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Running head: EXAMINING CORRELATIONS BETWEEN STUDENT’S 1RELATIONSHIP STATUS, SELF-ESTEEM LEVEL AND ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION

The effect of student’s relationship status on self-esteem level and self-esteem level on alcohol

consumption

Erin Sullivan and John Wallace

James Madison University

EXAMINING CORRELATIONS BETWEEN STUDENT’S RELATIONSHIP STATUS, 2 SELF- ESTEEM LEVEL AND ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION

Abstract

This study examined the influence of relationship status on self-esteem, and if self-esteem

influenced the number of alcoholic drinks consumed monthly. Tests were conducted, utilizing

questionnaire data from 324 psychology statistic students at James Madison University. The data

provided self-esteem level, relationship status, and number of alcoholic drinks consumed monthly. The

researchers hypothesized subjects with committed relations statuses would have a higher self-esteem

rating, and subjects with low self-esteem would consume more alcohol monthly. There was not a

statistically significant effect of relationship status on self-esteem, or a negative correlation between self-

esteem and drinks monthly. There was not sufficient evidence to conclude people had differing self-

esteem due to relationship status, or that people with low self-esteem consumed more alcohol

monthly. (Word Count, 120).


The effect of student’s relationship status on self-esteem level and self-esteem level on alcohol

consumption

Consuming large volumes of alcohol regularly tends to hinder academic achievements,

promote violence, and become detrimental to the health of the individual (Roemer & Walsh,

2013). Roemer and Walsh’s (2013) past study analyzed this exact proposal, as 139 university

students were surveyed on self-esteem and how often he or she drank alcohol within the last 12

months. The conclusion of this study yielded that students who had a low self-esteem and

negative self-image generally drank more than those who did not (Roemer & Walsh, 2013). In

our study, we will also be observing the effects of self-esteem on the amount alcoholic beverages

consumed monthly. Based on the previous observation, we can confidently predict that there will

be a significant increase in alcohol consumption if the subject has a low self-esteem, when

compared to a subject with higher self-esteem.

In addition to self-esteem and alcohol consumption, we also are observing how

relationship status associates with self-esteem. Karen Goodall’s (2014) study investigated the

relationship between self-esteem and attachment. 221 participants were contacted by Queen

Margaret University, Edinburgh email system and social networking site (Goodall, 2014). This

survey comprised questionnaires measuring adult attachment, global self-esteem and the

regulation of positive emotion. Correlation tests were ran, and there was a significant two-way

interaction between social anxiety from relationship status and self-esteem. The results of this

study conveyed that self-esteem was negatively correlated with both anxiety and avoidance.

Based from these results, we can predict that subjects that have a strong relationship with a

significant other will have a higher self-esteem.


In our study, the independent variables include relationship status and self-esteem, and

our dependent variables include self-esteem and number of alcoholic drinks consumed monthly.

The overall purpose of this study is to see if there is statistical significance for each study. This

study can offer practical use as if an individual is observed to possess low self-esteem, then he or

she should be carefully monitored for alcohol consumption. Also, people without relational

attachment may be more susceptible to depression and anxiety, which can lead to further

complications.

According to the aforementioned research, the researchers of this study hypothesize that

people with more committed relations statuses (Single, Short-term relationship, Long-term

relationship, Engaged, Married, or Other), will have a higher self-esteem rating. In the second

test, the researchers hypothesized that if the person had a low self-esteem, then he or she would

consume more alcohol monthly. This would result in a negative spearman correlation.

Method

Participants

324 students from an undergraduate public university who took a survey during a

research methods course for a psychology major requirement. During the survey, the students

were asked an array of opinion and fact based questions. Of those participants who reported

gender, 78 (24.1%) indicated male, 235 (72.5%) indicated female, 1(.3%) indicated transgender,

and 3 (.9%) preferred not to answer. Of those participants who reported their year in school, 19

(4.9%) indicated Freshman, 215 (66.4%) indicated Sophomore, 76 (23.5%) indicated Junior, 4

(1.2%) indicated Senior, and 3 (.9%) indicated Other. Of those participants who reported their


race, 276 (85.2%) indicated Caucasian, 9 (2.8%) indicated African American, 10 (3.1%)

indicated Hispanic, 11 (3.4%) indicated Asian, 1 (.3%) indicated Pacific Islander, and 10 (3.1%)

indicated Other. There were 7 (2.2%) participants who did not report any answer to these

demographic questions. All participants were required to complete this survey in order to receive

course credit. Prior to completing the survey, all participants gave their informed consent of their

participation in the survey. It is important to note that this was a sample of convenience, meaning

the population was not randomly selected.

