Abstract
Objective
This study examined the relationship of students’ academic beliefs to the theoretical predictors of prescription stimulant misuse outlined in the Theory of Planned Behavior.
Participants
Participants included 147 college students (Mage = 19.65) from a mid-sized university in the Southwestern United States.
Method
An online questionnaire distributed in the 10th week of the semester assessed students’ academic locus of control, grade orientation, and academic entitlement in relation to their attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, behavioral intention, and actual misuse behavior.
Results
Partial correlations controlling for age, gender, and Greek life involvement indicated that academic locus of control is significantly related to all TPB variables aside from actual behavior, while grade orientation was related to perceived behavioral control and behavioral intention. Academic entitlement was not related to TPB variables in this study.
Conclusions
The associations between academic beliefs and prescription stimulant misuse hold theoretical and practical implications.
Conflict of interest disclosure
The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States of America and received approval from the Chapman University.
Notes
1 Notably, the original sample size was 191, but 44 (23%) graduate students were removed from the analysis given substantial differences in undergraduate and graduate populations. This resulted in a final N of 147.