Testing Agnew's General Strain Theory on Drug Use Among College Students

This study aimed to examine the core assumption of  Agnew's General Strain theory in drug use among  University of Jordan students. It aims to identify level of strains among students such as (failure in achieving the goals of positive value, negative emotions, loss of positive emotions, negative feelings) among students of Jordan University. A social survey was conducted,  and a questionnaire was developed  by Al-Badayneh (2012) was used  in this study.  A  random sample of (965) students from the University of Jordan was selected. Findings  supported the Agnew ‘s core assumption of the general strain theory in drug use. A  significant positive relationship was found between the  negative emotions and strains  ( the failure to achieve the goals, and the loss of positive Stimulus, having a negative Stimulus r= 0.419; 0.357; 0.269, and 0.18 respectively). Negative emotions also found correlated with drug use.