Book contents
- Improving University Mental Health
- Improving University Mental Health
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements and Thanks to Contributors
- Chapter 1 Introducing This Handbook
- Chapter 2 Building a New Sense of Belonging
- Chapter 3 The Transition to University for New Students with Pre-Existing Mental Conditions
- Chapter 4 The Roles of Parents and Carers
- Chapter 5 Healthy Bodies, Body Image Concerns, Eating Disorders
- Chapter 6 Alcohol
- Chapter 7 Substance Misuse
- Chapter 8 Social (and Anti-social) Media
- Chapter 9 Finance and Mental Health
- Chapter 10 Neurodiversity
- Chapter 11 Ethnically Diverse University Communities
- Chapter 12 Sexual Behaviour and Gender Identity in Universities
- Chapter 13 The Mental Health of Teaching and Academic Staff
- Chapter 14 An Overview of Mental Disorders in Students and Staff
- Chapter 15 ‘Psychotic’ Disorders
- Chapter 16 Mood Disorders
- Chapter 17 Suicide at University
- Chapter 18 Mental Health Services on Campus and in the NHS
- Chapter 19 Students of the Professions and ‘Fitness to Practise’ Issues
- Chapter 20 Summing It All Up
- Index
- References
Chapter 6 - Alcohol
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 February 2024
Book contents
- Improving University Mental Health
- Improving University Mental Health
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements and Thanks to Contributors
- Chapter 1 Introducing This Handbook
- Chapter 2 Building a New Sense of Belonging
- Chapter 3 The Transition to University for New Students with Pre-Existing Mental Conditions
- Chapter 4 The Roles of Parents and Carers
- Chapter 5 Healthy Bodies, Body Image Concerns, Eating Disorders
- Chapter 6 Alcohol
- Chapter 7 Substance Misuse
- Chapter 8 Social (and Anti-social) Media
- Chapter 9 Finance and Mental Health
- Chapter 10 Neurodiversity
- Chapter 11 Ethnically Diverse University Communities
- Chapter 12 Sexual Behaviour and Gender Identity in Universities
- Chapter 13 The Mental Health of Teaching and Academic Staff
- Chapter 14 An Overview of Mental Disorders in Students and Staff
- Chapter 15 ‘Psychotic’ Disorders
- Chapter 16 Mood Disorders
- Chapter 17 Suicide at University
- Chapter 18 Mental Health Services on Campus and in the NHS
- Chapter 19 Students of the Professions and ‘Fitness to Practise’ Issues
- Chapter 20 Summing It All Up
- Index
- References
Summary
There are high levels of alcohol in the UK population, with a particularly damaging pattern of ‘binge drinking’. Extreme alcohol use remains embedded in university culture. Since COVID and lockdown, male students, postgraduates and academic staff are likely to have increased their alcohol consumption. Starting university marks a rise in alcohol intake, to reduce social anxiety and ‘belong’ to the prevailing culture. High risk sexual behaviours rise significantly when alcohol is taken. Death by suicide, and deliberate self-harming, are associated with alcohol use. This is an important modifiable risk factor in addressing sexual violence and suicide. Mental disorders are strongly associated in complex interactions with alcohol use. Heavy alcohol use may be associated with other substance misuse and addictive behaviours. Abstaining from alcohol may result in striking improvements in mental health and academic performance. The rights and wellbeing of non-drinkers need to be acknowledged too. Information campaigns and paying lip service to disapproval do not work. The student age group tends to be less risk-averse than older groups. It falls to university authorities in partnership with local communities to control high risk alcohol intake.
Keywords
Student drinking culturestudent alcohol risks Alcohol and student suicidealcohol and academic performancestudents who do not drinkUniversity mental health student mental healthtransition to universityuniversity staff mental healthstudent suicidestudent fitness to practiseCOVID and student alcohol consumption
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Improving University Mental Health , pp. 72 - 89Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024
References
Alcohol Impact (2018). Students and Alcohol National Survey: Research into higher education students’ relationship with alcohol 2017-18. NUS.Google Scholar
Bailey, J., Kalk, N. J., Andrews, R., et al. (2021). Alcohol and cocaine use prior to suspected suicide: Insights from toxicology. Drug and Alcohol Review, 40(7), 1195-1201.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
BBC Newsbeat (2017, 25 October). Uni rugby initiations ‘totally unacceptable’ says RFU. BBC. www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-41755960Google Scholar
Bewick, B. M., Mulhern, K. B., Barkham, M. & Hill, A. J. (2008). The feasibility and effectiveness of a web-based personalised feedback and social norms alcohol intervention in UK university students: A randomised control trial Addictive Behaviors, 33(9), 1192–8.Google Scholar
Bhattacharya, A. (2017). Splitting the bill: Alcohol’s impact on the economy. London: Institute for Alcohol Studies.Google Scholar
Brooks, O. (2011). ‘Guys! Stop Doing It!’: Young women’s adoption and rejection of safety advice when socializing in bars, pubs and clubs. The British Journal of Criminology, 51, 635–51. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azr011CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, R. & Murphy, S. (2020). Alcohol and social connectedness for new residential university students: Implications for alcohol harm reduction. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 44(2), 216–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2018.1527024Google Scholar
Busby, E. (2019, 23 September) Universities urged to help prevent deaths from binge-drinking as Freshers’ Week begins. Independent. www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/university-freshers-week-alcohol-deaths-binge-drinking-ed-farmer-health-warning-a9114046.html accessed 31/10/2021Google Scholar
Carline, A., Gunby, C. & Taylor, S. (2018). Too drunk to consent? Exploring the contestations and disruptions in male-focused sexual violence prevention interventions. Social & Legal Studies, 27(3), 299–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carr, E., Davis, K., Bergin-Cartwright, G., et al. (2022). Mental health among UK university staff and postgraduate students in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Occupational & Environmental Medicine, 79(4), 259–67. https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2021-107667Google Scholar
