Risk and protective factors predicting prescription drug misuse in a sample of Puerto Rican students

Abstract

The present study was directed at examining a model of risk, and protective factors for prescription drug misuse in a representative sample of 8,079 students enrolled in 130 randomly selected middle and high schools in Puerto Rico. Based on the available empirical literature that was examined, depressed mood, availability of illegal drugs, sensation-seeking behavior, social learning, peer's drug use as risk factors, and positive outlook of the future as protective factors for prescription drug misuse youths. The Puerto Rico Survey of Youth Risk Behaviors Questionnaire (SYRB-PR) was administered to all participants, and all the experimental measures of the risk and protective factors were obtained from this instrument. The results show that the best predictors of drug misuse among Puerto Rican students were those related to the social learning at their homes, followed by sensation seeking, peer use of drugs, accessibility of drugs, and depressed mood. A positive outlook of the future was not a significant predictor of less prescription drug misuse. These results can serve as explorative and provide recommendations for future research on prescription drug misuse among Hispanics and possibly all youths in the U.S.

Keywords:

• Prescription drugs misuse
• students
• risk factors
• protective factors

Disclosure statement

Authors declare to have no financial or other competing interests.

Additional information

Funding

This research project was supported by a grant from the Puerto Rico Mental Health and Substance Abuse Prevention Administration (ASSMCA, by its initials in Spanish). ASSMCA did not have any role in the original study nor in the present study besides providing the SYRB-PR and funds to conduct the primary research.