Risk for Alcohol Use Among Entering College Students: The Role of Personality and Stress. Öffentlichkeit
Martin, Kathleen (Summer 2020)
Published
Abstract
Excessive alcohol use amongst college students is associated with low grades, poor mental health, and risks to physical safety. Increased alcohol use during college years can be accounted for by a number of environmental influences in conjunction with preexisting personality traits. Neuroticism, characterized by emotional instability and anxiety, and self-reported stress have both been shown to be strong predictors of alcohol use, however, previous studies have shown that measures of stress and Neuroticism are frequently confounded. Given that personality is a robust predictor of alcohol misuse, this study tests the hypothesis that personality traits, and neuroticism in particular, predict harmful and hazardous alcohol use in matriculating freshmen above and beyond reported levels of stress. Data were collected as part of an IRB-approved longitudinal study, MAPme, examining behavioral health in college. Data are from the baseline assessment, collected during the first eight weeks of fall semester. Analyses examined recent alcohol consumption, problematic use, and misuse that were assessed using the 10-item Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). Personality was assessed using the Big Five Inventory (BFI) and stress was assessed using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Overall, our initial hypothesis that domain-level Neuroticism would be positively associated with alcohol misuse above and beyond perceived stress was unsupported. Notably, the depression facet, Neuroticism—Depression, was positively associated with alcohol use/misuse. Likewise, stress was positively associated with alcohol use/misuse, and is modestly confounded with personality traits. Post hoc analyses demonstrated an interaction between the Neuroticism—Depression facet and stress: at low levels of the Depression facet, stress is negatively associated with alcohol use/misuse, but at high levels of the Depression facet, stress is positively associated with alcohol use/misuse. Taken together, our results shed new light into the role of Neuroticism as it relates to stress and harmful alcohol use.
Table of Contents
Introduction………………………………. 1
Materials and Methods…………………. 6
Sample and Procedure…………. 6
Measures……………………….…..... 6
Data Analysis…………….………..... 7
Results……………………………………... 8
Discussion……………………………….... 0
References………………………………... 13
Tables………………………………………. 20
Figures……………………………………... 26
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