Sex/Drugs/Rock'nRoll & Disease

Catalog description

Over the course of the next year students will develop an understanding of why young adults engage in high-risk health behaviors. During the first semester attention will focus on the social processes thought to underlie young adults' uptake of behavior patterns which expose them to unnecessary health risks. Among the wide range of high risk behaviors to be covered over the course of the year will be drinking, drugging, smoking, eating, speeding, unsafe sex, and other risky choices. Participants will develop an understanding of how one's family, friends and peers come to shape high-risk health behavior patterns. New Orleans provides an excellent vantage point from which to scientifically explore a culture in which exhibiting high risk health behavior patterns is almost normative. Students will work up epidemiological comparisons between their hometowns and New Orleans based on a wide range of available Internet databases. Students do no direct observations or participation in any high-risk behavior patterns as part of the course.