Mental health is one of the main issues or problems in this day and age. As college students, we believe that mental health issues are one of the main problems we, as a community, are constantly facing. Not only that, but in our population, we are the segment that suffers the most from mental health issues. As of today, more than 50 million Americans are currently suffering and battling mental health issues. Many factors can increase our risk of mental health issues, such as personal situations and events that changed our lives. The objective of this research is to understand more about what potential factors can affect our mental health and what type of correlation the factor has with mental health.

Our research question is whether health and health-related behaviors are affected by marijuana consumption and alcohol consumption. We want to research this question to know the effects of binge drinking and marijuana consumption on health care or mental health, as it has been predicted that those two factors can impact mental health problems. We think this question is interesting because, as explained before, college students and adults are constantly battling mental health issues. We want to know if those factors, such as binge drinking and marijuana consumption, affect our mental health.

The equation that we want to use is:

Days of poor mental health  = α + β1 binge drinking i + β2 Marijuana Consumption i + β3 good health i + ε

Simplified:

ment14d =  α + β1 rfbing5 i  + β2 mjuse i + β3 goodhealth i + ε

The equation above explains how binge drinking variable and marijuana consumption can affect a person’s mental health behavior. Good health will also be added to the regression to avoid omitted variable bias because it can be a determinant on days of poor mental health and possibly correlate to binge drinking and marijuana consumption. Good health in this case means a person with good mental health.  The coefficients of interest are interpreted as binge drinking as opposed to not drinking is associated with a β1 percent point change in the probability of having zero days in last 30 days when mental health not good, holding Marijuana Consumption, and having good health constant. Marijuana Consumption is interpreted in used marijuana in the last 30 days, as opposed to not used marijuana in the last 30 days is associated with a β2 percent point change in the probability of zero days in last 30 days when mental health not good, holding binge drinking and having good health constant. Finally having good health as opposed to poor is associated with a β3 percent point change in the probability of having zero days in last 30 days when mental health not good, holding binge drinking and marijuana use constant.