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
1. During your time at Rocky, did you ever abuse prescription medication?
____ Yes
____ No
1. 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 (7) 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
a. Participated in binge drinking.
b. Abused prescription medication.
c. 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 a = 0.10.
Do not forget to include the correctly worded hypotheses.
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