Study strategies and "study drugs": investigating the relationship between college students' study behaviors and prescription stimulant misuse.

SUBSTANCE abuse risk factors; CENTRAL nervous system stimulants; PSYCHOLOGY of college students; HABIT; LEARNING strategies; SCHOOLS; MEDICAL prescriptions; LOGISTIC regression analysis; ODDS ratio

Objective The current study examined the regular use of study strategies between college students who misused prescription stimulants (N = 36) and college students who did not misuse prescription stimulants (N = 298) in an undergraduate sample. Participants: 334 college students at a large, Midwestern university. Methods: Using logistic regression, we examined whether students who misused prescription stimulants did so to compensate for poor study strategies and/or a lack of study strategies overall. We hypothesized that regularly spacing studying, using more study strategies, and using more effective study strategies would predict lower odds of prescription stimulant misuse among students. In contrast, we hypothesized that using more ineffective study strategies would predict higher odds of prescription stimulant misuse. Results: Results indicated that a greater number of total study strategies and effective study strategies, and higher importance of school predicted higher odds of prescription stimulant misuse. Conclusions: Thus, students may not be misusing prescription stimulants as a substitute for effective studying but, rather, to augment effective study habits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]