Study: Parental Approval Leads to More Drinking in College

"Parents who accept drinking as just a normal part of college may be encouraging their kids to drink more, according to a study published in the journal Addictive Behaviors.  

The researchers surveyed 687 Penn State students about their drinking habits and how much they believed their parents would approve of them drinking. The data was gathered at regular checkpoints across four years, from the last year of high school through the third year of college. 

To learn more about these patterns, the researchers arranged students into four groups, including students with parents who…

• Consistently didn't approve of drinking
• Consistently approved of high levels of drinking
• Began approving of higher levels of drinking around age 21 parents
• Began approving of higher levels of drinking when the students started college

The results: the more students believed their parents approved of them drinking, the more alcohol they tended to drink. Many parents didn't approve of drinking in high school, but when they went to college or got closer to turning 21, “the parents' attitudes relaxed and students' drinking increased,” said Brian Calhoun, graduate student in human development and family studies and first author of the paper.

The findings show that parents can still play a role in providing positive feedback and encouraging their children to make healthy lifestyle choices, especially during the college years when drug and alcohol use often peaks. "One part of this can be supporting safe choices about drinking alcohol,” said Jennifer Maggs, professor of human development and family studies, “and not reinforcing or making jokes about college being a crazy time when everyone takes risks without consequences." 

Conversation Goals During College
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, it's important for parents to keep the lines of communication open through all four (or more) years of college. This regular communication will also make it easier to spot any sign of alcohol abuse, including: 

• Binge drinking
• Declining grades
• Changes in appearance
• Decrease in extracurricular college activities
• Shifts in sleeping patterns
• Mood swings
• Reckless behavior
• Changes in social circles or hanging out with others who abuse alcohol or drugs

Sobriety College at Hope Academy

If you are or someone you love is a college student struggling with a mental illness and a substance use disorder, Hope Academy may be the ideal rehab program for you. Our peer-based program provides the safety and support you need to succeed in school and at sobriety. To learn more about our sobriety college, call today: 866-930-4673.

Pot Plus Alcohol Equals Poor Grades

Drinking and smoking pot can cause poor grades for college students, according to a study published in PLOS One, which confirms a notion long-held by addiction experts and educators. 

Researchers at Yale University and the Institute of Living in Hartford, Conn., found that college students who consume medium-to-high levels of alcohol and marijuana have a consistently lower GPA -- not only by the end of the first semester but throughout the two years of the study. 

The authors used data from the Brain and Alcohol Research in College Students study, which tracked 1,142 students for two years after they began college, and self-reported data to cluster them into groups of low users or medium-to-high users of alcohol or both substances.

Those who used marijuana and alcohol heavily in the first semester had a GPA of 2.66 compared to 3.1 for those who used little to no alcohol or pot. Those who drank heavily but didn’t smoke marijuana had an average first semester GPA of 3.03. Students who decreased their substance use over time did show an increase in GPA compared to their peers who continued the same pattern of drug and alcohol use, noted authors.

Hopefully, these results will encourage college health and counseling services to put out more information on the impact that drugs and alcohol have on grades, said Godfrey Pearlson, senior author of the study. “There’s a lot of peer pressure during that first year to drink and use marijuana,” he adds.

Here are some more facts about drinking and smoking marijuana in college, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute on Drug Abuse:

• People who begin using marijuana before the age of 18 are four to seven times more likely to develop a marijuana use disorder than adults.
• About 20 percent of college students meet the criteria for an alcohol use disorder. 
• About one in four college students report academic consequences from drinking, including missing class, falling behind in class, doing poorly on exams or papers, and receiving lower grades overall.
• Marijuana is linked to school failure, causing negative effects on attention, memory, and learning.

Addiction Treatment for Young Adults
No matter how severe your addiction, Hope Academy's substance abuse rehab in California can help. Interested young adults attend college courses while they are in rehab, and all participants receive life skills training and customized aftercare to optimize chances of sobriety success. For information, call 866-930-4673.