Survey Materials

There are fifteen survey questions that apply to the variables selected in this study. We

will be primarily focusing on the one’s regarding relationship status, self-esteem level and

number of drinks in a month.

Demographic Questions

Three of the questions are the demographic questions that define the population of

participants (Race, Gender, Year in School). The question determining race was stated, “What is

your race?” and the options given were “White Caucasian”, “African American”, “Hispanic”,

“Asian”, “Native American”, “Pacific Islander”, and “Other”. The question determining gender

was stated “What is your gender?” and the options given were “Transgender”, “Male”, “Prefer

not to answer” and “Female”. The question determining Year was stated, “Year In School” and

the options given were, “Freshman”, “Sophomore”, “Junior”, and “Senior”.


Relationship Status

The grouping variable was defined through a relationship status question. This survey

question was stated “Relationship Status” and the options given were, “Single”, “Short-term

relationship”, “Long-term relationship”, “Engaged”, “Maried”, or “Other”.

Self-Esteem

The self-esteem variable was defined by ten questions that asked “to what extent you

agree with the following statements”. It included questions like, “On the whole, I am satisfied

with myself” (For full list of survey questions, see Appendix A). The response scale for this set

of questions was “Strongly Disagree” = 1, “Disagree” = 2, “Agree” =3, or “Strongly Agree” = 4.

Depending on the connotation of the question, the result could be either a high or low self-

esteem score. For the positive questions, a high score would indicate a high self-esteem and low

scores would indicate a low-self-esteem. However, it is the exact opposite for the negative/

reverse coded questions. Questions 2, 5, 6, 8 & 10 are reversed coded. For these questions

“Strongly Disagree” =4, “Disagree” = 3, “Agree” = 2, and “Strongly Agree” = 1. With this scale,

the lowest possible score for self-esteem would be 10 (poor self-esteem) and the highest would

be 40 (high self-esteem).

Number of Alcoholic Drinks In a Month

Finally, the number of alcoholic drinks in a month variable was defined by a set range of

never to almost daily. The specific question addressing this variable was stated, “How many

times do you drink alcoholic beverages per month?”. The options given were, “Never” = 1,

“Once or Twice” =2, “Once Per Week” = 3, “Two or Three Times per week” = 4, or “Almost


Daily” = 5. Almost daily meaning a high number of drinks and never meaning a low/ no number

record of drinks.

Procedure

For this study data was collected on an online survey that was conducted by all research

methods course for psychology majors. The survey was graded for completion, thus encouraging

the students to take it seriously. Students completed the survey at their convenience and the

computer program recorded their responses. The data was then compiled into the Statistical

Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) computer program. With this program, we were able to

run various statistical tests to determine the relationships amongst the variables.

Data Analysis

For the self-esteem scores, we will compute a total self-esteem score based on the ten

self-esteem questions. We will use a One-Way Between Sample ANOVA to see if the

relationship status affects the self-esteem level. Because relationship status is a nominal variable

and self-esteem is a scale variable, we want to see how the different levels of relationship will

effect ones self-esteem. We will use a spearman correlation to measure the relationship between

self-esteem level and number of drinks in a month. This way, we can compare the ordinal

variable of alcohol consumption to the self-esteem level and how each impacts the other, either

in a positive, negative or no relationship correlation. We utilized the Statistical Package for the

Social Sciences (SPSS) computer program to produce our statistical tests and graphs.


Results

A One-Way (Relationship Status [single, short-term relationship, long-term relationship,

engaged, married, other]) between groups (self-esteem score [10 -40]) analysis of variance

(ANOVA) was conducted at alpha = .05. Contrary to the hypothesis, there was not a statistically

significant effect of students’ relationship status, either Single (M = 26.91, SD = 3.08), Short-

term relationship (M = 26.74, SD = 2.92), Long-term relationship (M = 27.37, SD = 3.16),

Engaged (M = 30.00, SD = NA), Married (M = 30.00, SD = 2.83), or other (M = 24.00, SD =

NA) on their self-esteem level. F (5, 304) = 1.05, p = .39, r2 = .02. Overall, we fail to reject our

null hypothesis that students’ relationship status will not affect their self-esteem level.

