Students who feel a sense of belonging to their college are more likely to binge drink than those who don’t feel the same connection, according to a new study by researchers at Penn State, the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the University of Oregon. That’s what it means.
In a study published in the Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research, scientists said: including researchers from the Penn State College of Health and Human Development – found that college students who had “good” mental health and felt connected to their university were more likely to binge drink than those who did not feel connected to their university. I found out that there is a high possibility of doing so.
Stephen Lanza, professor of biobehavioral health and Edna P. Bennett Faculty Fellow in Prevention Research, researched the subject with Danny Rahal and Kristin Perry, who were postdoctoral trainees in the Penn State Prevention and Methodology Training Program. Researched. Researchers investigated how both positive and negative aspects of mental health contribute to the risk of binge drinking, cannabis use, and nicotine use.
“In 2021, many college students returned to campus after COVID-19 closures, with some attending in-person college classes for the first time,” said the study’s lead author, assistant professor of psychology. Rahal said. University of California, Santa Cruz.
Data at the time showed that many students felt disconnected from school. The university wanted to foster a sense of connection among students for many good reasons, but we wanted to see if there was anything positive. Especially the sense of belonging – it is related to substance use. Our study showed that feeling connected to the university was associated with higher rates of substance use. ”
Danny Rahal, Penn State University
Researchers looked at data from 4,018 college students collected during the 2022-23 academic year. Participants answered questions about substance use, school belonging, and mental health. Specifically, anxiety, depressive symptoms, perception of stress, flourishing in life, and confidence in academic success.
A statistical modeling technique called latent profile analysis allows researchers to account for all these measures simultaneously by combining them and identifying five profiles of student mental health. I did. In this study, students were considered to have good mental health if they had lower levels of stress, depression, and anxiety, and higher grades and academic confidence than other students.
Researchers found that students with average or good mental health were more likely to have binge-drinked in the past month if they felt connected to their university than if they did not feel that connected. I found it to be expensive.
Researchers said this doesn’t mean it’s bad for students to experience connection. Rather, the results are mixed.
“We want to foster connections between students,” says Perry, an assistant professor of family and human services at the University of Oregon. “Connection keeps them involved. It’s a very strong protective factor against negative mental health outcomes and helps keep students in school. But if there’s a culture of drinking in a school, This connection may be closely related to binge drinking.
The researchers said they expected these findings regarding drinking, but students with poor mental health who felt connected to their university were more likely to have poor mental health who did not feel connected to their university. They were surprised to learn that they were more likely to use non-e-cigarette products than bad students. their university. Although the results regarding cannabis were inconclusive, the researchers said a trend was clear.
“In general, students who feel connected to their university are more likely to use drugs than students who do not feel connected to their university with the same level of mental health,” Rahal said. .
Researchers say a sense of belonging is linked to drug use, but it may also be part of the solution.
“Cultivating a sense of belonging for all students is an important way universities can embrace diversity and support the growth of all students,” Lanza said.
Although drinking alcohol is common on college campuses, many students believe it is far more common than it actually is, the researchers explained. In this dataset, just under a third of students reported binge drinking in the past month. Despite the fact that two-thirds of students have never binge-drinked, the researchers also found that students believe the typical student drinks three to five drinks multiple times a week. I also discovered that there are. The researchers said this disconnect between perception and reality presents an opportunity to change culture. This is to ensure that alcohol is no longer central to student life by providing sufficient opportunities for all students to socialize and participate in an alcohol-free environment.
Researchers say minority college students in particular often face messages that make them feel unwelcome based on their race, gender, socio-economic status and other factors.
“We cannot expect students to remain enrolled unless they engage with the campus community,” Lanza continued. “When a university loses students from certain groups, it makes the campus less diverse and the university community as a whole less rich. Furthermore, when members of those groups leave the school, they lose access to educational opportunities and college degrees.” By providing a diverse range of opportunities for all students to build a true sense of belonging to the university, our campus supports people on the path to healthier lives. It can improve your life.”
The National Institute on Drug Abuse and Pennsylvania State University funded the study.
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Reference magazines:
Rahal, D., et al. (2024) Mental health moderates the association between institutional affiliation and drug use risk. Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research. doi.org/10.15288/jsad.23-00382.
