function normally without alcohol. It may lead to some issues and impacts to their
personal matters, relationships, overall health and especially in their academic performances.

(Hasin, 2012).

Drinking could directly lower academic performance through several mechanisms which

include the time that students spend at social events at which alcohol is consumed as opposed

to on schoolwork; the inebriation and hangovers that result from heavy drinking at these

events can impact the quality of grades by both temporarily diminishing cognitive skills and

effort reduction; and alcohol use might indirectly influence low grades by prompting other

detrimental behaviours (DeSimone and Wolaver, 2015).

Alcohol dependence influences academic achievement negatively, as it is observed in most

research cases that as the number of days, alcohol are consumed increases the level of

academic performance decreases. Previous behavioural research provides support for this

(Hawkins, Catalano, & Miller, Pullen, 2012), with contrasting approaches. While Balsa, Giuliano,

& French, (2011), took the causal approach to their study which examined whether or not

alcohol consumption is more likely to affect low achievers than high achievers, the purpose of

the DeSimone and Wolaver (2015), correlational study was to focus on the relationship

between alcohol use and academic performance among high school students

Local Study

Mostly, Filipino teenagers are not aware to the harmful effects of alcohol abuse. WHO stated

that 75 percent of the youth in the region are drinking, an average of two to three times are

associated with heavy drinking. Recently, they said that drinking put you at risk for getting or

transmitting HIV the virus that causes AIDS. In Baguio City and in the Philippines, there were
limited data available on the issue of alcohol drinking among adolescents. More effort was still

needed in order to address the problem of alcohol drinking among adolescents that was why

this study was undertaken. (Pancharuniti, 2008)

Underage alcohol abuse is a growing problem in the lives of teenagers today. Almost 80% of

high school students have tried alcohol (Dowshen, 2011). To effectively combat this growing

epidemic, teens need to understand the effects of consuming alcohol, and adults need to

recognize the problem and effectively prevent alcohol abuse. Thus, to effectively solve the

problems associated with teenage alcohol abuse. Teenagers drink for many reasons. They drink

out of curiosity, to feel good, to relieve stress, or just to fit in. A teen might go out with his

friends one night and be pressured into drinking alcohol. They want to be able to fit in and

seem cool to their friends while at the same time not want to get in trouble. Whatever its

cause, underage drinking may have a severe impact on a teenager’s life (Anonymous, 2011).

Many teenagers and young adults believe that it is ‘cool’ to have a drink. They fear being

ostracized by their friends and lack the confidence to stand up for themselves and just say no.

For this reason, many teenagers under the legal age of 18 have begun drinking. Even though

this is an illegal activity, they still find ways of procuring the liquor and partaking. Many times

this occurs at an unsupervised get-together at a friend’s home. It can also occur at school, after

hours when they are unsupervised. (Pamienta, 2016)

Young adults, 18 and over, believe that since they are of legal age they are licensed to drink

as much as they desire. They are oblivious to the effect on their learning, despite being

adequately advised at home and at school. It is my belief that this is borne out of the need to

assert and claim their independence, but sadly it is to their detriment. (Tugas, 2012)
Foreign Study

According to negative effects of alcohol use can emerge in areas such as planning and

executive functioning, memory, spatial operations, and attention. (Giancola et al., 2011). It says

drinking alcohol does not have a good impact on the environment especially for students,

because it makes a negative impact to their school life.

Drinking alcohol clearly has important effect on social behaviors, such as increasing

aggression, self-disclosure, sexual adventuresome and so on. Research has shown that these

effects can stem from beliefs we hold about alcohol effects. Less is known about how alcohol

itself affects these behaviors (Steele et al, 1985).

Researchers say clear alcohol consumption has an important impact on social behaviors

especially in a student, such as self-disclosure and sexual intercourse. Because of the effects of

alcohol, those who drink it do not know what they are doing or what they say to other people

and also this may affect their performance in school

When it comes to teen drinking, parents would be wise not to look the other way. The

consequences is from drunk driving accidents to the rape and violent crime, make it clear that

teen drinking is much more than just harmless. Another unsettling study compared the

cognitive skills of alcohol-dependent. It found that teens who were heavy drinkers had impaired

memory and poor verbal skills. In fact, say researchers, alcohol abuse may be more damaging to

adolescents than it is to adults because it can kill cells in parts of the brain that are still

developing (Haiken, 2019).

 Studies have shown that children who begin drinking at an early age are more likely to

become addicts later on in life. Research has also shown that these kids tend to perform poorly

at school in comparison to non-drinkers. When teenagers and young adults drink, their

judgement becomes impaired and they make poor decisions which can lead to risky behavior

with long-lasting consequences (Hylton, 2016).

Nearly every student has been impacted by alcohol use during their academic career – even if

they have never drunk themselves. For instance, a person can witness a friend’s drinking

pattern worsening over time, gradually taking over their life. Heavy drinking affects more than

just an individual; it can destroy anything in its path, including friendships and relationships.

Alcohol-related problems begin to arise when an individual drink excessively and puts their

health – and the health of others (Dutchman & Murphy, 2018).

This related literature and study helped researchers to understand that many teenagers,

under the age of 18, consume alcohol unsupervised in a regular basis. These teenagers often

doesn’t have any parental guidance. They just do it for a lot of reasons, some do it for fun,

some adapt it from their family, and some even do it just because they think it is cool. Hence,

they tend to consume more than their body can handle. Usually these drinkers are unaware of

their habits and how much alcohol they intake. As a result, these unsupervised drinking cause a

lot of negative effects in their health, social behavior, and overall life. Also, young people who

starts drinking at an early age has more chances of developing to be an addict, or even a rapist.

It is because alcohol affects our cognitive abilities, in either good or bad way..

Alcoholism is an addiction to the consumption of alcoholic liquor or the mental illness and

compulsive behavior resulting from alcohol dependency. Alcohol use disorder is organized into
three categories: mild, moderate, and severe. Each category has various symptoms and can

cause harmful side effects. Individuals who are struggling in Alcoholism often feel as though

they cannot function normally without alcohol. It may lead to some issues and impacts to their

personal matters, relationships, overall health and especially in their academic performances.

It is important to know these negative effects to help the researchers to know the most

effective ways on guiding youth from starting a good habit in order to avoid the above

mentioned disadvantages that unsupervised drinking caused.