Board 209 Abstract Type: Research-Based
 
The Association Between Parental Substance Use, Coping Styles and Students’ Substance Use Among a Sample of Diverse College Students.
 
  Lising, Lydia, N; Guevara, Maria; Rogers, Christopher; Grigsby, Timothy; Forster, Myriam.
 
Background: A wealth of research suggests parental substance use can have long-term effects on children, including risk for substance use. However, the role of individual-level factors such as coping styles in the association between parental substance use and offspring’s substance use has not been studied among college students. Our study fills this gap by assessing the association between parental substance use, coping strategies (e.g., avoidant, problem, and emotion-focused coping), and students' past 30-day alcohol, cannabis, and nicotine use.
 
Methods: Survey data from students(N=1,349) participating in a health study at a Hispanic-serving institution in southern California. Regression models tested the association between a family history of substance use (parental substance use) and students’ past month alcohol, cannabis, and nicotine use; and whether coping strategies moderated this relationship.

Results: The sample was 25% male, 54%Hispanic, 13% Asian/Pacific Islander, 5%African American, 22% Non-Hispanic White, and 6% Multi-ethnic. Over half the sample reported alcohol use (61%), followed by cannabis (20%), and nicotine (9%) use and approximately 25% had a history of family substance use (alcohol, illicit substances,  ORpolysubstance use). Parental substance use was positively associated with students ’cannabis (ORdrug or alcohol: 2.39, 95%CI:1.58-3.61; ORpolysubstance: 2.14, 95%CI:1.26-3.65) and nicotine (ORdrug or alcohol:1.99, 95%CI: 1.08-3.65; ORpolysubstance:2.56, 95%CI: 1.25-5.23) use. Coping strategies moderated this association for nicotine use; students who used predominantly problem-focused coping strategies had lower odds of nicotine use while students who used predominantly avoidant coping strategies (ORdrug or alcohol:4.50, p<0.05; ORpolysubstance: 8.12,p<0.05) or emotion-focused coping strategies (ORpolysubstance: 11.63,p<0.05) had higher odds of nicotine use than students with a similar family history.

Conclusion: Our findings provide important insights into factors that could limit the risks associated with parental substance use among young adult, college students .Implications for prevention research and practice are discussed.