Date of Award

Fall 2023

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Kate Flory

Abstract

Alcohol use, while common in college student populations, can bring about significant mental health and educational problems that have negative consequences (Harris et al., 2017; White & Hingson, 2013). Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can also result in significant impairment in academic settings (Kuriyan et al., 2012; Blase et al., 2009, Barbaresi et al., 2007), and those with ADHD often show increased rates of alcohol consumption and related problems, which can greatly increase the risk for students to struggle in college (Barbaresi et al., 2013; Baker et al., 2012). Examining the impact that specific risk and protective factors play in this relation between ADHD and alcohol use is critical to developing a deeper understanding of why some college students with ADHD consume alcohol. The presence of particular risk and/or protective factors can have a significant effect on behaviors that lead to negative health and mental health outcomes (Meisel & Barnett, 2017; Felitti et al., 1998). This study examined how risk factors (i.e., adverse childhood experiences [ACEs]; Felitti et al., 1998) and protective factors (i.e., size of one’s social support network [SNI]; Cohen et al., 1997) act as moderators of the relation between ADHD and alcohol use behaviors. More specifically, this study examined the impact that both ACES and SNI have on the frequency of alcohol use and the presence of negative alcohol-related consequences. This study also explored how these two factors work in combination with one another on each of these outcomes, in hopes of providing additional insight into the relation between ADHD and college student alcohol use. Results from the primary analyses did not show any significant effects for ACEs as a moderator of the relation between ADHD symptoms and college student alcohol consumption and negative alcohol-related consequences, nor for SNI as a moderator between ADHD symptoms and alcohol consumption. However, the findings did show a significant moderation effect for SNI on the relation between ADHD symptoms and negative alcohol-related consequences. Additionally, exploratory analyses found that when separating ADHD symptoms into the core symptom clusters (i.e., inattention, hyperactivity-impulsivity), neither ACEs nor SNI were significant moderators of the relation between symptoms and alcohol use and consequences in college students. These findings provide information that can be helpful in establishing or adapting treatment and prevention efforts to use with college students who have ADHD to help them refrain from alcohol use and its associated negative consequences.

Rights

© 2024, Cameron Shepard Massey

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