Assignment

Substance Abuse at Rocky University

Substance abuse has always been a problem at colleges and universities. However, some are alarmed by the recent misuse of prescription medication and by the legalization of marijuana in some states. Many businesses are concerned that substance abuse will impact them if graduates (future employees) have developed a pattern of substance abuse while still in college. An article reported that 46% of U.S. college students have been involved in some type of substance abuse.

Substance abuse has been a concern of the president of Rocky University for several years. Some faculty members in the university believe that substance abuse is more widespread at Rocky than at other universities, while other faculty members think that substance abuse is not a major problem in the college. To resolve some of these issues, the president of the university commissioned a study to assess the current substance abuse behavior of students at Rocky. As part of this study, an anonymous exit survey was administered to a sample of 90 students from this year's graduating class. Responses to the following questions were used to obtain data regarding three types of substance abuse.

1. During your time at Rocky, did you ever participate in binge drinking?

Yes
No

2. During your time at Rocky, did you ever abuse prescription medication?

Yes
No

3. During your time at Rocky, did you ever use any type of illegal or illicit drug (not included in questions 1 or 2)?

Yes
No

Any student who answered yes to one or more of these questions was considered to have been involved in some type of substance abuse. The complete data set is in the file named Abuse, linked at the bottom of the page.

Managerial Report

Prepare a report (see below) for the president of the university that summarizes your assessment of the nature of substance abuse by students at Rocky University. Be sure to include the following seven items in your report.

1. To summarize the data, compute the proportion of all students, the proportion of all male students, and the proportion of all female students who

1. Participated in binge drinking.
2. Abused prescription medication.
3. Used illegal or illicit drugs.

Then comment on your findings.

2. Develop 90% confidence intervals for the proportion of all students, the proportion of all male students, and the proportion of all female students who were involved in some type of substance abuse.

3. Develop 90% confidence intervals for the proportion of all students, the proportion of all male students, and the proportion of all female students who participated in binge drinking.

4. Develop 90% confidence intervals for the proportion of all students, the proportion of all male students, and the proportion of all female students who abused prescription medication.

5. Develop 90% confidence intervals for the proportion of all students, the proportion of all male students, and the proportion of all female students who used illegal or illicit drugs.

6. Conduct a hypothesis test (using either the p-value approach or the critical value approach) to determine if the proportion of all students at Rocky University who were not involved in some type of substance abuse is less than that of all U.S. students elsewhere. Use α = 0.10.

Do not forget to include the correctly worded hypotheses.

7. What advice would you give to the president of the university based upon your analysis of the data? What is the magnitude of the issue? What would you recommend for both students and faculty? What is the potential impact on relationships with the business community and what would you recommend? How can this study be improved?

Write a report that adheres to the Written Assignment Requirements under the heading "Expectations for CSU-Global Written Assignments" found in the CSU-Global Guide to Writing and APA Requirements. As with all written assignments at CSU-Global, you should have in-text citations and a reference page. An example paper is provided in the MTH410 Guide to Writing with Statistics, linked at the bottom of the page.

Be sure that your report contains the following:

A title page in APA style.

An introduction that summarizes the problem.

The body of the paper should answer the questions posed in the problem by communicating the results of your analysis. Include results of calculations, as well as charts and graphs, where appropriate.

A conclusion paragraph that addresses your findings and what you have determined from the data and your analysis.

In-text citations from a minimum of three sources in addition to your textbook. The CSU-Global Library is a good place to locate these sources.

A reference page.

Be sure to submit your Excel file as well.

NOTE: Submitting your Excel file will aid in grading with partial credit if errors are found in the paper.