Elgàn, T. H., Durbeej, N. & Gripenberg, J. (2019). Breath alcohol concentration, hazardous drinking and preloading among Swedish university students. Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 36(5), 430–41. https://doi.org/10.1177/1455072519863545CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evans, S., Alkan, E., Bhangoo, J. K., Tenenbaum, H. & Ng-Knight, T. (2021). Effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on mental health, wellbeing, sleep, and alcohol use in a UK student sample. Psychiatry Research, 298, 113819.Google Scholar
Gavurova, B., Ivankova, V. & Rigelsky, M. (2020). Relationships between perceived stress, depression and alcohol use disorders in university students during the COVID-19 pandemic: A socio-economic dimension. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(23), 8853.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldstein, A. L., Barnett, N. P., Pedlow, C. T. & Murphy, J. G. (2007). Drinking in conjunction with sexual experiences among at-risk college student drinkers. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 68(5), 697–705.Google Scholar
Kalk, N. J., Kelleher, M. J., Curtis, V. & Morley, K. I. (2019). Addressing substance misuse: A missed opportunity in suicide prevention. Addiction, 114, 387–8. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.14463Google Scholar
Kenney, S. R., DiGuiseppi, G. T., Meisel, M. K., Balestrieri, S. G. & Barnett, N. P. (2018). Poor mental health, peer drinking norms, and alcohol risk in a social network of first-year college students. Addictive Behaviors, 84, 151–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2018.04.012CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larimer, M. E. & Cronce, J. M. (2007). Identification, prevention, and treatment revisited: Individual-focused college drinking prevention strategies 1999–2006. Addictive Behaviors, 32(11), 2439–68.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lechner, W. V., Laurene, K. R., Patel, S., Anderson, M., Grega, C. & Kenne, D. R. (2020). Changes in alcohol use as a function of psychological distress and social support following COVID-19 related university closings. Addictive Behaviors, 110, 106527.Google Scholar
Leffingwell, T. R., Neumann, C. A., Leedy, M. J. & Babitzke, A. C. (2007). Defensively biased responding to risk information among alcohol-using college students. Addictive Behaviors, 32(1), 158–65.Google Scholar
Lynch, W. J., Maciejewski, P. K., & Potenza, M. N. (2004). Psychiatric correlates of gambling in adolescents and young adults grouped by age at gambling onset. Archives of General Psychiatry, 61(11), 1116–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCauley, L., Ruggiero, K. J., Resnick, H. S., Conoscenti, L. M. & Kilpatrick, D. G. (2009). Forcible, drug-facilitated, and incapacitated rape in relation to substance use problems: Results from a national sample of college women. Addictive Behaviors, 34, 458–62.Google Scholar
Ng Fat, L., Shelton, N. & Cable, N. (2018). Investigating the growing trend of non-drinking among young people; analysis of repeated cross-sectional surveys in England 2005–2015. BMC Public Health, 18(1), 1–10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Norman, P., Cameron, D., Epton, T., et al. (2018). A randomised controlled trial of a brief online intervention to reduce alcohol consumption in new university students: Combining self-affirmation, theory of planned behaviour messages, and implementation intentions. British Journal of Health Psychology, 23, 108–27. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjhp.12277CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Orme, J. & Coghill, N. (2014). Wasted potential: The role of higher education institutions in supporting safe, sensible and social drinking among students. Health Education Journal, 73(2), 192–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Presley, C. A., Meilman, P. W., Cashin, J. R. & Lyerla, R. (1996). Alcohol and drugs on American college campuses: Use, consequences, and perceptions of the campus environment: Volume III: 1991–1993. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University.Google Scholar
Quigg, Z., Hughes, K. & Bellis, M. A. (2013). Student drinking patterns and blood alcohol concentration on commercially organised pub crawls in the UK. Addictive Behaviors, 38(12), 2924–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rollnick, S. & Miller, W. R. (1995). What is motivational interviewing? Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 23(4), 325–34.Google Scholar
Stanley, N., Mallon, S., Bell, J. & Manthorpe, J. (2009). Trapped in transition: Findings from a UK study of student suicide. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 37(4), 419–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Testa, M., Parks, K. A., Hoffman, J. H., Crane, C. A., Leonard, K. E. & Shyhalla, K. (2015). Do drinking episodes contribute to sexual aggression perpetration in college men? Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 76(4), 507–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thombs, D. L., Olds, R. S., Bondy, S. J., Winchell, J., Baliunas, D. & Rehm, J. (2009). Undergraduate drinking and academic performance: A prospective investigation with objective measures. Journal of Studies of Alcohol & Drugs, 70(5), 776–85. https://doi.org/10.15288/jsad.2009.70.776CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wechsler, H., Lee, J. E., Kuo, M. & Lee, H. (2000). College binge drinking in the 1990s: A continuing problem. Results of the Harvard School of Public Health 1999 College Alcohol Study. Journal of American College Health, 48(5), 199–210.Google Scholar
Wolfson, M., Champion, H., McCoy, T. P., et al. (2012). Impact of a randomized campus/community trial to prevent high‐risk drinking among college students. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 36(10), 1767–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Accessibility standard: Unknown
Why this information is here
This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.Accessibility Information
Accessibility compliance for the HTML of this chapter is currently unknown
and may be updated in the future.