Studies have shown that frequent cannabis and alcohol use can negatively impact emerging adults’ cognitive abilities and, thus, academic performance. How substance use affects college student engagement with SRL practices, including time management and task understanding, as well as academic challenges, including motivational challenges, remains relatively unexplored.
In the current study, researchers recruited 1,247 participants with an average age of 19 years old who were first and second-year undergraduate students from five Canadian universities. The particpants filled in surveys that measured their cannabis and alcohol use, SRL practices, and ability to deal with academic challenges.
Ultimately, the researchers found that cannabis use negatively correlated with task understanding and metacognitive monitoring. Use of the substance was also linked to five academic challenges including goal and time management, cognitive, social-emotional, metacognitive, and motivational challenges.
The researchers also analyzed the results for alcohol use, which was ultimately linked to worse goal and time management and task understanding. It also, however, positively correlated with academic social engagement practices, as well as social-emotional and initiating-sustaining engagement challenges.
“While cannabis use was associated with a wider range of reported academic challenges compared to alcohol use, both substances negatively predicted a similar number of reported academic practices,” wrote the researchers in their study.
“The implications of this research are far-reaching as they illustrate a need for interventions to help students establish adaptive SRL practices, particularly among those who are frequently engaging in substance use in the first few weeks of the academic semester,” they concluded.
Sources: Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice
