The attitudes of university students towards drug use

Abstract

Problems from academic to economic arise from the use of drugs (Skidmore et al., 2016). However, even though we know that there is a significant relationship present between attitudes and predicting behaviour related to drug use, little research is carried out exploring attitudes towards drugs and their use (Nanda & Smriti, 2017). This study focused on exploring these attitudes across students at the University of Malta by utilising the Drug Attitudes Scale by Goodstadt et al. (1978). Thus, exploring whether the attitudes towards drugs and their use varied across students from different faculties, age groups or amongst those who identify with different genders. A total of 101 participants were gathered from various age groups as well as faculties. However, only students who identified as either male or female took part. The results revealed that participants had a negative attitude towards the respective substances, even though they were neutral towards cannabis, alcohol and tranquilisers. Thus, showing that they were more permissive towards them. In addition, the scores for the total scale indicated that participants had a generally negative attitude towards drugs & their use and this did not differ across individuals from different age groups, faculties or genders. The findings concerning age and gender in turn suggest that unlike what occurred in the past, variables such as these may no longer have an impact on the attitudes UOM students have towards drugs and their use.