Academic Anxiety and Mindfulness as Predictors of Substance Use Among Undergraduate Students
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND MANAGEMENT RESEARCH August 24, 2026 DOI: 10.56201/ijssmr.vol.11no10.2025.pg66.78 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Correlational study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 194 |
| Population | Undergraduate students at Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu (107 females, 87 males; mean age 20.76, SD 2.62) |
| Measures | Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST-10), Academic Anxiety Scale, Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills |
| Topics | Anxiety Meditation |
| Key points | Mindfulness negatively predicted substance use among undergraduates (β = -.17, p < .05), whereas academic anxiety was not a significant predictor (β = .08, p < .05). The authors propose that therapists help students seeking help for substance use learn to be social minded to cushion its effects. |
Abstract
The study investigated academic anxiety and mindfulness as predictors of substance use among undergraduate students, with one hundred and ninety-four (194) undergraduate students which comprises of 107 females and 87 males with mean age of 20.76 and S.D of 2.62 were drawn using multi-stage (cluster, simple random: by balloting and purposive) sampling techniques as participants from Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu. The Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST-10), Academic Anxiety Scale, and Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills were used for data collection. A correlational design was adopted and multiple hierarchical Regressions with the aid of SPSS version 23 were applied as a statistical to analyse the data to test the hypothesis. Findings revealed that Mindfulness is a negatively predicted substance use among undergraduate students (β = -.17, p< .05). Academic anxiety was not a significant predictor of substance use among undergraduate students (β = .08, p< .05). Therefore, therapist should help students that seek help against substance use on how to be social minded so as to cushion the effect of substance use.