Non-Medical Use Of Prescription Stimulants: A Comparison Of College Students And Their Same-Age Peers Who Do Not Attend College

Keywords

College students; non-medical use of prescription stimulants

Abstract

Data show that the prevalence of non-medical use of prescription stimulants is higher among college students than their same-age peers who do not attend college. Because of this, most of the research in this area focuses on data from samples of college students and on use motivated by academic demands. There is little research that examines whether attending college increases the odds of non-medical use of prescription stimulants while including important covariates in the analytical models. The current research addresses this gap in the literature using data from the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health for respondents aged 18 to 25 years old. We estimate a multivariate logistic regression model to determine whether college attendance increased the odds of non-medical use of prescription stimulants. The analysis showed that young adults who enrolled in college full-time were more likely to report non-medical use of prescription stimulants than their same-age peers who did not attend college. There was no significant difference between part-time college students and non-college students. Future research should focus on how specific aspects of the college environment, other than academic stress, may increase the risk of non-medical use of prescription stimulants.

Publication Date

8-7-2016

Publication Title

Journal of Psychoactive Drugs

Volume

48

Issue

4

Number of Pages

253-260

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2016.1213471

Socpus ID

84983341506 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84983341506

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