What role does alcohol play in undergraduate students' social connection?

Background: Loneliness and alcohol consumption are each public health concerns for young adults. For university students the two factors are interrelated, as student drinking is often socially motivated. While increasing numbers of students abstain from alcohol, there may be social costs to abstinence. Drinking is still perceived to be a normal part of student life, and heavy drinking remains common. This study investigated the role of alcohol consumption in undergraduate students’ social connections.Methods: An exploratory mixed-methods approach was used. Qualitative analysis of unstructured interviews with 28 first year undergraduate students was complemented by regression analysis of two sequential surveys with the same population (n = 304) testing whether loneliness predicted pressure to drink; whether any characteristics raised in the qualitative interviews predicted pressure to drink; and whether pressure to drink was prospectively associated with changes in loneliness.Attached are: 1) the quantitative data analysed; 2) READ ME file describing the variables; 3) supplementary materials describing how data were recoded. To protect participant anonymity, demographics have been redacted from the open-access file.The PI was Dr Nicola Byrom (contact details: [e-mail]). This study was conducted in accordance with the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Ethical approval was obtained from the King’s College London Research Ethics Committee (LRS/DP-22/23-39056; HR/DP-23/24-39848). All participants provided informed consent prior to participation and were able to withdraw at any time without consequence. <br>