Interpersonal Guilt and Substance Use in College Students

ABSTRACT

Background: The college years are a time for developing independence and separating from one's family, and they are also a time in which substance use often escalates. This study examined the relationships between use of substances and interpersonal guilt, an emotion that can arise from feelings about separation among college students. Methods: In total, 1865 college students completed a survey evaluating substance use and interpersonal guilt. Regular users of alcohol, cigarettes, cannabis, and other illicit drugs were compared with nonregular users of each substance. Sequential linear regression, controlling for confounding variables, examined relationships between regular use of each substance and scores on a guilt index. Results: Risky drinkers and daily smokers had significantly more interpersonal guilt than their peers who did not regularly use these substances. In contrast, regular cannabis users had significantly less guilt than nonregular cannabis users. Conclusions: These data suggest that substance use among college students may be related to interpersonal guilt and family separation issues, and this relationship may vary across substances.

Keywords:

• Alcohol
• college students
• guilt
• substance use

FUNDING

The Clinical Research Institute of Smith College School for Social Work provided partial funding for materials related to data collection. Preparation of the manuscript was supported in part by National Institutes of Health grants P30-DA023918, R01-DA027615, P50-DA09241, P60-AA03510, R01-DA024667, R01-HD075630, DP3-DK097705, and R01-DA021567. No agency or sponsor had any role in the composition of this report or the decision to submit results for publication.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

All authors were involved in the study design, interpretation of analyses, and editing of this article. Geoffrey Locke wrote the initial draft and conducted data analyses.