ORCID ID

0000-0003-1692-776X

Date Awarded

Summer 2021

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Department

Education

Advisor

Daniel Gutierrez

Committee Member

Patrick R. Mullen

Committee Member

James P. Barber

Abstract

This research study served to examine casual inferences within the relationships between social connectedness, drinking, resilience, and loneliness for both LGBTQ+ and heterosexual-identifying college students. The literature reviewed identified there is likely a relationship between these constructs whereby social connectedness was expected to significantly predict drinking (in a negative direction), and the relationship was mediated by the presence of resilience or loneliness. A total of 253 full-time college students between the ages of 18 and 28 were surveyed , 135 of which identified as LGBTQ+. The participants completed the Social Connectedness Revised (SCS-R), revised version of the UCLA Loneliness Scale (UCLA-R), the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), and a subscale of the COVID-19 Phobia Scale. An SEM was used to suggest that social connectedness was predictive of drinking for only a subset of the original drinking scale and that neither resilience nor loneliness mediated the relationship. Differences in mean scores for the scales were also reviewed in addition to correlations between the constructs. Limitations, implications for professionals, and suggestions for future research are also discussed.

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.25774/w4-d7e6-4m69

Rights

© The Author

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