Awareness of the Digital Drugs Phenomenon among Jordan University Students

Abstract

In this study, the study sought to gauge awareness of the digital drugs phenomenon among fourth-year undergraduate students at the University of Jordan in Amman. To answer the research questions, the study collected data by distributing a questionnaire among a population of 6,200 students, 376 of whose data were analyzed after performing random stratified sampling. Results showed that awareness of the digital drugs phenomenon among the sample was moderate, given a mean score for the whole questionnaire of 2.42, whereas mean scores of the questionnaire items were between 1.60 and 3.95. The item of using websites to listen to music achieved the highest mean score (3.95), thereby showing a high degree of awareness, followed by caring about new development and updates posted online, which achieved a mean of 3.78, thereby also showing a high degree of awareness. The item of knowing websites that promote digital drugs and which clothes need to be worn to use digital drugs showed a mean score of 1.72 for a low degree of awareness, whereas knowing some websites that provide digital drugs scored a mean of 1.60, for a low degree of awareness. The study thus underscore several results, one of which shows no statistically significant difference at the .05 =  level of awareness of the digital drugs phenomenon among the sample, whereas the other reveals no statistically significant difference at the 0.05 =  level of awareness, which refers to several factors, including gender, social position, place of residence, college of study, age, ability to use social media, and average use of the Internet. In light of those results, the study formulated a series of recommendations: 1. Raise the level of awareness of the digital drugs phenomenon by cooperating with civil society organizations. 2. Focus on the role of media in fighting the threat of digital drugs. 3. Expand community service opportunities that provide youth with positive energy. 4. Conduct more studies on the digital drugs phenomenon and its implementation.