Self-regulation skills, alcohol use and polydrug use among

university studentsRene Sebena1, Rafael Mikolajczyk2,

Olga Orosova3 Affiliations:  1 PJ Safarik University in Kosice, Faculty of Arts, Department of Psychology, Slovak Republic2 BIPS - Institute for Epidemiology and Prevention Research, Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Germany5 PJ Safarik University in Kosice, Faculty of Arts, Department of Educational Psychology and Health Psychology, Slovak Republic

AcknowledgementsThis work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under the contract No. APVV-20-038205 and the Slovak Academy of Sciences under Contract No. VEGA 1/1092/12.

the ability of an individual to manage his own behavior through observation, evaluation, and consequation

importance for task performance, school and work success, popularity, mental health and adjustment, and good interpersonal relationships and to avoid problematic use of internet and alcohol use

SELF-REGULATION

some surveys of university students suggest that alcohol and illicit drug use has risen

binge drinking appears to be associated with the use of a variety of other illicit drugs

Alcohol Use and Illicit Drug Use in University Students

We aimed to investigate the relationship between self-regulation skills, alcohol use and polydrug use among university students.

Aim of this study

data from 1st wave of the Student Life Cohort in Europe – SLiCE

self-administered online questionnaire 814 freshmen mean age – 19.61 75.2 % female three universities in Kosice, Slovakia – PJ. Safarik University, the University of

Veterinary Medicine and the Technical University

Methods - Sample

The Short Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SSRQ; Carey et al., 2004)

31-item questionnaire, 1–5 scale (1-strongly disagree to 5-strongly

agree)Cronbach's Alpha - 0.91

Measures

AUDIT - Alcohol use disorders identification test 10 items, each scored from 0 to 4.

“How often in the last month have you used the following drugs?”

- list of eight drugs (Marijuana, Amphetamines, Cocaine, Heroine, Ecstasy, Mushrooms, LSD, Anabolic steroids)

- responses: 1 - never, 2 – once a month, 3 – twice a month, 4 – once a week, 5 – twice a week, 6 – four times a week 7-every day

- polydrug use (sum score of eight drug items).

Alcohol and polydrug use

Linear regression was performed to assess the relationship between self-regulation, alcohol use and the polydrug use

Statistical analysis

Male Female Total

AUDIT score 0-7 (%) 55.1 76.7 71.7

AUDIT score 8-15 (%) 30.8 18.3 21.2

AUDIT score 16-19 (%) 7.1 3.5 4.3

AUDIT score 20-40 (%) 7.1 1.4 2.8

Table 1. Description of the sample with respect to total AUDIT scores.

Table 2. Use of selected substances in the past month

Never (%) At least once a month (%)

Marijuana 92.1 7.9

Amphetamines 99.5 0.5

Cocaine 99.4 0.6

Heroin 99.9 0.1

Ecstasy 99.9 0.1

Mushrooms 98.2 1.8

LSD 99.9 0.1

Anabolic steroids 99.7 0.3

How often in the last month have you used the following drugs?

Beta t p

Gender -.027 -.599 .549

AUDIT .257 5.532 < .001

Self-regulation -.135 -3.074 .002

Table 4. Relationship between self-regulation, alcohol use and the polydrug use

R2=.094

Conclusion

lower levels of self-regulation skills being associated with a higher level of polydrug use

higher level of alcohol use being associated with a higher level of polydrug use

relationship equivalent for both genders

low self-regulation skills and alcohol use might lead to increased polydrug use

 

non-normality of criterion variable cross-sectional design representativeness social expectation bias

Limitations

Thank you for your attention.