A Family Systems Approach to Substance Misuse: An Examination of Risk and Protective Factors

This purpose of this project was to investigate the interrelationships between family structure, classroom stress, sense of belonging, and substance misuse in college students. Some outcomes of the study were an increased knowledge of substance misuse in college students and the impact of risk and protective factors on substance misuse. One model of family structure is the Circumplex Model of Family Systems. This model consists of three components: family cohesion, adaptability and communication fOIson, Russell, & Sprenkle, 1989). This research was conducted at Old Dominion University using 391 undergraduate college students, aged 18 - 25. It was hypothesized that students with families that are more extreme in cohesion and adaptability would have greater substance misuse and that increased satisfaction with their family would be associated with decreased substance use. Balanced families would have moderate levels of cohesion and adaptability. Classroom stress and sense of belonging were also predicted to have interrelationships with substance misuse. Gender differences in substance misuse were also examined. Specifically, males were predicted to have higher levels of substance misuse compared to females. Results showed that family cohesion was positively related to binge drinking. Family satisfaction was related positively to the substance misuse variables. The family type variable was predicted to have the least substance use at the balanced ranges of family types. Instead, results showed that the highest substance use was associated with the more functioning family type. Gender differences were in the direction predicted, with males using significantly more alcohol or drugs than females. Also, more alcohol related problems were associated with increased substance use. Many of the family variables had a protective relationship with college stress. Also, the classroom stress variable had positive correlations with substance misuse variables. These results could be attributed to limited range in the family variables. Also, all data were collected in the weeks following spring break, which may have resulted in a unique effect for substance misuse variables.