Date of Award

1995

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Health and Human Sciences

Abstract

An SEU measure was constructed to test the relationships between adolescents' combined expectations and values of possible outcomes of amphetamine use and intention to use the drug. The structure of the measure was then examined using Principal Components Analysis. Two orthogonal subscales were identified representing desires for the positive outcomes and fears of negative outcomes. Tukey's HSD analysis of pairwise means indicated that the two subscales were differentially effective in distinguishing participants with high, moderate and low levels of intention to use amphetamine. Participants with high levels of intention differed significantly from participants with low or moderate intention in their responses to items relating to the positive outcomes of amphetamine use. Conversely, participants with low levels of intention differed significantly from participants with high and moderate intention in their responses to items about the negative effects of amphetamine use. From the study, it seems that positive outcomes of use appear to be as powerful a component of utility and as successful in accounting for variance in intention as negative outcomes and that they therefore warrant at least as much consideration in the planning of school-based drug eduction.

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