Assessing motivations and gender as factors in college students’ views of nonmedical prescription stimulant use

Abstract

Introduction: Two prominent motivation categories of college student nonmedical prescription stimulant use (NMUPS) are for academic and recreational purposes. However, little research focuses on these motivations’ association with college students’ NMUPS views. Further, limited research assesses if user gender influences views. Methods: The current online scenario study implemented a 2 × 2 factorial design assessing 148 college undergraduates’ (75% females; M_age = 19.18; SD_age = 1.30) NMUPS views based on user motivation and gender. Participants reported their drug use stigmatization, prescription stimulant expectancies (ie, anticipated drug use beliefs and outcomes), and personal substance use. Results and Discussion: Results showed that user gender did not influence participants’ NMUPS views; however, participants viewed academic use less negatively compared to recreational use, thus highlighting the need to educate students on the negative consequences of NMUPS, even when use is for academically related tasks. Furthermore, exploratory analyses showed drug use stigmatization and prescription stimulant expectancies predicted participant NMUPS views.

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2021.1942005 .

Keywords:

• Motivations
• gender
• college students
• prescription stimulants
• misuse

Declaration of interest statement

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 and received approval from the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW).

Funding statement

No outside funds were used to support this.