Academic factors associated with college students’ prescription stimulant misuse in daily life: An ecological analysis of multiple levels

Abstract

Objective

To identify academic factors pertaining to college students, calendar timing, and particular moments that are uniquely associated with elevated likelihood of prescription stimulant misuse (intentions and actual behavior) in daily life. Participants: Participants were 297 freshmen and sophomores at a large public university in the United States in 2017–2019. Methods: Participants completed survey measures during lab visits and ecological momentary assessment procedures in daily life. Hypotheses were tested using multilevel models that accounted for the nested data and demographic covariates. Results: Student, calendar-based, and momentary academic factors were uniquely associated with stimulant misuse intentions in daily life. Real-time academic events, beyond the proportion of academic events experienced, emerged as a robust predictor of misuse behavior. Within-person links between real-time momentary predictors and misuse behavior were moderated by finals week timing. Conclusions: Findings offer implications for prevention and intervention strategies for college students at risk for prescription drug misuse.

Keywords:

• Academic stress
• college students
• ecological momentary assessment
• prescription stimulant misuse

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 United States of America and received approval from the Education and Social/Behavioral Science IRB at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health / National Institute on Drug Abuse (Lauren M. Papp, Principal Investigator) Award Number R01 DA042093. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.