Alcohol and other drug use by Ontario University students: the roles of gender, age, year of study, academic grades, place of residence and programme of study

One of the more critical transitions that occurs for many young people is that of leaving high school and entering university and college environments. For most students this means an opportunity to leave home for the first time and enter an environment that is reputed to provide numerous opportunities to party. The absence of parental restraints, and the opportunity to use alcohol and other drugs in a milieu that is conducive, if not supportive, of these activities, may prove highly tempting for some students. The present study investigated the relationship of gender, age, year of study, academic grades, place of residence and programme of study to student alcohol and other drug use in a sample of universities within the province of Ontario, Canada. By regressing alcohol and other drug use measures onto these factors, we have been able to assess the effects of each of them. Overall, the most consistent, influential factors across all substances, in terms of the number of significant effects, appear to be place of residence, academic grades, programme of study, gender, age and year of study. For example, with respect to students reporting consuming more than 15 alcoholic drinks per week, the analyses revealed the following adjusted effects: males were almost three times more likely than females to have consumed these amounts; students aged 23-25 years and students aged 26 years or older were less likely (0.5 times and 0.3 times, respectively) to consume these amounts compared with students between 17 and 19 years of age; students with D, C, or B averages were 3.2, 2.0 and 1.5 times as likely, respectively, to have consumed these amounts; students living in campus residences were 2.7 times more likely to have consumed these amounts than students living with their parents, and students living off-campus were twice as likely to have done so; students enrolled in arts and social sciences, respectively, were 1.5 and 1.6 times as likely to have consumed these amounts than students enrolled in a science programme. Similar findings with respect to other drugs are also reported. The implications of these findings for programming opportunities that the universities may wish to consider are discussed.