Protective factors and college student drinking patterns in pre and post Katrina New Orleans

David Florkowski, Gayle Walter, John Kowalczyk, Peter B. Anderson

Physician Information Technology Office, British Columbia Medical Association, Vancouver, Canada.
University of Dubuque, Dubuque, USA.
Walden University, Minneapolis, USA.

DOI: 10.4236/health.2013.512284                

Abstract

Rates of heavy drinking, tobacco use and illicit substance use peak among college students between 18 and 25 years of age. Attitudes, personal characteristics, and behaviors that are called protective factors could play a role in reducing college students’ use of alcohol and drugs. We studied the relationships between selected protective factors and alcohol consumption in college students from a public commuter university in New Orleans, Louisiana pre-and post-Hurricane Katrina utilizing the Core Alcohol and Drug Survey (CADS) Long Form. We applied Hirschi’s social control theory to examine the relationships between drinking and the identified protective factors. Three research questions with null and alternative hypotheses were tested to explore the impact of Hurricane Katrina on protective factors and drinking utilizing linear/ logistic and multivariate regression models to test the hypotheses. We found that post-Katrina students were on average about 1.5 years older and drank approximately 1.5 more drinks per week than pre-Katrina students. Both pre and post Katrina age, gender, and race/ethnicity were significantly related to drinking among these groups of college students such that older students, women, and non-Whites tended to have reduced odds of drinking. There were no statistically significant relationships between individual protective factors or any group of protective factors and drinking after controlling for age, gender, and race/ethnicity indicating that these 3 individual characteristics that cannot be altered were stronger predictors of drinking than any other factors we tested.

 

Keywords

Protective Factors; College Drinking; Hurricane Katrina; New Orleans

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	US Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Office of Applied Studies (2003) National survey on drug use and health. http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/NHSDA/2k3NSDUH/2k3results.htm#ch3 http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/NHSDA/2k3NSDUH/2k3results.htm http://www.ptsd.va.gov/>ov
[2]	Oetting, E., Edwards, R., Kelly, K. and Beauvais, F. (1997) Risk and protective factors for drug use among rural American youth. NIDA Research Monographs, 168, 90-130.
[3]	Johnston, L.D., O’Malley, P.M., Bachman, J.G. and Schulenberg, J.E. (2011) Monitoring the future national survey results on drug use, 1975-2010. Volume II: College students and adults ages 19-50. Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 312 p.
[4]	The Substance Abuse Epidemiology Workgroup (2009) Louisiana Statewide Substance Abuse Epidemiology Profile.
[5]	Lo, C., Anderson, A., Minugh, P. and Lomuto, N. (2006) Protecting Alabama students from alcohol and drugs: A multi-level modeling approach. Journal of Drug Issues, 36, 687-718. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/002204260603600309
[6]	Huang, J., DeJong, W., Towvim, L. and Schneider, S. (2008) Sociodemographic and psychobehavioral characteristics of US college students who abstain from alcohol. Journal of American College Health, 57, 395-410. http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JACH.57.4.395-410
[7]	Windle, M. and Zucker, R. (2010) Reducing underage and youth adult drinking. Alcohol Research & Health, 33, 29-43.
[8]	Murphy, J., Barnett, B., Goldstein, A. and Colby, S. (2007) Gender moderates the relationship between substancefree activity enjoyment and alcohol use. Psychology of Addictive Behavior, 21, 261-265. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0893-164X.21.2.261
[9]	Weinstock, J. (2007) A review of exercise as intervention for sedentary hazardous drinking college students: Rationale and issues. Journal of American College Health, 58, 539-543. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07448481003686034
[10]	Ward, B. and Gryczynski, J. (2007) Alcohol use and participation in organized recreational sports among university undergraduates. Journal of American College Health, 56, 273-280. http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JACH.56.3.273-280
[11]	Moore, M. and Werch, C. (2008) Relationship between vigorous exercise frequency and substance use among first year drinking college students. Journal of American College Health, 56, 686-690. http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JACH.56.6.686-690
[12]	Martens, M. and Martin, J. (2010) College athletes’ drinking motives and competitive seasonal status: Additional examination of the athlete drinking scale. Addiction Research and Theory, 18, 23-32. http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/16066350902867882
[13]	Bachrach, R. and Read, J. (2012) The role of posttraumatic stress and problem alcohol involvement in university academic performance. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 68, 843-858. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jclp.21874
[14]	Nebraska Department of Veteran Affairs (2012) Post traumatic stress disorder. http://www.ptsd.ne.gov/what-is-ptsd.html
[15]	Centers for Disease Control (2012) Alcohol and public health. Frequently asked questions. http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/faqs.htm#standDri http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/faqs.htm>nk
[16]	Wells, G. (2010) The effect of religiosity and campus alcohol culture on collegiate alcohol consumption. Journal of American College Health, 58, 295-304. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07448480903380250
[17]	Harden, K. (2010) Does religious involvement protect against early drinking? A behavior genetic approach. Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 51, 763-771. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2010.02247.x
[18]	Willoughby, B. and Carroll, J. (2009) The impact of living in co-ed resident halls on risk-taking among college students. Journal of American College Health, 58, 241-246. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07448480903295359
[19]	Miller, K., Danner, F. and Staten, R. (2008) Relationship of work hours with selected health behaviors and academic progress among a college student cohort. Journal of American College Health, 56, 675-679. http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JACH.56.6.675-679
[20]	Walter, G. and Kowalczyk, J. (2012) The effectiveness of alcohol policies in 4-year public universities. Journal of Community Health, 37, 520-528. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10900-011-9474-3