title: Gender differences in licit and illicit substance use reported by incoming freshman college students.
abstract: College-aged students use both licit and illicit drugs, with adverse physiological and societal effects. The time period when people begin to enter college is known as emerging adulthood, and it offers more opportunities for young people to obtain and use drugs, especially alcohol. However, some drugs are used more often by one gender than the other. This study surveyed 813 students enrolled in a freshman orientation class at Christian Brothers University from 2000-2003. The participants were asked to rank their use of certain drugs on a scale showing how often they have used that drug during their life. A total of 18 licit and illicit drugs were included on the survey. Charts were made for each year depicting the average amount of use of the drugs by males and females. The composite chart showed males tended to use cigarettes, chewing tobacco, beer, hard liquor, marijuana, inhalants, and anabolic steroids more often than women. However, women drank more wine coolers than men.
authors.affiliation: Christian Brothers University, Memphis, TN 38104, USA.
authors.forename: Christy Harwell
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Mostert
authors.forename: Stan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Eisen
mesh_terms: D000434:Alcoholic Beverages; D002110:Caffeine; D055030:Drug Users / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D013334:Students; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013714:Tennessee / Q000453:epidemiology; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult; D062789:Tobacco Products
chemical_list: D013287:Illicit Drugs; D002110:Caffeine