ALCOHOL AND OTHER DRUG-USE BY ONTARIO UNIVERSITY-STUDENTS - THE ROLESOF GENDER, AGE, YEAR OF STUDY, ACADEMIC GRADES, PLACE OF RESIDENCE AND PROGRAM 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 en vironments. 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 t empting for some students. The present study investigated the relation ship of gender, age, year of study, academic grades, place of residenc e and programme of study to student alcohol and other drug use in a sa mple of universities within the province of Ontario, Canada. By regres sing alcohol and other drug use measures onto these factors, we have b een able to assess the effects of each of them. Overall, the most cons istent, influential factors across all substances, in terms of the num ber 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 consum ed 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 o f age; students with D, C, or B averages were 3.2, 2.0 and 1.5 times a s likely, respectively, to have consumed these amounts; students livin g in campus residences were 2.7 times more likely to have consumed the se amounts than students living with their parents, and students livin g off-campus were twice as likely to have done so; students enrolled i n arts and social sciences, respectively, were 1.5 and 1.6 times as li kely to have consumed these amounts than students enrolled in a scienc e programme. Similar findings with respect to other drugs are also rep orted. The implications of these findings for programming opportunitie s that the universities may wish to consider are discussed.