Harms To Others from Drinking Among College Students

项目总结/文摘

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruptions in college and university students' daily lives, and raised concerns about their finances, mental health, and vulnerability to the infection itself. At the same time, many states have termed alcohol sales an essential activity and liberalized alcohol policies such as home delivery, and off-premises sales of alcohol have increased dramatically in the wake of the pandemic and attendant orders to stop most business activity and shelter in place. College students already have heightened vulnerability to alcohol use disorders, and the confluence of these environmental risks will likely exacerbate student alcohol use. However, there are no data on the impact of these disruptions and policy changes from the COVID-19 pandemic on student drinking and harms from others' drinking (HTO), which prevents colleges and universities from taking action to protect their students during this unprecedented challenge. The parent grant for this administrative supplement provides a unique and exciting opportunity to directly fill this gap. The existing study will, for the first time in 20 years, explore the range and magnitude of HTO among college student. It will also identify risk and protective factors associated with young people's experience of HTO, and analyze whether and how college and state-level alcohol policies moderate the relationship between exposure to heavy drinkers and experience of HTO among college students. Building on the parent grant, this supplement would also explore 1) whether and how student experiences during the COVID- 19 pandemic act as risk and protective factors for student drinking and HTO, including infection with the virus, and 2) the role of state- and campus-level policies addressing the pandemic, including policy changes regarding alcohol availability as well as campus closures and shifts to remote learning, in moderating the relationship between student alcohol use and experience of HTO. This supplement prioritizes the most time-sensitive analyses to provide actionable feedback to campuses and states that will inform campus- and state-level programs and policies to ensure student health, safety and success in future waves of this or similar viral epidemics.