“Spit for Science” study focuses on substance use, emotional health

Mechelle Hankerson
News Editor

The incoming VCU freshman class has a unique opportunity this year to spearhead research about the effect genetics can have on college-aged students.

Spit for Science is open to all VCU freshmen, 18 years or older, and is meant to attempt to understand the connection between genetic predispositions and environmental factors with substance abuse and mental health issues in students.

The study is coordinated and lead by the director of the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics at VCU, Dr. Kenneth Kendler and VCU associate professor of psychiatry, psychology and human and molecular genetics, Dr. Danielle Dick.

“We know that college is an incredibly exciting time,” Dick said. “It’s a big transition period (and) most people transition smoothly … but we also know that there’s also a portion of students who have more difficulties with the transition.”

Spit for Science will be examining different genes in relation to topics Dick considers important to colleges.

“I want people to start talking about alcohol use and mental health on college campuses,” she said. “One in four individuals over the age of 18 is affected by some kind of psychiatric or substance use disorder. This is something that is going to affect every one of us, on one sense or another.”

In addition to the scientific aspect, VCU’s Wellness Resource Center on the Monroe Park campus will be lending a hand to help spread information and potentially implement new programs and initiatives in response to the study’s findings.

“The survey will help us look at who tends to succeed in college, who doesn’t, what helps them (and) what doesn’t help them, so it just seems like a natural fit (for The Well),” said Linda Hancock, director of The Well.

According to Hancock, VCU typically does better than the national average when comparing such aspects as alcohol and substance abuse.

“We’re pretty much on target nationally,” she said. “If you were to look at high-risk colleges for drinking, the northeast, smaller, rural – those are the highest drinking rates. You look at a large, urban university like this, because there’s such a diversity of things to do and because … I think the majority of my students work in addition to going to school … our alcohol-use rates are lower than most universties across the nation.”

“We have issues … every college does.”

In order to gather their data, the Spit for Science team has sent emails to students who are eligible to participate in the study for compensation. Students fill out the preliminary survey and then can choose to give their spit for the research team to see if there are any patterns in the genes of the sample and answers provided in the entry survey.

The whole process is anonymous and is meant to analyze the freshman class as a whole, not as individuals.

According to Hancock, The Well will also be paying close attention to the findings in order to revise or target certain programs to help students. She said that it’s possible The Well will begin making changes as early as the end of this month.

Dick said she hopes that the study will grow to allow the research team to follow the freshmen throughout their collegiate career.

The Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics has projects based in other countries and around the United States but none based at VCU. According to Dick, this was one of the reasons for developing Spit for Science specifically for VCU undergraduate students.

“That was really the idea behind the Spit for Science project,” Dick said. “(We wanted to) bring this home to VCU in a way that can engage the undergraduates in the research process that can get them talking about these issues.”

Dick hopes that the study will include the majority of the student population and that students will enjoy learning about the outcomes.

“No one has ever done this before so this is a really unique opportunity for this to be something special and unique to VCU where (students) can be a part of a big project that can contribute to understanding and bettering people’s lives,” she said.

“We don’t know what predicts success of failure given all these variables,” Hancock said. “That is why I’m hoping everybody gets involved because knowledge is power, and the more we understand what helps students, the better we’re able to create an environment that supports them in a positive way.”

Eligible students have until Friday afternoon to complete their online survey and collect their payment from the Franklin Street Gym. Students with a Spit for Science shirt can visit the Franklin Street Gym at noon for free pizza from the research leaders. More information can be found at spit4science.vcu.edu.