The Types, Frequency, & Severity of Alcohol & Drug Use Among BSW Students

Background & Purpose

Social work students experience high levels of stress, emotional burnout, compassion fatigue, and secondary trauma. This can make it extremely difficult to incorporate their coursework into their field placements fully. BSW students also experience mental health challenges such as anxiety and depression, yet are unlikely to seek help for these issues due to stigma, embarrassment, and identity role conflict. High levels of stress is often linked to greater use of alcohol and drugs which, in turn, is linked to a greater increase in dropout rates.

There is currently no known research that focuses on alcohol and drug use among BSW students. This research was entirely exploratory and seeks to answer three questions. What are the self-reported types of substances used by BSW students? What is the self-reported frequency of use among BSW students? Of BSW students who report using, what are their levels of substance use severity?

Methods

Measures

Upon IRB approval, an email describing the research and a link to the online Qualitrics survey was sent to all 513 CSWE accredited BSW Program Coordinators on March 18^th, 2015. The email asked the coordinators to forward the email and survey link to their students. To be eligible for the survey, students had to be currently enrolled in a BSW program, be 18 years of age or older, and give informed consent.

Survey design was quantitative and consisted of 8 demographic/characteristic questions including gender and age, 10 questions from the Alcohol Use Identification Test (AUDIT), and 28 questions from the Drug Abuse Screening Tool (DAST) and took approximately 10-15 minutes to complete.

The survey was closed on April 10^th, 2015. Data was exported into SPSS for analyses. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analyses were calculated.

Sample

Survey sample consisted of 792 qualifying individuals. Sample mean age was 25.89 years with a minimum age of 18 and a maximum age of 44. Sample was 90% female, 9% male and 1% transgender. Sample ethnicity consisted of 78.2% white. The sample identified their school setting as: 39% suburban, 31% rural, and 30% urban. Area of school attendance was identified as:  47% Midwest, 20% Northeast, 16% Southeast, 12% West, and 5% Southwest. Their year in school was identified as: 47% seniors, 36% juniors, 11% sophomores, and 6% freshmen. 43% were currently in practicum while 57% were not.

Results

The most commonly used substances among BSW students were: 93.3% alcohol, 62.1% marijuana, 23.6% non-prescribed use of medication, and 15% cocaine. AUDIT scores indicate that 21.3% of BSW students engage in hazardous drinking. DAST scores indicate that 4.9% of BSW students show drug dependency.

Implications

Social work students are soon to be actual social workers. The NASW Code of Ethics states that social workers are not to be impaired as that can negatively impact the vulnerable populations that they work with. Additionally, discussion should occur in regards to CSWE curriculum to help combat stigma and internal role conflict as students should know that they can and should seek help if they need it.