The relationship between drug use and personality traits of undergraduate college students

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Authors
Pleszewicz, Darlene K.
Advisor
Jones, Herbert L.
Issue Date
1978
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Degree
Thesis (M.S.)
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Abstract

The thesis was designed to measure patterns of drug use among undergraduate college students and to examine possible relationships between drug use and six personality traits. An anonymous questionnaire was administered by participating Eta Sigma Gamma faculty advisers and student members to 1,552 undergraduate college students enrolled in introductory health education courses at 11 universities. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and a chi-square analysis provided the means for evaluating the data.The Null hypotheses tested were: (1) drug use is independent of sex, age, race, religious affiliation, religiosity, residence, class, college major, and cumulative grade point average; and (2) drug use is independent of these six personality traits: purposelessness, anomie, insecurity, fatalistic thinking, and belief in intervention by God.The first Null hypothesis was rejected for all variables in that differences were statistically significant at the .05 level. The second Null hypothesis was rejected except for the personality trait of pessimism. All of the other personality scales indicated that the results were statistically significant at the .05 level.

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