Relationship between risk of substance use, meaning in life and hope among students

Abstract

There is an escalated substance use among students in Pakistan but the cause behind it is being neglected to investigate. The present study was designed to investigate the relationship of hope, meaning in life and risk of substance use among students. This study examined the gender and age differences among students and to study the level of hope, meaning in life and risk of substance use. Data was collected through survey method by convenient sampling. Participants for the study, males (N=149), females (N=151) having age range 14-25 years (M=18.11, SD=2.94) were taken from different schools, colleges and universities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Results indicated that there is significant negative relationship between hope and risk of substance use, similarly there is significant negative relationship between meaning in life and substance use. Moreover, the study also revealed that females are at more risk of substance use due to low hope and low meaning in life than males. Limitations and recommendations for future research are also discussed