The Association Between Addiction Knowledge and Addiction Stigma in a College Setting

The stigmatization of substance use disorders (SUDs) has shown to be more severe than other mental and physical disorders and is one of the top barriers to treatment-seeking behaviors. Even though the young adult population has the highest prevalence of SUDs, there is a strong misunderstanding of what nonproblematic substance-using behaviors look like and the normalization of substance misuse particularly in the college atmosphere. This study aimed to identify whether knowledge of addiction was associated with lower stigma levels and less normalization of problematic drinking in a college setting. Furthermore, familiarity with addiction (e.g., knowing someone with a SUD) was added as a moderator in these associations. A total of 605 undergraduate students from a public university in the southeastern United States completed a survey which included the following measures: Level of Contact Report, Perceived Stigma of Substance Abuse Scale (original), Perceived Stigma of Substance Abuse Scale (altered), Social Distance Scale for Substance Use, Affect Scale for Substance Users, College Problem Drinking Vignettes, and Addiction Knowledge Test. As predicted, a majority of the stigma measures as well as the vignettes were found to have a negative association with knowledge. Desired social distance was the only stigma measure that was negatively associated with familiarity. However, there was no significant interaction between knowledge and familiarity across all measures. The findings suggest that those who have more knowledge of addiction have less stigma toward individuals who have a SUD and that it is important to educate the college population about SUDs and include some form of personal contact in these programs.