Exploring Resilience Among College Students in Recovery from Substance Misuse During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Research has shown that both college students and people in recovery from substance use disorder were adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, mental health and substance use challenges accrued for each group. However, less is known about how people who are both college students and in recovery experienced the pandemic. And, generally, little is known about the experiences of college students in recovery without access to the institutional support of a collegiate recovery program. We conducted a study including college students in recovery on a campus without a collegiate recovery program (N = 17) to explore how students experienced adversity during the pandemic and how they demonstrated resilience in overcoming adversity. We utilized thematic analysis to document patterns in the data. Students grappled with attrition from their recovery communities, loss of personal connections, and substance use and mental health challenges. To mitigate these hardships, students employed strategies to avoid substance use, applied principles of recovery programs, took advantage of new resources for recovery, and found ways to maintain connection with some supports. Our findings, documenting the resilience shown by these college students, can be utilized to improve collegiate recovery services, with an eye toward the ongoing popularity of virtual learning and toward potential future disruptive events.