TESTING AGNEW'S GENERAL STRAIN THEORY ON DRUG USE AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS IN JORDAN

Logistic regression was performed to assert the effects of the core assumption of Agnew. 's General Strain Theory (GST) on the likelihood of college students using drugs. It aims to identify the level of strains such as failure in achieving the goals of positive value, negative emotions, loss of positive emotions, and/or negative feelings among students of Jordan University. A social survey was conducted, and a questionnaire, developed by Al-Badayneh (2012), was used in this study. A sample of (965) students from the University of Jordan was selected. Logistic regression analysis supported Agnew's GST core assumptions. The logistic regression model was statistically significant due to the fact that the model demonstrates 100% accuracy when the non-significant (Hosmer and Lemeshow test chi 2 = 8.435 alpha = 0.392) is applied. The model explained 35% (Nagelkerke R Square) of variance on the drug use, and correctly classified 95.5% overall prediction of the cases. A significant relationship was found between general stain and drug use (-0.113, alpha = 000), negative emotions (-0.311, alpha = 0.000) and frequency of drug use (0.110). Moreover, negative emotions are significantly correlated with drug use (-0. 067, alpha = 0.000) and drug frequency (0.149).