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A Mixed-Methods Approach Examining Illicit Prescription Stimulant Use: Findings From a Northern California University

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Abstract

Preventing the illicit use of prescription stimulants, a particularly high-risk form of substance use, requires approaches that utilize theory-guided research. We examined this behavior within the context of a random sample of 554 undergraduate students attending a university in northern California. Approximately 17% of students self-reported engaging in this behavior during college; frequency of misuse per academic term ranged from less than once to 40 or more times. Although most misusers reported oral ingestion, a small proportion reported snorting and smoking the drug. The majority of misusers reported receiving the drug at no cost, and the primary source of the drug was friends. Misusers were motivated by both academic (e.g., to improve focus) and non-academic (e.g., to experiment) reasons. Our thematic analyses of an open-end question revealed that students abstaining from illicit use of prescription stimulants did so primarily for reasons related to health risks, ethics, and adherence regulations. Results from adjusted logistic regression analyses showed that correlates of the behavior were intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental in nature. We conclude that characteristics of misuse are a cause for concern, and correlates of the behavior are multifaceted. These findings, in addition to insights provided by students who choose not to engage in this behavior, suggest that a number of prevention approaches are plausible, such as a social norms campaign that simultaneously corrects exaggerated beliefs about prevalence while also illustrating why abstainers, in their own words, choose to abstain.

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Fig. 1

Note: Figure adapted from: Flay, Snyder, and Petraitis (2009)

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the Prevention Research Center Development Fund. Manuscript preparation was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) Training Grant T32 AA014125. The NIAAA had no further role in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretations of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the paper for publication. The authors would like to thank the instructors who invited us into their classrooms and the students who completed the surveys. We would also like to thank Aracely Velazquez for her assistance with data collection and Cassandra Iannucci for her assistance with the thematic analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Health and Human Services, California State University, Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Blvd, Long Beach, CA, 90840, USA

    Niloofar Bavarian

  2. Sport and Exercise Science, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO, USA

    Jaimie McMullen

  3. College of Public Health and Human Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Brian R. Flay

  4. University Health Services Tang Center, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Cathy Kodama & Melissa Martin

  5. Prevention Research Center, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Oakland, CA, USA

    Robert F. Saltz

Authors
  1. Niloofar Bavarian
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  2. Jaimie McMullen
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  3. Brian R. Flay
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  4. Cathy Kodama
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  5. Melissa Martin
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Correspondence to Niloofar Bavarian.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Standards

The study was approved by the Institutional Review Boards at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation and the University of California, Berkeley.

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Bavarian, N., McMullen, J., Flay, B.R. et al. A Mixed-Methods Approach Examining Illicit Prescription Stimulant Use: Findings From a Northern California University. J Primary Prevent 38, 363–383 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10935-017-0465-8

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