Exploring relationships between alcohol consumption, extraversion and general health across male and female college students

Abstract

The current study was designed to examine the association between consumption of alcohol, extraversion and general health scores among male and female college students. The participants consisted of (N = 101, female 55, male 46) students from a Dublin college convenience sample. The experiment employed an unrelated 2 part repeated measures design and a 1 part correlational design. The DV's were extraversion, general health and consumption of alcohol. The IV was gender. The participants responded to a set of questionnaires which included the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ-RS), General Health Questionnaire (GHQ12) and three questions from the Alcohol use disorder inventory test (AUDIT) relating to consumption of alcohol. A Mann Whitney u found no significant difference in scores extraversion scores between males and females (z = -.1.393, p >.05, 2 tailed), or between general health scores between males and females (z = -1.211, p >.05, 2 tailed), or between alcohol consumption scores between males and females (z = -1.043, p > .05, 2 tailed). Kendall's Tau_b indicated a weak positive association between extraversion and consumption of alcohol (tau_b = .017, p < 0.05, 2-tailed) and indicated a weak negative correlation between general health and extraversion (tau_b = -.011, p < 0.05, 2-tailed). Discussions in relation to behavioural strategies and interventions are also discussed for future consideration.