Harmful degrees of substance use of any kind are found to be prevalent among college student populations in the United States. Risky alcohol consumption among students remains to be a public health concerns with the potential for consequences to reach far outside of the classroom. Additionally, college students throughout the nation are engaging in higher rates of cannabis consumption which may lead to or exacerbate a variety of mental health concerns related to depression and psychosis. As with nearly any form of substance use, the quantity of the substance consumed is often associated with the magnitude of effect as well as the magnitude of negative consequences. This study aims to assess the estimation skills of students by analyzing their accuracy in completing tasks related to alcohol and cannabis measurements.
The study’s sample is composed of 277 students from a large university in the Northeastern United States (N=277, 67.1% female, mean age= 19.2). Participants first completed surveys which measured the following characteristics related to their history of alcohol and cannabis use: typical personal drinking behaviors (frequency, quantity per occasion, etc.), alcohol problems (via Rutgers Alcohol Problems Inventory), use of alcohol protective behavioral strategies (via Protective Behavioral Strategies Survey), cannabis use (frequency quantity per occasion, intensity of intoxication), and context of use of either or both substances. After completing the survey, participants then participated in an activity which asked them to pour, to the best of their ability, three standard drinks- one using beer, another using wine, and the last using hard liquor. Participants were also asked to pour a fourth drink, customized to their own personal preference, and to then estimate the amount of alcohol it contained. For the cannabis measurement assessment, participants were instructed to create a 0.5 gram bowl and 0.1 gram joint, in addition to providing an example quantity of what they would typically use during a smoking session. The “alcohol” used in the task was creating using water and food coloring, and the cannabis was mimicked using legal CBD-based ground hemp. Data analysis of the survey responses and accuracy of behavioral tasks was performed using differential tests, bivariate correlations, and regression modelling.
Results of the study found 95% and 80% of the sample reported past use of alcohol and past use of cannabis, respectively. Underestimation occurred far more frequently than overestimation in the alcohol pouring tasks (66.2%, 52%, 64.3% vs. 17.6%, 33.2%, 25.8% for Beer, Hard Liquor, and Wine, respectively), with beer estimations rendering the largest discrepancies. With regards to cannabis estimations, joint preparation saw the most discrepancies. The analysis also revealed that students reported greater importance on preparing one’s own drink rather than preparing one’s own cannabis product (p<0.001). Lastly, increased use of alcohol protective behavioral strategies was associated with lower alcohol consumption, cannabis consumption, and alcohol problems (p<0.01 for all variables). Cannabis protective behavioral strategies rendered similar results for levels of intoxication, cannabis problems, and measurement discrepancies.
Takeaway: college students frequently underestimate the quantity of alcohol in different forms of drinks, which can lead to apparent consequences related to levels of intoxication. Cannabis misestimations, while prevalent, were not as obviously consistent from product to product, and the specific ramifications are not entirely clear. Interventions aiming to treat substance use may benefit from utilizing similar tasks.