Risk for alcohol use/misuse among entering college students: The role of personality and stress.

INTRODUCTION

Excessive alcohol use amongst college students is associated with low grades, poor mental health, and risks to physical safety. Neuroticism, characterized by emotional instability and anxiety, and self-reported stress have both been shown to be strong predictors of alcohol use and misuse, however, previous studies have shown that measures of stress and Neuroticism are frequently confounded. This study tests the hypothesis that personality traits, and Neuroticism in particular, predict alcohol use/misuse in matriculating freshmen above and beyond reported levels of stress.

METHODS

Data were collected as part of an IRB-approved longitudinal study, MAPme, examining behavioral health in college. Participants were 303 first-year college students (70% female) with an average age of 18.58 (SD = 0.39). Data were collected during the first eight weeks of the first semester at college.

RESULTS

Overall, domain-level Neuroticism was not associated with alcohol use/misuse above and beyond perceived levels of stress and other Big Five domains ( 0.14,  = 0.088). Notably, the depression facet of Neuroticism (Neuroticism-Depression), was positively associated with alcohol use/misuse when accounting for the shared effects of stress. Results demonstrated that the Neuroticism-Depression facet moderated the relationship between stress and alcohol use/misuse ( = 0.18,  = 0.020).

CONCLUSIONS

The Neuroticism-Depression facet is a better predictor of alcohol use/misuse than the Neuroticism domain, even when accounting for stress and other personality domains.At low levels of the Depression facet, stress was negatively associated with alcohol use/misuse, but at high levels of the Depression facet, stress was positively associated with alcohol use/misuse. Taken together, our results shed new light into the combined and independent effects of Neuroticism and stress on alcohol use/misuse.