Alcoholism and coping strategies among IPB students

This study aimed to assess the alcohol consumption habits and the different coping strategies of a group of students from the Instituto Politécnico de Bragança - IPB (Polytechnic Institute of Bragança) with a sample made out of 126 of its students (n=126). For this study, which is descriptive-correlational and transversal, a socio-demographic questionnaire, the AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, Cunha 2002) and the Brief COPE questionnaire (Pais-Ribeiro, J. and Rodrigues, A. 2004) were used as evaluation instruments. Findings were that the majority of young students stated they do not have significant life problems, that they have good social supports and they do not consume alcohol in an inadequate way. Similarly, the coping strategies that they indicate as most frequent seem also to be the most adaptive, which may help to explain the fact that most do not perceive significant current problems and do not resort to alcohol in an inadequate way.