Date of Award

Summer 8-23-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Walter Buboltz

Abstract

Substance use has been occurring throughout history, and most individuals have been impacted by substance use in one way or another (Durrant & Thakker, 2003). The individual using substances is not the only one who faces the consequences of their usage. Their families and communities also pay a price (Lander et al., 2013; McLellan, 2017). College students are in a unique role in their lives where they are fighting for autonomy, trying to fit in with their peers, and facing new stressors they have never experienced before. Previous research has demonstrated that certain personality traits, including conscientiousness and agreeableness, are associated with the development of substance use (Dash et al., 2019). Self-compassion can act as a protective factor for the development of a substance use disorder (Phelps et al., 2018). This study aims to fill some knowledge gaps and explore whether self-compassion acts as a moderator between certain personality traits, specifically conscientiousness and agreeableness, and alcohol use among college students. This study consisted of 488 college students collected from a medium-sized southern university. The results of this study indicated that self-compassion does not moderate the relationship between conscientiousness or agreeableness and alcohol use in college students. Implications of the study’s findings, limitations, and future directions are discussed in Chapter 4.

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