The main objective of this study was to assess and compare perceived acceptance from different sources of social support among non- or sporadically consuming university students and students who report binge drinking or co-consumption of alcohol and cannabis. Perceived social support and, in particular, perceived acceptance, have been found to act as key protective factors in the face of challenging or stressful situations [37,38]. They are thought to act by enhancing one’s sense of belonging, self-worth, and security, as well as by moderating the appraisal of situations as threatening and enhancing self-confidence to cope with such situations [37,65]. Based on previous data on the social consequences of substance use among university students, we expected binge drinking consumption to have an effect on perceived acceptance. Specifically, previous studies on the social consequences of binge drinking and polyconsumption have focused on young people in higher education, as both patterns generally peak between the ages of 18 and 25 years [10,66]. At this life stage, when emerging adults are still contending with developmental tasks such as establishing autonomy and personal identity, starting university adds further challenges. First-year students must adapt to a new social environment, manage separation from friends and family and establish relationships with new peer groups while dealing with new responsibilities and academic demands [26,67,68]. Some authors have advised that substance use could impede successful accomplishment of these transitional demands [69,70]. Thus, the effect of alcohol/drug consumption on social support is especially relevant, given the value of social support for adjustment during transition to university.

Non- or sporadically consuming students in the present sample were expected to perceive the highest level of acceptance from their significant others, and polyconsumers were expected to perceive the lowest level of acceptance. Perceived acceptance from the family was indeed significantly higher in the control group and binge drinking groups than in polyconsumers. Thus, co-consumption of alcohol and cannabis seems to negatively affect the students’ sense of being valued and trusted by their families. Different events and circumstances may have contributed to these findings. On the one hand, consumption has been consistently associated with arguments or bad feelings between the consumer and family members [71,72]. The disturbances to family relationships may at least partly correspond to other social and personal consequences of consumption itself, such as neglecting family or academic responsibilities (ignoring housework, missing or being late for class, falling behind in academic work) [15,73].

On the other hand, parent–child interactions often decrease from adolescence into emerging adulthood, and tensions regarding autonomy and connectedness are particularly strong at this stage of development [10,74]. Parents transmit conventional norms and attitudes towards substance use and monitor their children’s health behaviors [74,75,76], while the youngsters pursue independence and try to integrate in the university community and share its culture, which includes alcohol and cannabis use [77,78,79]. Substance consumption may be perceived as a gateway to adulthood, at the expense of losing family acceptance as a result of transgressing family values.

Moreover, the interaction effects between PAS scores and gender observed in the present study indicate that female polyconsumers perceived lower acceptance from the family than male polyconsumers, plausibly indicating narrower or less tolerant parental monitoring of daughters. Indeed, daughters have previously been found to receive higher levels of parental monitoring than sons [80,81].

With regard to perceived acceptance from friends, the most salient finding is that the direction of the relationship with consumption is the opposite of that observed for acceptance from the family. Namely, the control group perceived lower acceptance from friends than the binge drinking group, although differences between the control and polyconsuming groups were not statistically significant. Effects beyond detrimental social consequences of consumption must be considered in interpreting these findings, as binge drinking seems to at least provide some benefit to perceived peer status of university students in the present sample. Subjective positive correlates of drinking in university students have recently been investigated [82,83]. Four types of reinforcing outcomes have been distinguished, namely enhancement (e.g., having fun), coping (e.g., forgetting problems), social (e.g., increasing sociability), and conformity (e.g., fitting with the group) [84]. These reinforcing effects may prevail over detrimental consequences during transition to university. In particular, having fun and social consequences are the reasons most frequently given [82]. Indeed, these types of effects may be particularly salient in first-year students who are trying to organize a new social network and adjust their behavior to perceived peer norms [85]. Increased access to drinking situations and overestimation of peer consumption may also contribute to this supposed appraisal bias [85,86,87].

Another result expected in our study was that relative to their colleagues, moderate binge drinking students would perceive higher acceptance from their friends. Indeed, perceived acceptance increased with frequency of heavy drinking, peaked at 30–50 days of binge drinking, and decreased with additional binge drinking episodes. Thus, the results of the present study are consistent with those of previous investigations reporting a curvilinear relationship between binge drinking and quality of peer relationships [50,51,52]. Nevertheless, contrary to previous studies, the present sample only comprised first-year students, and data on their alcohol use were recorded at the beginning of the academic year. The possible decline in acceptance from friends as a result of more frequent binge drinking should be examined further in future studies with older university students, in order to encompass the peak consumption period [63,88].

In summary, the findings of the present study add to our knowledge of the social consequences of binge drinking and co-use of alcohol and cannabis among university students. Consumption seems to have a detrimental effect on the perceived acceptance from the family, probably increasing normative distancing and feelings of isolation due to leaving the parental home and being separated from the peer group and relatives [10].

Consuming environments may help to relieve the transition to a new support network by providing opportunities to have fun and make contact and gain acceptance from peers [89,90]. Indeed, our findings suggest that binge drinking actually increases perceived acceptance from friends. This effect may facilitate social adjustment to university [40] but at the same time contribute to perpetuating or worsening consumption patterns as drinking has been shown to affect youngsters’ self-regulation and self control [91,92], and reciprocal influences between drinking and positive consequences of drinking have been observed [93,94].

Parents could provide a way out of this vicious circle, as students continue to seek support from the family after leaving home, and communication with parents during college has been found to protect against substance use [45,87,95]. Thus, stimulating parental communication is an essential line of preventive intervention suggested by the present findings. Additionally, young adults’ perceptions and expectations of negative and positive consequences of consumption should be emphasized in intervention proposals, and alternative healthy reinforcing activities should be promoted, particularly among students starting university.

Finally, our findings and interpretations must be considered with caution in view of some limitations of the present study. First, the cross-sectional study design does not allow proposal of a causal order in the relationship between consumption and perceived acceptance. Although the assumption of an effect of binge drinking and polyconsumption on perceived social support is consistent with previous data on detrimental and positive social consequences of consumption, further longitudinal and intervention studies should be performed to establish the possible causal nature of the association between consumption and perceived social support. As a second limitation, the sample included only first-year students, whereas variations in the relationship between consumption and peer acceptance may be expected during all years at university. Third, binge drinking and polyconsuming students were treated as homogeneous groups, and the frequency and intensity of binge drinking as well as the type of polyconsumption (complementary, concurrent, simultaneous) should be taken into account in future studies. Collection of a reliable large data set and implementing a real-time statistical analysis would enable a high impact research on the effects of binge drinking and polyconsumption in students with different profile types, throughout the university years [95,96]. Despite the aforementioned limitations, to our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the relationships between perceived acceptance from significant others and binge drinking and co-occurrence of BD and cannabis. The findings indicate that perceived acceptance should be taken into account as a marker of the problematic status of consumers or of their vulnerability in view of the demands posed by the transition to university.