Multiple approaches to prevent prescription stimulant misuse among college students exist, including changing student attitudes associated with perceived harms as well as modifying student misperceptions related to misuse “benefits”. Regarding prescription drug misuse, a recent study suggests that changing attitudes doesn’t inevitably predict changes in behavior. However, the authors hypothesized that this relationship could be strengthened in students with higher levels of vested interest, or in students that deem the behavioral outcomes both important and relevant. To test this hypothesis, the authors administered college students (n=129) recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform a cross-sectional survey that measured student attitudes, future intentions to misuse prescription stimulants and subjective vested interest. The authors assessed a student’s vested interest by asking them to consider all of the good and bad things that could happen by misusing prescription stimulants, than considering if it was in their best interest to misuse for a variety of reasons. Results indicated a significant association between student attitudes and intentions to misuse, and that this association was augmented by a student’s vested interest. For example, in students with a high vested interest, students with negative attitudes toward misusing were more likely to not exhibit future intentions to misuse, but the opposite was true in students with positive attitudes toward misusing.  Likewise, in students with a low vested interest, no association existed between attitudes and future intentions to misuse. Take Away: Although this study measured future intentions to misuse and not actual use, this study’s findings suggest that prevention specialists may consider first addressing student’s beliefs that prescription stimulant misuse is in their best interest, then implementing current approaches to modify their attitudes and corresponding behaviors.

 

Donaldson, C. D., Siegel, J. T., & Crano, W. D. (2016). Nonmedical use of prescription stimulants in college students: Attitudes, intentions, and vested interest. Addictive behaviors53, 101-107.