Assessing behavioral patterns of Internet addiction and drug abuse among high school students

BACKGROUND: Internet addiction and drug abuse isolate adolescents from their family and friends and cause damage to their health, relations, emotions, and spirit. In the society, adolescents’ addiction extracts high cost on health care, educational failure and mental health services. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to assess the behavioral patterns of Internet and drug addiction among urban and rural students in Urmia, Iran. METHODS: A sectional and descriptive–analytical approach with stratified sampling method was employed to recruit 385 high school students from urban and rural areas. The Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and the Addiction Acknowledgement Scale (AAS) were used for data collection. RESULTS: The total score of Internet addiction among the students was 41.72 ± 17.41. Approximately two-third of the students were not addicted to the Internet. The mean score of the AAS was 1.87 ± 1.23 among boys and 1.75 ± 1.31 among girls. Moreover, 8.31% of the students were prone to abusing substances. A statistically significant relationship was found between mother’s literacy level and Internet addiction behavior of students (p=0.009). CONCLUSION: Concentrating on adolescents’ behavioral patterns and their tendency toward misusing Internet and drugs is a notable procedure. Therefore, focusing on adolescents’ health and institutionalizing appropriate training programs for adolescents and their families are vital.