Risk Factors in University Students Whose Parents Abuse Alcohol

Abstract

This article aims to present the main findings of the investigation "Psychosocial Risk Factors in a University Population”, conducted with students from the Rodrigo Facio Campus of the University of Costa Rica, in which the risk factors anxiety, co-dependency, low self-esteem, and depression, were studied and related to the presence of characteristics of being an adult whose parents had abused alcohol. The research was raised in conjunction with personnel from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus. The study was correlational, and to gather information an online questionnaire was completed; the initial version of the questionnaire had been used in a research project undertaken in Puerto Rico, whose variables were the ones studied in this research. Voluntarily and under conditions of anonymity and confidentiality, 2009 agreed to answer. Results show that most of the participating students can be characterized as having a probability of co-dependency, symptoms of mild to moderate depression, no symptoms of anxiety, and normal and high self-esteem. No statistically significant differences in any of the factors studied were found between adult children of alcoholic parents (HADA) and those of non-alcoholic parents (NO HADA). The findings of this study provide information that contributes to the understanding of the risk factors in university student population, and to propose actions to properly face them through of Counselling interventions.