Journal o f Youth and Adolescence, VoL 1, No. 4, 1972

Drug Use and Level of Anxiety Among College Students Michael Wogan I and James P. Elliott 2 Received September 17, 1972

The present study was begun with the expectation that a positive relationship would be found between extent o f drug use and level o f anxiety, since earlier research had suggested that more anxious individuals were more likely to experiment with drugs. However, this was not found to be the case. Male drug users and nonusers were not found to differ in mean anxiety score on three separate anxiety scales. Female users were found to be less anxious than nonusers, findings contradictory to the initial hypothesis. The findings are consistent with recent research by Cross and Davis (1972) and Hogan et al. (1970) in suggesting that drug users may be more socially outgoing and adventuresome than nonusers.

INTRODUCTION

The present study was conducted to examine the relationship between anxiety level and drug use. A positive relationship was expected between these two variables, since earlier research had suggested that drug experimenters were more anxious than nonexperimenters (Hinckley, 1968; Milman and Anker, 1971; Robbins et al., 1970). Previous studies at the same university had shown the level of marijuana use to exceed 56% among undergraduates (Cross and Davis, 1972). However, Cross and Davis found that users did not differ significantly from nonusers on an incomplete sentences measure of adjustment, unless those 1Associate Professor and Clinical Psychologist, Student Mental Health Service, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut. Research interests include psychotherapy processes and the measurement of personality variables.

2Student, Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut. Research interests include drug usage among both college and noncollege youth and the effectiveness of residential and other treatment programs in reducing drug dependence. 325 1972 Plenum PublishingCorporation, 227 West 17th Street, New York, N.Y. 10011.

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with very high levels of drug use were considered separately. Cross and Davis concluded that "very heavy marijuana users are, like alcoholics, in considerable psychological distress; whereas, moderate users show no personality dysfunction" (p.65). In addition, results by other investigators (Hogan et al., 1970) suggest that drug users may be more outgoing and less inhibited than nonusers. The results presented here add support to these latter findings. METHOD

One hundred and thirty-eight subjects, 55 males and 80 females, participated in the experiment as part of the requirements for an introductory psychology course. Most of the subjects were sophomores (72) or freshmen (47). The students were told that their replies would be confidential and that the purpose of the test was to evaluate the performance of the three anxiety scales which were included. They were also told that there would be questions concerning their amount of drug use at the end of the questionnaire, were assured their replies would be treated in confidence, and were urged to answer honestly. Three anxiety scales, the two scales from the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, 1972; Spielberger et al., 1970) 3 and the Christie modification of the Heineman Forced-Choice Anxiety Inventory (Christie and Budnitzky, 1957; Heineman, 1953), were given as the first part of the form, with the drug questions following. The Heineman scale is an adaptation of the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale designed to measure anxiety while controlling for the effects of social desirability through the use of a forced-choice format. RESULTS 4

The number and percent of students reporting use of six different classes of drugs are given in Table I. Ninety-five percent of the respondents said they had tried at least one of the six classes of drugs named. Fifty-five percent reported having tried marijuana at least once, 16% said they had tried hallucinogens, and 92% had tried alcohol. With the exception of correlations involving alcohol, the fourfold point correlations between categories of drug use were all significant at beyond the

3The authors wish to thank Dr. Charles Spielberger for permission to reproduce the STAI scales. 4Most of the analyses reported in this section were performed at the University of Connecticut Computer Center, which is supported in part by Grant GJ-9 from the National Science Foundation.

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Table I. Frequency and Percentage of Drug Use Frequency Yes No

Drug

Percent yes

No. nonrespondents

92 55 16 19 12 7

3 7 7 10 10 11

T

Alcohol Marijuana Hallucinogens Amphetamines Barbiturates Opiates

124 72 21 24 16 9

11 59 110 104 112 118

0.01 level, ranging from 0.25 to 0.67. This suggests that persons who use one type of drug also tend to use other drugs, and vice versa. The exceptions to this pattern occurred with alcohol use, primarily because 92% o f the sample said they had tried it, causing an extremely skewed distribution for this variable and low positive correlations. The anxiety scale scores for the total group and for males and females separately are given in Table II. On all three o f the scales, females were found to score higher than males. The t tests for State, Trait, and Heineman scales, respectively, were 2.16, p

Drug use and level of anxiety among college students.

The present study was begun with the expectation that a positive relationship would be found between extent of drug use and level of anxiety, since ea...
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