For the purposes of this essay ‘attitudes’ will be …show more content…
The findings of a questionnaire filled in by 137 volunteer first-year students at a British university showed that students with higher levels of stress used alcohol in order to self-medicate and help them cope in these demanding situations. For those who did not drink alcohol, the mean stress score was considerably lower (score of 41) as opposed to those who frequently drank alcohol (score of 45) suggesting a correlation between stress and alcohol use in students (Mobach & Macaskill, 2011). Students who drank held positive expectancies regarding alcohol believing that it will relieve them of tension and help them have a better time, motivating them to drink more. Though this explanation of alcohol use is slightly flawed as female students had higher stress scores than male student suggesting that reasons for alcohol use is dependent on gender and their attitudes and