The Study of Substructures of Addiction Phenomena in High School Students Using Problem Finding Workshops

BACKGROUND: Addiction is one of the complicated problems in Iranian young population. The social and cultural dimensions of this social disease are less considered. So considering socio-cultural and environmental resources, this study investigated the substructures of addiction according to the viewpoints of high-school students of Kerman, Iran in 2007-2008. METHODS: This qualitative study accomplished in ten high schools through a one-day problem finding workshop and continued until data saturation. The resulted terms and phrases were analyzed by content analysis. To assure about the validity and reliability, the outputs reviewed by workshops participants, and classification and codification of the data were executed separately by two experts. FINDINGS: A total of 212 students, 45.3% girls and 54.7% boys, participated in the study. The students introduced the followings as the addiction substantial fundaments: lack of knowledge, positive attitude and interpretation of addiction as a value, family or friends' habit, economy status, psycho-personality problems and availability. Rules infirmity or non-implementation of the current rules enforcement, geographical status and addiction as a conspiracy were also observed in students’ statements. CONCLUSION: The positive attitudes and historical roots of addiction along with the process of changing the values caused the growth of drug addiction in young population which could neutralize the security measures, legislations policy and even the knowledge. Therefore, intensification of personal protective factors and culturalization addressed for improving inner layers of values are recommended.