Drinking to Cope in the COVID-19 Era: An Investigation Among College Students

Mohr, Cynthia D.; Umemoto, Sheila K; Rounds, Thomas W; Bouleh, Philip G.; Arpin, Sarah

doi:10.15288/jsad.2021.82.178

Cited by 28 publications

(27 citation statements)

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“…Fourth, given the importance of coping strategies in the literature [ 24 , 28 ], we consider associations between coping strategies and alcohol use in combination with stress- and social-related factors. Assessing the potential protective effects of resilient coping is particularly novel.…”

Section: Current Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…College students who changed residence to live with parents and those who believed that Covid-19 precaution-taking was important, which presumably was associated with fewer opportunities to socialize, decreased their alcohol use more than their peers [ 11 , 12 , [18] , [19] , [20] ]. Research has also found an important role for stressors in determining alcohol use among U.S. college students during the pandemic [ 24 , 25 ], along with associations between drinking to cope motives and heavier alcohol use [ 17 , 24 ]. One study found that coping motives for alcohol use increased, while social motives decreased during the pandemic [ 17 ].…”

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confidence: 99%

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The Effect of Social and Stress-Related Factors on Alcohol Use Among College Students During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Fruehwirth

Gorman

Perreira

2021

Journal of Adolescent Health

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Purpose The aim of this article is to study how Covid-19 stress-related factors and changes in social engagement during the pandemic contributed to changes in alcohol use among first-year college students. Methods We used data on 439 first-year students (ages 18–20) at a large public university in North Carolina both before (October 2019 to February 2020) and after (June/July 2020) the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. We evaluated changes in prevalence and days of alcohol use and binge drinking. We estimated the associations between Covid-19 stressors/stress (work reductions, health, distanced learning difficulties, perceived stress) and social engagement (perceived social support from friends, social isolation, and social distancing) after controlling for students’ pre-pandemic alcohol use, social engagement, and demographic characteristics. Results We found that the prevalence of alcohol use and binge drinking in the past 30 days decreased from 54.2% to 46.0% and 35.5% to 24.6%, respectively; days of use did not change significantly. The decreases were primarily associated with reductions in social engagement. Among Covid-19 stressors/stress, only challenges with distance learning were associated with higher alcohol use among those who were already drinking prior to the pandemic. Drinking increased more among those who endorsed using substances to cope, while drinking was not associated with resilient coping. Conclusions Unless new drinking habits are formed during the pandemic, decreases in alcohol use among college students are unlikely to be sustained as social distancing measures are removed. Colleges may want to target interventions to students who have responded to stress with increased alcohol use, partly by addressing difficulties with distance learning.

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Section: Current Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Social and Stress-Related Factors on Alcohol Use Among College Students During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Fruehwirth

Gorman

Perreira

2021

Journal of Adolescent Health

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“…Extreme drinking among students is known to be associated with social, enhancement and coping motives ( White et al, 2016 ). Loneliness, difficulty with goal-directed behavior, COVID-19-related worry and reading COVID-19-related news have been associated with drinking to cope with the pandemic ( Buckner et al, 2021 ; Mohr et al, 2021 ). There is also evidence that increased drinking during the COVID-19 pandemic has been more common among people with symptoms of anxiety and depression ( Tran et al, 2020 ; Lechner et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Change in alcohol consumption and physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic amongst 76 medical students

Sandell¹,

Saltychev²

2021

PeerJ

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Objective To investigate whether the COVID-19 pandemic has affected physical activity and alcohol consumption among medical students. Methods Cross-sectional survey study among 76 students in their second year of medical school. The Wilcoxon sign-rank test and Kruskal-Wallis H test were used to assess the difference between groups. Results Of 76 respondents, 68% were women, 66% were single and 34% were co-habiting. The median age was 21 years. Overall alcohol consumption decreased during the pandemic year by 12 g/week. Overall physical activity did not significantly change. The decrease in alcohol consumption was mostly caused by a change seen in a high tertile, change was −96 g/week. Alcohol consumption decreased more in women than in men, p = 0.0001. Conclusions It seems that alcohol consumption among medical students has decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic probably due to reduced social contacts and negative effect of social isolation. This decrease was seen especially among women and among students with higher alcohol consumption before the pandemic. Also, it seems that students had found their ways to remain active during the pandemic since the amount of leisure-time physical activity had not changed significantly.

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“…Falk et al, 2021 , McGinty et al, 2020 , Ettman et al, 2020 , Kantor and Kantor, 2020 , Riehm et al, 2021 , Veldhuis et al, 2021 , Lechner et al, 2021 , Lindau et al, 2021 , Kobayashi et al, 2021 , Avery et al, 2020 , Capasso et al, 2021 , Grossman et al, 2020 , Barbosa et al, in press , McKetta et al, 2021 , Pollard et al, 2020 , Wardell et al, 2020 , Coakley et al, 2021 , Hasin and Grant, 2015 , Hasin et al, 2007 , Fergusson et al, 2009 , Kushner et al, 2000 , Bellos et al, 2016 , Khantzian, 1997 , Hawn et al, 2020 , Brooks et al, 2020 , Cooper et al, 2016 , Graupensperger et al, 2021 , McPhee et al, 2020 , Prestigiacomo et al, 2021: , Buckner et al, 2021 , Mohr et al, 2021 , The American Association for Public Opinion Research. Standard Definitions: Final dispositions of case codes and outcome rates for surveys, Revised, 2011 , Cho et al, 2001 , Cooper, 1994 , Lac and Donaldson, 2017 , Greenfield et al, 2009 , Löwe et al, 2004 , Kroenke et al, 2009 , StataCorp.…”

Section: Uncited Referencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental health and drinking to cope in the early COVID period: Data from the 2019–2020 US National Alcohol Survey

Martínez

Karriker‐Jaffe

et al. 2022

Addictive Behaviors

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Background Studies show drinking to cope and mental health problems have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, however, their samples have been limited by convenience sampling or lack of a pre-pandemic measure. We examined the early impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, drinking to cope and their association using a probability-based sample of the US adult population. Methods Data was drawn from the probability samples of the 2019-2020 National Alcohol Survey (N=7,233) to examine changes in drinking to cope and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Analyses compared participants who responded to the survey just prior to the widespread onset of the pandemic to those who responded after March 2020, in the total sample and by sex. Results Respondents in the early- vs. pre-COVID-19 period had a 1.48 higher odds (p=0.03) of higher agreement with drinking to forget one’s worries and problems, with a significant association observed among women only. Respondents with symptoms of depression and anxiety had a 2.94 and 1.56 higher odds, respectively, of higher agreement with drinking to forget one’s worries. We observed significant associations between early- vs. pre-COVID-19 period, depression and anxiety symptoms, and drinking to forget one’s worries among women only; however, moderation by sex in the total sample was not statistically significant. Conclusions We observed higher prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms and greater drinking to forget worries in the early months of COVID restrictions relative to the period just prior, with some effects more prominent among women. These observations call for sustained monitoring of and support for the mental health of the general population, and of women in particular during the course of the pandemic.

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Drinking to Cope in the COVID-19 Era: An Investigation Among College Students

Cited by 28 publications

References 0 publications

The Effect of Social and Stress-Related Factors on Alcohol Use Among College Students During the Covid-19 Pandemic

The Effect of Social and Stress-Related Factors on Alcohol Use Among College Students During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Change in alcohol consumption and physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic amongst 76 medical students

Mental health and drinking to cope in the early COVID period: Data from the 2019–2020 US National Alcohol Survey

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