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The relationship between coping, stress and cognitive enhancement drug use

Stephan, N.M. (2018) The relationship between coping, stress and cognitive enhancement drug use.

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Abstract:Background: While there is already research done on the relationship between coping styles and cognitive enhancement (CE) drug use, there is no research done that tries to investigate possible mediating variables on that relationship. The goal of this research was to gain insightsinto the relationship between coping styles and CE drug use, with stress as a possible mediating variable. Method: The participants (n = 175) of this study were assigned through a university study-recruitment website and the personal network of the researchers. The participant’s age ranged from 18 to 30 (M = 20.79; SD = 2.42), while 72% of the sample were female and 27.4% were male. The majority of participants were German (75.4%), followed by Dutch participants (12.6%). Participants filled in an online questionnaire, which measured stress, CE drug use and coping behaviours. Results: The results showed that neither functional coping nor dysfunctional coping could be related to CE drug use. Accordingly, stress could not mediate the relationship between the coping styles and CE drug use. Conclusion: Even though coping has proven to be predicting CE drug use in previous research on that topic, the current study could not provide proof for this relationship and accordingly also not for stress as a possible mediating variable in this relationship. Possibly, cross-cultural differences in coping behaviours could account for the non-existence of this relationship in the present study, as previous research on that relationship was conducted in Australian university samples. Also, as literature showed a low prevalence rate of German students for CE drug use, the scores on that scale in the current study might have insufficient variance in order to establish relationships with other variables. Future research is needed in order to assess possible cross-cultural differences in CE drug use and its predictors.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:77 psychology
Programme:Psychology BSc (56604)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/75158
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