The association between substance use and depressive symptomatology in nursing university students in Mexico
Date
2019
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier
Abstract
Description
The present study represents an ex post facto non-experimental study of undergraduate nursing students (N = 1,176) residing in Mexico whereby we examined the association between substance use and depressive symptomatology. The sample was composed primarily of women (70.1%), between the ages of 18 and 23 years (89.5%). Outcomes suggest a significant association between current clinically relevant depressive symptomatology 3-month marijuana, alcohol, and sedative use. Additionally, current depressive symptomatology was significantly associated with lifetime alcohol and sedative use. Lastly, current depressive symptomatology was significantly associated with both moderate/high risk level due to alcohol and sedative use. The present study is innovative as it examines possible associations between depressive symptomatology and 10 classes of substances concurrently for a group that is largely understudied, further contributing to the international literature in this area. Findings are discussed with regards to study limitations.