Alcohol and substance use among a college population has become a norm for our society. Even more intriguing are the possible factors that may lead to use and abuse of alcohol and substances. The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between multiple participant characteristics (i.e., ethnicity, gender, year in college, socioeconomic status) and alcohol and substance use. A total of 902 participants from the University of Central Florida answered multiple questionnaires via the Sona system. Items in the questionnaires included topics such as demographic variables, social class variables, and items regarding alcohol and substance use in the past thirty days. The majority of participants were white females with an average age of 21.58. This study hypothesized that participants who identify as white males, those classified as a junior or senior in class standing, as well as those in a higher socioeconomic status would be more likely to report alcohol and substance use when compared to other participants. The current study also sought to assess how these different factors combine to best predict alcohol and substance use among a college sample. Data in the study was analyzed using SPSS in which correlations, t-tests, and an ANOVA were used to determine how participant characteristics and alcohol and substance use among college students are related. Linear regression analyses were conducted as well to determine how different participant characteristics can combine to best predict alcohol and substance use among college students. Results indicated that those participants whom identify as being white males, participants in a higher socioeconomic status, and, participants in later years of college are more likely to partake in alcohol and substance use. Results also indicated that the main factors that predicted alcohol and substance use are social class and year in college.

Cultivation theory, which is the theoretical foundation for many studies examining media effects, asserts that prolonged exposure to problematic attitudes cultivates acceptance of said attitudes (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, Signorielli & Shanahan, 2002). Beyond the cultivation of attitudes through lyrical and visual content, common explanations for the association between substance use references in media and perceived substance use risk include sensation-seeking (Arnett, 1991; Weisskirch & Murphy, 2004; Oberle & Garcia, 2015), peer substance use (Mulder et al., 2010), and the effects of mainstream and non-mainstream music genres (ter Bogt et al., 2012; Mulder et al., 2009). This study utilized an experimental design which examined the effect of substance use references in mainstream (pop) music compared to three proposed non-mainstream genres (reggae, electronic dance music [EDM], and psytrance [psychedelic-trance]) on participants' perceived substance use risk (PSUR). Higher levels of reported recent substance use were moderately and significantly associated with lower levels of PSUR (r (836) = -.36, p < .001). Recent substance use, group, substance use priming, age, race, and sex significantly impacted PSUR (F (5, 799) = 25.04, p < .05), explaining roughly 12% more of the variance (R2 = .135) than models not including recent substance use as a predictor. While exposure to mainstream and nonmainstream genres did not result in significant differences in participants' PSUR, there was a statistically significant difference in substance use priming between groups. Liking particular music genres was also still associated with higher levels of recent substance use, as previous studies have shown (Chen, Miller, Grube & Waiters, 2006; Mulder et al., 2009; ter Bogt et al., 2012; Forsyth, Barnard & McKeganey, 1997).

Sampson and Laub’s age-graded informal social control theory has generated considerable attention vying to become a leading explanation of criminal involvement across the life-course. It has spawned a number of criticisms and an equivocal body of research. Many of these criticisms have centered on their reliance upon the Glueck data - a dataset consisting of all White males born in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Using logistic regression, the current project explores whether adult social bonds such as marital bonds, employment bonds, and military service, factors highlighted by Sampson and Laub, are related to substance use among a nationally representative sample born in the United States between 1957 and 1964. This project then specifically extends this body of literature by examining race and gender variation in the relationship between social bonds and substance use. The findings provide general empirical support for many of Sampson and Laub’s original findings. However, once racial and gender subgroups were analyzed independently the results indicate that many key adult social bonds were not related to the desistance of illicit substance use. The findings are discussed in terms of the further specification of theoretical models recognizing distinct pathways to change and continuity of substance use among various racial categories, genders, and historical settings.

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