Substance Abuse is one of the most controversial issues within society today. Substance abuse comes in many forms such as alcohol, tobacco products, prescription drugs, and most importantly illicit drugs. The abuse of the substances can lead to physical and psychological damage. Substance abuse is a Global issue and affects all ages, backgrounds, and ethnicities. Social issues, age, ethnicity, and collegiate year can be factors in the development of substance abuse that are not being examined thoroughly. To understand why an individual abuses substances, we first must understand their addiction and where it may stem from. These addictions are serving as a placeholder in many lives, causing psychological numbness and a repeated cycle of fixation. The overall purpose of this study is to see if there is a correlation between substance abuse and age, ethnicity, and year in college.

Research has shown that Whites experience higher rates of substance abuse compared to individuals from other racial and ethnic backgrounds (Schuler, et al. 2021). This elevated prevalence is possibly influenced by a complex interplay of historical trauma, socio-economic challenges, cultural disconnection, and limited access to culturally competent healthcare resources.Ethnicity may play a role in substance abuse rates while also influencing access to treatment.

In addition, there have been close to a million people's deaths since 1999, that were the result of a drug overdose (National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics, n.d.). Substance use disorder is when a person keeps using and increasing the amount of drugs, they are taking even though it is affecting them negatively in their daily life. It may be that the older someone gets the more likely they are to develop a substance abuse disorder. This could be the result because the older someone gets whether they attend college or go into the workforce they meet new people and are away from their guardians most for the first time. Getting older while having a mental illness and having easier access to drugs can lead to the development of a substance abuse disorder (Arterberry et al., 2019). Some report trying drugs in their teenage years that carry over into adulthood and as a result increase the amount of drugs they take (Pangburn et al., 2016). This research focuses on the possibility that there is a correlation between age and developing a substance abuse disorder.

Many college students struggle with substance abuse during their transition into college. College students have been found to struggle with substance abuse more than others the same age outside of college (Cho et al., 2015). Substance abuse in college students can arise due to many factors when entering college such as more availability, less parental supervision, and its normality for college students (Arria et. al, 2017). When transitioning into college, freshman students began to abuse substances after only being there for one month, increasing the usage from 49.2% to 68.8% (Cho et al., 2015).

The data were collected from a previous study called the Wooster-Wickline College Adjustment Test (WOWCAT). WOWCAT was collected by college students completing an online survey. The online survey was presented to the participants by either a friend asking them to complete it, a random sample email, or through a SONA

research requirement. Overall, there ended up being 220 participants, and the average age was around the Mean=20 years old and theSD=1.21. It was also reported more of the participants were 70% female and 30% male. In breaking down their ethnicities 81.8% identified as White, 6.4% Black, 2.7%, East Asian, 2.9% South Asian, other Asian .5%, Jewish .5%, Latino .9%, and other 5.9%. The percent of participants and their reported year in college are first years 25.5%, sophomores 19.1%, juniors 29.1%, and seniors 26.4%. In this section, we present the measures employed in our study to examine the obstacles faced with substance abuse. To analyze the data that we have collected, we recoded data to group variables together to see how whites differ from ethnic minorities. We used 1 to represent whites and 2 to represent ethnic minorities. Data was also recoded to see if academic collegiate year is a factor of substance abuse. We grouped freshman and sophomore being labeled as 1 and juniors and seniors being labeled as 2. The precise measurement of variables is crucial for the validity and reliability of our outcome. We focus our approach to measuring key constructs, methods, and instruments used in his research topic.. The survey used a 5 point likert scale with 1 = "strongly disagree" and 5 = "strongly agree." We have an interval scale of measurement. The instrument that we used is the SPSS database with the results of the WOWCAT survey.(Wickline et al.2010) These methods are chosen to suit the nature of our variables and research objectives.

The study was approved to begin research by the IRB in 2007. This non-experimental study was designed as a survey that takes place in two parts. Using a website called SurveyMonkey, participants answered almost all given measures in part one and answered demographic-related questions in part two (Wickline, 2007). Due to the sensitive nature of some of the questions, answers were received anonymously with a debriefing statement and information for those struggling attached to the end of the survey. Both parts contain different websites for completion with their separate consent forms. The completion time for part one of the study was averaged to be around 20 minutes, with part two averaging around 10-15 minutes for completion. In return for completing the survey, psych students were given research credit through SONA. Other than research credit, participants were not given any other incentives for completing the study.

After running a one-tail Spearman correlation to see if there is a relationship between someone's age (M=20.2), (SD=1.2) and a substance abuse disorder. There were 214 people out of 220 who answered the questions necessary for this analysis. The alpha level was at .05 r_s (214)= -.112,p=.05. This data shows there is a positive correlation between someone's age and the risk of developing a substance abuse. This indicates the older someone is the more likely they are at risk to develop a substance abuse. Therefore the null hypothesis will be rejected.