Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

McKinney, CLiff

Committee Member

Armstrong, Kevin J.

Committee Member

Nadorff, Michael R.

Committee Member

Jones, Torri

Date of Degree

12-14-2018

Original embargo terms

Visible to MSU only for 3 years

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Psychology

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Psychology

Abstract

Research relating to illicit use of prescription stimulants (IUPS) has, for the most part, focused on describing behaviors of IUPS. However, there have been few attempts to measure IUPS in a consistent manner or determine how to best predict IUPS in an effective and concise manner. Data from Mississippi State University undergraduates (N = 703) were analyzed to create two shortorm measures to predict lifetime IUPS. The data-driven shortorm consisted of 15 items and 5 factors, and accurately classified 74.8% of participants as users versus non-users. The hand-picked shortorm consisted of 8 items and 5 factors, and accurately classified 84.6% of participants as users versus non-users. Results of this study can begin to provide information and possible tactics for briefly and quickly measuring risk for IUPS, particularly in applied settings, like university health centers or academic admissions. Future directions for research include testing these created shortorm measures with longitudinal data collection, validating the measures on different populations, and determining if these measures can accurately predict specific behaviors related to IUPS (e.g., diversion, IUPS within certain time frames).

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/20708

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