Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

Spring 5-14-2015

Faculty Advisor(s)

Sarah Labelle

Abstract

The study examines college students' communication surrounding nonmedical use of prescription stimulants (NPS). Using a hypothetical scenario, the researchers will employ the Theory of Planned Behavior to investigate if students' attitudes and perceived social norms affect their intent to intervene on behalf of a friend who is engaging in what they believe to be excessive NPS. College students’ will complete anonymous web-based surveys, reporting on each of the study variables as well as demographic information. Self-reports of both perceived and actual knowledge of engaging in NPS, as well as students' levels of communication health literacy, will also be collected as control variables. The study seeks to investigate the following hypothesis: College students’ attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control will predict their intention to intervene on behalf of a friend engaging in excessive nonmedical use of prescription stimulants (NPS) when controlling for knowledge of NPS and communicative health literacy. The subjects of this research study will be approximately 200 college students of mixed gender and ethnic backgrounds. Students will be recruited from the Chapman University Communication studies subject pool. Correlational and regression analyses conducted in a statistical analysis software program for the social sciences (i.e., SPSS 19) will be used to analyze the survey responses.

Comments

Presented at the Spring 2015 Student Research Day at Chapman University.

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