Revisiting resilience: Examining the relationships between stress, social support, and drinking behavior among black college students with parental substance use disorder histories

Abstract

The study examined the role social support plays in the relationship between life stress and problem alcohol use behavior in a sample of Black emerging adults in college with histories of parental substance use disorders (SUD). Participants were 1,007 Black emerging adult college students, recruited as part of a larger multi-wave, multisite, study investigating coping behavior among emerging adults in college. Findings suggest that Black college students with parental SUDs engage in riskier and coping motivated drinking behaviors more than those without such histories, and their alcohol use behaviors are more strongly linked to experiencing life stress, despite similar levels of perceived social support. Social support from friends and sufficient global social support help to mediate this adverse relationship. Parental SUD may serve as a readily identifiable risk factor for risky drinking behavior among Black college students. Implications for future research and clinical practice are presented.

Keywords:

• Parental substance abuse
• risky drinking
• alcohol use
• African American
• college students

Declaration of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.