A Spearman Rank-Order Correlation Coefficient was conducted. Contrary to the

hypothesis, there was not a statistically significant negative correlation between students’ self-

esteem scores (M = 27.06, SD = 3.10) and number of drinks in a month (M = 2.88, SD = 1.18). rs

(307) = .024, p = .67. Overall, we fail to reject our null hypothesis that self-esteem scores do not

have a negative correlation with their number of drinks in a month.

Discussion

The researchers hypothesized that people with more committed relationships would have

a higher self-esteem score. However, the results of the analysis of variance of relationship status

on self-esteem score did not support this original hypothesis, therefore we failed to reject the null

hypothesis. There appeared to be little to no relationship between the levels of commitment in a

relationship on a person’s self-esteem score. This contradicts the prior research found in that

those who were in higher commitment relationships typically had significantly higher self-


esteem scores (Goodall, 2014). We believe that this difference in our findings could have been a

result of running different tests. In the prior research, a correlational study was completed.

However we ran an analysis of variance (ANOVA) test for these two variables. We also believe

that we may have had a type II error in our study due to the large sample size of convenience. If

the study had been conducted with a broader group of participants (not just students enrolled in a

research methods course), the results would have modeled more of what the prior research

reported. From our results, one could make the argument that one’s self-esteem is not greatly

impacted by their relationship status. In some ways, this could be good for those who are single

and have the belief that in order to be happier, they need to be in a relationship. According to our

results, that conclusion is not necessarily valid. Further research for this study could include

focusing in specifically sorting a random sample of people by their relationship status and then

determining their self-esteem score with more than just the ten questions that applied in the

survey.

In the second test, the researchers hypothesized that self-esteem would have a negative

correlation on the consumption of alcohol. We predicted that the lower the self-esteem, the more

alcohol would be consumed. However, the results of the spearman correlation coefficient of self-

esteem on number of drinks in a month did not support this hypothesis. This also contradicts the

prior research that concluded that those with lower self-esteems would drink more (Roemer &

Walsh, 2013). In this study however, it was not specifically college students that were tested. In

our study, we had a very specific group of college students who would not necessarily have

adapted the desire to drink in order to suppress feelings that result in a low self-esteem. For

future research, I believe it would be more beneficial to compare the number of drinks in a

month and self-esteem relationship based on age groups. Those who are older and have more


access to alcohol may have had more experience with suppressing emotions with alcohol than

college age students. This is what may have shown a significant difference in the prior research.

This could address the question more broadly of, “What reasons impact the consumption of

alcohol?”. Determining the reasoning behind the consumption of alcohol could give greater

insight to what does and does not have an effect on a person’s mental health in general.


References

Goodall, K. (2014). Individual differences in the regulation of positive emotion: The role of

attachment and self esteem. Personality and Individual Differences, 208-213.

Roemer, A., & Walsh, Z. (2014). Where you live matters: The roles of living arrangement and

self-esteem on college students’ hazardous drinking behaviors. Addiction, Research and

Theory, 474-480.


Appendix A (Survey Questions)

Full List of Survey Questions

What is your race?

(Options Given: White Caucasian, African American, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, Pacific

Islander, or Other.)

What is your gender?

(Options Given: Transgender, Male, Prefer not to answer, or Female.)

Year In School

(Options Given: Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior, or Other.)

Relationship Status

(Options Given: Single, Short-term relationship, Long-term relationship, engaged, married, or

other)

Please indicate to what extent you agree with the following statements:

(Options Given: Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree, or Strongly Agree.)

1) On the whole, I am satisfied with myself

2) At times, I think I am no good at all

3) I feel that I have a number of good qualities

4) I am able to do things as well as most other people

5) I feel I do not have much to be proud of


6) I certainly feel useless at times

7) I feel that I’m a person of worth, at least on an equal plane with others.

8) I wish I could have more respect for myself

9) All in all, I am inclined to feel that I am a failure

10) I take a positive attitude toward myself

How many times do you drink alcoholic beverages per month?

(Options Given: Never, Once or Twice, Once per week, Two or Three Times per week, or

Almost Daily)


Appendix B (SPSS Data File)


Appendix C (SPSS Output)

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