Substance use and mental health problems among graduate students: Individual and program-level correlates

Abstract

Objective

This study evaluated variation in substance use and mental health among graduate student subgroups.

Participants

A sample of 2,683 master’s and doctoral students completed an online survey in October 2017.

Methods

Subgroup variation in behavioral health by demographic and program characteristics, particularly degree type and academic discipline, was explored.

Results

Compared with academic doctoral students (ie, PhD students), professional doctoral students (ie, MD, JD, etc.) were significantly more likely to report high stress levels and moderate or severe anxiety symptoms. Master’s students were more likely to report moderate or severe anxiety symptoms and use marijuana than academic doctoral students. Students in the behavioral and social sciences, social work, and arts and humanities disciplines were more likely to use substances and report mental health problems than engineering and business students.

Conclusions

These findings highlight graduate student subgroups who might require closer attention with respect to access to behavioral health services.

Keywords:

• Alcohol use
• behavioral health
• drug use
• graduate students
• mental health

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Brittany Bugbee and Angie Barrall for their assistance with developing the data collection instrument.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States of America and received approval from the University of Maryland College Park and the University of Maryland Baltimore Institutional Review Boards.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse under grants R01DA014845 and U01DA040219.