Mental well-being as a predictor of substance uses among university undergraduate students

The study investigated mental well-being as a predictor of substance use among university undergraduate students. Four hundred and thirty (430) undergraduate students comprising 283 females and 147 males were drawn using three-stage sampling (cluster, simple and purposive) techniques from Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Agbani. Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST-10) (Skinner, 1982) and The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) (Tennant et al., 2007) were used for data collection, and a correlational design was adopted, while linear regression was used as the statistical choice to analyse the gathered data. Findings indicated that mental well-being, Stβ= .394* and t= 2.271*, positively predicted substance abuse among undergraduate students. Hence, school authorities should work towards introducing a course along with an orientation exercise on the negative effects of substance use among undergraduate students.