Characteristics of College Students Who Use Psychoactive Drugs for Nonmedical Reasons

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Students who use psychoactive drugs for nontherapeutic reasons differ significantly from nonusers. Several large-scale, longitudinal studies indicate that high school and college students who use these drugs differ markedly as a group from nonusers in personality and character traits, in attitudes and values, in home and school environment, in relations with parents, and in overall lifestyle. Most of these differences precede drug use—some have been identified in early childhood—and most have a linear relationship with the degree of drug involvement. The greater the degree of involvement, the greater the difference. They also have predictive value, with certain traits being more predictive of one drug than of another. As a group, drug users of the 1980s continue to reflect patterns of disaffection and rebellion that characterized users in the counterculture of the 1960s. Users tend to be more radical in their political views; to have fewer religious convictions; to be more involved in traffic violations, antisocial, and delinquent behavior; and to have personality traits indicative of maladjustment, including rebelliousness, low self-esteem, and depressed mood. They also tend to have conflict-ridden and distant relationships with both parents, mothers who were uninvolved in the activities of their children, and friends who influenced them more than their parents throughout their early teenage years.