College Students, Drug Use and Abuse

The collegiate culture is associated with numerous lifestyle adjustments thereby contributing to a unique set of substance use patterns not seen in other populations. For example, the college environment provides many individuals with their first opportunity to be exposed to a large group of peers with minimal supervision and few adult responsibilities (e.g., full-time employment, childcare, financial pressures). Those who attend college after graduating from high school are more likely to live away from their parents than their same-age peers who do not attend college. Similarly, those in commuter schools who live with parents tend to have lower rates of drug use than those in residential colleges who are isolated from parental supervision. Thus, limited supervision coupled with peer pressure to use substances and to ...