UCARE: Undergraduate Creative Activities & Research Experiences
UCARE Research Products
Date of this Version
Spring 4-14-2020
Document Type
Poster
Citation
Soetjoadi, I., Tibbs, J.J., Tuliao, A., McChargue, D.E. (April 2020). Examining the Influence of Childhood Trauma on College Alcohol Use and Mental Health: A Comparison Between United States and Philippines. Poster presentation for Annual UCARE (Undergraduate Creative Activities and Research Experience) Program, University of Nebraska – Lincoln.
Poster accepted for the 2020 University of Nebraska – Lincoln Research Fair, Lincoln, NE.
Abstract
College students who have experienced trauma might use alcohol as a way to escape from their problems as drinking is a common way to forget the problems and create feelings of relaxation. Though the existing research has found that childhood trauma negatively impacts future alcohol use in many individuals, the specific patterns of these relationships across different cultures are not well understood. In this study, we investigate how these relationships vary across United States and Philippines. We hypothesized that college students who experience childhood trauma will report more mental health symptoms and greater alcohol consumption. Furthermore, we tested the ability of trauma symptoms to mediate the relationship between trauma history and alcohol use across one large Midwestern public university, one small Midwestern private university, and Filipino sample. Results showed trauma symptoms explained the relationship between childhood trauma and negative alcohol consequences in United States samples, however, no significant meditation effect for the Philippines sample. Future research can examine cross cultural differences in alcohol/mental health by using better sampling procedures to improve generalizability of the results and ensure representativeness of each country as these were understudied.
Comments
Copyright © 2020 Irenea Soetjoadi, Jessie J. Tibbs, Antover Tuliao, and Dennis E. McChargue