No abstract

There is a consensus among addictions researchers and clinicians that mental health concerns and substance use problems are often interrelated. It is less clear to what extent the general public, and university students in particular, understand connections between substance use and mental health. The current study aimed to understand university students' perceived links between substance use and mental health by conducting three semistructured focus groups (N ¼ 24 participants, 67% female). Thematic analysis of the data yielded five themes: (1) Students use substances to cope with mental health issues, (2) substance use can lead to mental health problems, (3) links between mental health and substance use are cyclical, (4) substance use is an aspect/indicator of mental health, and (5) substance use and mental health are not always linked. Findings provide insight into the understudied area of perceived links between substance use and mental health and have implications for campus programming.

Living on-campus is a risk factor for heavy drinking and alcohol-related harm. However, there is considerable variability in drinking rates and harm across students and across living units on campuses. Multilevel models were used to investigate the independent and cross-level interactive effects of individual characteristics (personality, motives, perceived norms) and residence characteristics (social density, room type, gender distribution, number of Residence Assistants) as predictors of student alcohol outcomes. Participants were first-year students (N = 651; 71% girls) living in one of five on-campus housing units at an Eastern Canadian University. Level-1 predictors of impulsivity, sensation seeking, perceived norms, enhancement motives, and social motives were positively associated with heavy episodic drinking (HED) and alcohol-related harm. Coping and conformity motives were also associated with more alcohol-related harm. Residence characteristics did not directly impact drinking outcomes but significant cross-level interactions between social density and impulsivity and social density and sensation seeking were observed for HED and harms. Simple slope analysis of the significant interactions revealed that students with high/average impulsivity and students with low/average sensation-seeking tended to report more HED and harms when living in residences with higher social density. Findings suggest that social density of residences may pose risk for students with disinhibited personality traits. Selective personality-targeted prevention programs may help minimize this risk by giving these students the skills to manage their personality vulnerability when presented with high-risk contexts. Further, lower social density living environments may reduce social pressures to engage in high-risk behaviors among impulsive students. Public Significance StatementLevels of student drinking and alcohol harms are most strongly linked to people's reasons for drinking, their perception of how much their peers drink, and their personality. However, living in residence building that house large numbers of students further increases drinking risks for specific students. Living in a residence building with a large number of students (>300) increased alcohol use and harms for students who were high on impulsivity (acting without thinking) and student who were low on sensation seeking (seeking out novel and intense activities). Targeted interventions may help these students navigate risky residence environments and minimize their alcohol-related risks.