Psychosocial Stress and Attitudes Toward Substance Use Among College Students: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Substance use occurs on college campuses nationwide and is among the top threats to college-student health. The present study aimed to explore the impact of stress on substance use attitudes. The independent variable was acute psychosocial stress, induced using the Trier Social Stress Test. We measured chronic stress using the Adverse Childhood Experiences questionnaire. The Alcohol Purchase Task (i.e., alcohol demand, alcohol breakpoint, alcohol expenditure) and the Cognitive Appraisal of Risky Events-Revised questionnaire (i.e., expected involvement with substances and expected benefits and consequences of using substances) were the dependent variables. We predicted that participants who completed the acute stress task would report greater attitudes toward substance use behaviors and this would be more pronounced for those with higher levels of chronic stress. Acute stress did not affect willingness to pay for alcohol, F(3, 85) = 0.55, p = .65, ηp2 = 0.02, or expected positive or negative consequences from engaging in substance use, F(3, 85) = 0.44, p = .73, ηp2 = 0.02. There was a small positive association between chronic stress, as measured by adverse childhood experiences, and expected use, ρ(89) = .22, p = .04. In exploratory analyses, we found expected positive benefits of substance use to be significantly associated with expected future involvement, whereas expected negative consequences of substance use was associated with expected future involvement. Our results imply that acute and chronic stress were not significant in predicting substance use behaviors. Rather, those who expect benefits are more likely to use substances.