From Risk to Resilience? Hazardous Drinking Trajectories in and Beyond the Last Years of University Life

Abstract

In this study, we examined the effects of loneliness, social support, and stress resilience on alcohol consumption and problems among university students in their final years of education during the COVID-19 pandemic. We surveyed 437 students with a pre-pandemic history of heavy episodic drinking across five waves from February 2021 to May 2023. Our findings showed that stress resilience significantly reduced alcohol-related problems over time. Those who frequently drank before the pandemic experienced a slower decline in problems, suggesting a delay in maturing out. Men reported higher hazardous drinking, yet gender did not influence trajectories. Loneliness initially correlated with increased drinking problems, without long-term effects, and social support had no significant impact. Our results highlight that stress resilience is essential for preventing alcohol problems, reveal the persistence of hazardous drinking into later university years, and suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic shifted typical drinking patterns in the Netherlands, marked by significant post-lockdown rebounds.