College Student Alcohol Use Declined During COVID Pandemic

Carolina researchers say the downward trend in college drinking could change once students return to campus.

According to a study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, freshmen report drinking less alcohol and binge drinking four months after the coronavirus pandemic than they were before the pandemic began.

The study is based on the experiences of 439 Carolina students and reflects how the pandemic affected students’ social lives and stress. Researchers from the Carolina Population Center and the UNC School of Medicine published the study results Aug. 2, 2021, in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

“We found that social factors, such as social distancing and reduced social support from friends, were associated with reductions in alcohol consumption among freshmen. In contrast, stress-related factors were less important,” said lead study author Jane Cooley Fruehwirth, an associate professor at UNC-Chapel Hill. Department of Economics at the College of Arts & Sciences and a faculty member at the Carolina Population Center.

Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows a drop in drinking during the pandemic among freshmen. Credit: Johnny Andrews/UNC-Chapel Hill

Her collaborators are Ben Gorman, a senior major in communications and neuroscience in the College of Arts and Sciences, and Krista Perreira, a professor of social medicine at the UNC School of Medicine and a faculty member at the Carolina Population Center. The work builds on their previous research on the mental health of freshmen during the pandemic.

Alcohol consumption is declining

Using survey data, researchers found that the prevalence of alcohol use among freshmen fell from 54.2% before the pandemic to 46% in the middle of the pandemic. The prevalence of binge drinking dropped from 35.5% pre-pandemic to 24.6% mid-pandemic.

“We followed the same group of freshmen before and after the onset of the pandemic, which allowed us to analyze covid-related determinants of drinking behavior taking into account pre-existing alcohol use and social factors,” said Gorman, who also runs the TEACH initiative, an organization. who educates about substance use and mental health in high schools in North Carolina.

While social factors dominated, stress did play a role for some students. Difficulty with distance learning was associated with increased drinking for students who were already drinking alcohol before the pandemic. In addition, 20.5% of students reported using alcohol or other drugs to cope with the pandemic.

“The dominance of social factors suggests that reductions in alcohol consumption may not be sustained once students return to campus,” Fruehwirth said. “For students who already drank before the pandemic, universities can support them by providing ways to help them manage stress, through counseling, student support groups, and especially by addressing distance learning challenges through academic coaching.”

Reference: “The Effect of Social and Stress-Related Factors on Alcohol Use Among College Students During the Covid-19 Pandemic” by Jane Cooley Fruehwirth, Ph.D., Benjamin L. Gorman, and Krista M. Perreira, Ph.D., Aug. 2, 2021 , Journal of Adolescent Health.
DOI: 10.116/j.jadohealth.2021.06.016

This research was supported by the Carolina Population Center and the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Grant Award Number P2C HD50924 (JF), the Integrating Special Populations/ North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute through Grant Award Number UL1TR002489 (KP), the Office of Undergraduate Research and Department of Economics at UNC-CH.