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There may be some truth to the image of spring break as an orgy of wet T-shirt contests, booze parties and sex on the beach.
But a survey finds most women (65%) don't think such activity is essential to college life. And nearly all (91%) agree that what people see in typical TV portrayals of spring break, Girls Gone Wild videos and similar programs perpetuate a negative stereotype of women. Most also said they would support efforts to restrict such images in spring break promotions. "Women are fed up with the marketing" that promotesspring break as an alcohol-and-sex fest, says Edward Hill, president of the American Medical Association. The AMA is releasing the survey today as part of efforts to reduce drinking among college students.
Findings are based on an online national survey of 644 women ages 17 to 35; 62% are in college, and the rest attended or graduated from college. Margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Some findings support the notion that stereotypes are overblown. Less than a third (27%) of those surveyed said they had ever attended such a spring break. Of that group, 35% said they went on spring break partly because it would involve alcohol, and 43% said a somewhat or very important factor in selecting a destination was access to cheap drinks and lower legal drinking-age limits.
More of those who had been on spring breaks also reported being aware of risky behaviors, the survey says. For example, 83% of all respondents said they knew friends who drank most days they were on break; 93% of women who attended spring break said that.
Also, 59% of all women and 70% of those who had attended a spring break trip said they knew friends who had more than one sex partner during the trip, and 40% of all respondents and 47% of those who attended a break said they knew friends who had been injured or assaulted in alcohol-related incidents.
Hill says he was encouraged by findings suggesting that respondents wanted the problem fixed.
As for potential solutions, 81% indicated that they would like colleges to offer fun, affordable and alcohol-free alternatives.
A number of schools, for example, offer service-learning trips, and many of them this year are heading to New Orleans or other parts of the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast.
Among them is Emily Snodgrass, 22, a senior at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. As a freshman, she went to Florida for a vacation. Last year, she worked at a school on an Indian reservation in South Dakota. She much preferred the latter.
"When I came back from South Dakota, I felt like I wanted to do more, that I had more of a purpose," she says. "Coming back from my trip to Florida, I felt tired."
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