Thompson Kara, Homel Jacqueline, Leadbeater Bonnie
Centre for Addictions Research of British Columbia, Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
J Stud Alcohol Drugs. 2015 Jan;76(1):95-105.
This study examined the association between time to enrollment into postsecondary education and trajectories of heavy episodic drinking (HED) and marijuana use using a prospective longitudinal study.
Participants included 391 postsecondary students (55% female) drawn from the Victoria Healthy Youth Survey, a five-wave, multi-cohort sample interviewed biennially between 2003 and 2011. Using piecewise latent growth modeling, we compared changes in the trajectories of HED and marijuana use before and after postsecondary enrollment across three groups of young adults: (a) direct entrants (enrolled directly out of high school), (b) gap entrants (took a year off), and (c) delayed entrants (took longer than a year off).
Heavy drinking increased after enrollment for direct entrants and gap entrants and decreased for delayed entrants. Marijuana use increased after enrollment for direct entrants, and decreased for gap entrants and delayed entrants. Yet, overall levels of marijuana use were significantly higher among the gap and delay entrants over time compared with direct entrants. Group differences in heavy drinking appeared to reflect age-related changes in drinking patterns. However, differences in marijuana use may reflect pre-existing inequities in access to higher education across groups.
The association between postsecondary education and increased substance use may be limited to students who enroll at a postsecondary institution directly out of high school. However, students who delay enrollment have higher levels of substance use before enrollment, as well as lower high school grades and socioeconomic status compared with direct entrants, and may be particularly vulnerable to long-term substance use problems and degree noncompletion.
本研究采用前瞻性纵向研究方法，探讨了进入高等教育的时间与重度饮酒（HED）轨迹及大麻使用之间的关联。
参与者包括391名高等院校学生（55%为女性），这些学生来自维多利亚健康青年调查，该调查是一个五波多队列样本，在2003年至2011年期间每两年进行一次访谈。我们使用分段潜在增长模型，比较了三组年轻人在高等教育入学前后HED和大麻使用轨迹的变化：（a）直接入学的学生（高中毕业后直接入学），（b）间隔入学的学生（休学一年），以及（c）延迟入学的学生（休学时间超过一年）。
直接入学的学生和间隔入学的学生在入学后重度饮酒增加，而延迟入学的学生则减少。直接入学的学生在入学后大麻使用增加，间隔入学和延迟入学的学生则减少。然而，随着时间的推移，间隔入学和延迟入学的学生的大麻总体使用水平明显高于直接入学的学生。重度饮酒的组间差异似乎反映了饮酒模式中与年龄相关的变化。然而，大麻使用的差异可能反映了不同群体在接受高等教育机会方面先前存在的不平等。
高等教育与物质使用增加之间的关联可能仅限于高中毕业后直接进入高等院校的学生。然而，与直接入学的学生相比，延迟入学的学生在入学前物质使用水平较高，高中成绩和社会经济地位较低，可能特别容易出现长期物质使用问题和无法完成学业的情况。
