Drug use and mental well being among a sample of undergraduate and graduate college students

Stress related disorders in college students are widespread and largely pre ventable. Students do not have the preventative skills necessary to manage stress in their lives and, because of the inability to cope, students may t urn to alcohol and drugs to alleviate the pressures they are experiencing. The purpose of this study was to describe the association between stress an d alcohol and drug use. A total of 772 undergraduate and graduate students from a small, elite, private university were randomly selected from 4000 st udents to complete two anonymous questionnaires. The Core Alcohol and Drug Survey identified the frequency and consequences of alcohol and drug use, a nd the General-Well Being Schedule was used to assess subjective well being and mental health status. The results of this study revealed that, for thi s sample of students, health behaviors such as using drugs recreationally a nd drinking alcohol played an associative role with general well being. A s ignificant relationship was also found between student participation in int ramural or club sports and positive mental well being.