In the U.S., the incidence of substance use disorders (SUDs) peaks during young adulthood, yet individuals in this demographic often eschew professional treatment due to the stigma surrounding SUDs. Prior research indicates that those affected by SUDs frequently experience shame, anxiety, and embarrassment, and they anticipate discrimination and social exclusion in academic, occupational, and interpersonal domains. Empirical studies have demonstrated that integrating educational interventions—aimed at enhancing understanding of the etiology, progression, and treatment of SUDs—with direct or indirect contact with individuals who have lived experience of SUDs effectively attenuates negative stereotypes and associated emotional responses, thereby reducing discriminatory behaviors. Nevertheless, investigations into the combined effects of addiction knowledge and personal familiarity on stigma within collegiate populations remain scarce. The present study, therefore, seeks to examine the correlation between SUD knowledge and public stigma among college students and to assess the moderating role of personal familiarity in this relationship.
The study utilized a sample of 602 undergraduate students enrolled at a public university in the southeastern U.S. Data were collected via survey that captured (1) demographic characteristics, (2) familiarity with substance use disorders using the Level of Familiarity Questionnaire (LOF), (3) stigma towards SUDs through two psychometrically validated scales—the Affect Scale for Substance Users (AS-SU) to assess negative emotions and Social Distance Scale for Substance Users (SUD-SU) to measure desired social distance—and (4) addiction knowledge via the Addiction Knowledge Test (AKT). The collected data were analyzed by two multivariate regression models, with gender and race included as covariates.
The findings revealed that addiction knowledge was significantly inversely associated with negative emotions, whereas no significant association was found between addiction knowledge and desired social distance (SDUSU). In contrast, personal familiarity showed a significant negative correlation with desired social distance, but was not significantly associated with negative affect. The two stigma indicators—negative emotions and desired social distance—were positively correlated with each other. While both regression models were statistically significant overall, the interaction term between addiction knowledge and familiarity was not significant, indicating that familiarity does not moderate the relationship between knowledge and stigma. Notably, despite the absence of a significant interaction effect, lower levels of addiction knowledge independently predicted higher levels of negative affect, and lower levels of familiarity independently predicted greater desired social distance.
Takeaway: Greater addiction knowledge and personal familiarity with individuals affected by SUDs independently reduce different dimensions of stigma—emotional responses and social distancing—highlighting the need for multifaceted stigma-reduction strategies in college settings.