Abstract
Objective: To explore the use of cannabis
amongst higher education students, and its
relationship to other substance use, locus of
control, demographic, and sociopolitical variables.
Design: Structured interview study.
Method: The interview schedule included
measures of substance use, demographic
variables, locus of control (internal, chance, and
powerful others), and sociopolitical attitudes. The
353 participants (264 female, 89 male) were
attending courses at a higher education college,
and were aged between 18 and 30 years
(M=21.2 years, SD=3.0 years).
Analysis: The 197 cannabis users were
significantly older than the non-users. However,
cannabis use status showed no association with
gender, current living circumstances, selfperceived social class, and the perceived
effectiveness of voting. Cannabis users had used
significantly more illegal substances than nonusers, rated the dangers from cannabis as
significantly lower than non-users, and favoured
the legalisation of cannabis to a significantly
greater extent than non-users. Duration of
cannabis use showed a negative correlation
approaching significance with danger ratings for
the drug. Age of first cannabis use was highly
negatively correlated with duration of its use, but
showed no association with gender, selfperceived social class, or danger ratings.
Regression analyses with locus of control
measures showed no relationship to the use of
cannabis or other drugs.
Conclusions: These preliminary results show
that differences between cannabis users and
non-users amongst higher education students
may be mostly limited to variables related to
illegal drug use. With the exception of age,
demographic and sociopolitical variables failed to
distinguish between users and non-users.
Original language | English |
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Publication status | Published - 2004 |
Event | British Psychological Society (BPS) Annual Conference - London, United Kingdom Duration: 1 Apr 2004 → … |
Conference
Conference | British Psychological Society (BPS) Annual Conference |
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Country/Territory | United Kingdom |
City | London |
Period | 1/04/04 → … |