With the recent increase in use of prescription stimulants, the high rate of prescription stimulant diversion among college students, and the concurrent dearth of research examining stimulant use among college students, one study aims to examine the normative beliefs about nonmedical use of prescription stimulants (NMUPS) among a sample of this population. Undergraduate college students that reported having a current prescription for a stimulant were surveyed in this study (n=121). The injunctive norms examined were related to frequency and motives of NMUPS across diversion status among the sample. These students completed questions related to diversion of their stimulant medications during their lifetime, their approval of behaviors related to NMUPS, as well as their presumed levels of approval from their close friends, parents, and a typical university student. Findings of this study revealed that nearly 44% of participants indicated they had diverted their prescription at least once. Only 7.5% reported never being approached to divert their prescription. Compared with those that indicated never diverting, those that had diverted reported their close friends were significantly more approving of their NMUPS across all motives and were actually less approving of the act of refraining from NMUPS. With regard to parent and typical university students, diverting students reported more approval of NMUPS for motives related to educational reasons such as studying, increased concentration, and staying awake.
Take away: Students who divert their medications perceive higher levels of NMUPS approval than students without a history of diverting. These students are more likely to rate their close friends as more approving of NMUPS for various motives, while viewing more distal groups (i.e. parents and other students) as more approving of NMUPS for educational purposes. This study shows that future interventions should focus not only on reducing medication diversion, but also on correcting students’ misperceptions about NMUPS approval from close friends, parents, and peers.