IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2021i1p243-d711507.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Factors Associated with Having Family/Whānau or Close Friends Who Used Alcohol or Other Drugs in Harmful Ways among University Students in New Zealand

Author

Listed:
  • Ben Wamamili

    (School of Health Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8041, New Zealand)

  • Pauline Stewart

    (Family Drug Support Aotearoa, Christchurch 8011, New Zealand)

  • Mark Wallace-Bell

    (School of Health Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8041, New Zealand)

Abstract

The consequences of alcohol and other drug (AoD) use are well documented. This study investigated factors associated with having family/whānau or close friend who used AoD in harmful ways in New Zealand. Data came from a July–August 2020 cross-sectional survey of students from eight universities ( n = 946). Participants were asked if they had family/whānau or close friends in New Zealand who consumed alcohol or used other drugs (cannabis, ecstasy/MDMA, methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, prescription drugs, inhalants, or other) in a way that negatively impacted them, their family, or close friends in the last 12 months. Logistic regression assessed associations of having family/whānau or close friend who used AoD harmfully with student characteristics. Of respondents, 36.2% (33.1–39.4) had family/whānau or close friend who had consumed alcohol harmfully, and 42.9% (39.5–46.3) had family/whānau or close friend who had used at least one drug harmfully. Respondents’ age and ethnicity were significantly associated with having family/whānau or close friend who used AoD harmfully. The results suggest widespread harmful AoD use and potentially significant second-hand effects of AoD use in New Zealand. These data can be used to supplement information from traditional in-person surveys of individuals using alcohol and other drug (e.g., the New Zealand Health Survey).

Suggested Citation

  • Ben Wamamili & Pauline Stewart & Mark Wallace-Bell, 2021. "Factors Associated with Having Family/Whānau or Close Friends Who Used Alcohol or Other Drugs in Harmful Ways among University Students in New Zealand," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2021:i:1:p:243-:d:711507
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/1/243/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/1/243/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2021:i:1:p:243-:d:711507. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.