Psychological Determinants of Drug Abuse among Male Adolescents in Isfahan: A Structural Model

BACKGROUND: Drug abuse is one of the most prevalent public health problems around the world and Iran too. Drug abuse is influenced by various psychosocial factors. This study aimed to explain the relationship model of drug abuse based on perceived criticism, mindfulness, and emotion regulation in Isfahan male adolescents. METHODS: This was a correlational cross-sectional study. A total of 350 male students were randomly selected from different high schools in Isfahan during the period of 2015–2016 academic year. Four questionnaires including the probability of drug abuse questionnaire, emotion regulation inventory, Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, and perceived criticism scale were employed. Data were analyzed using Chi-square and correlation coefficient, besides; Structural equation modeling was used to model the direct and indirect relationships between variables. In this regard, SPSS and AMOS softwares were used. RESULTS: Out of the whole subjects, 49.7% had score above the median, indicating more likely to be drug abuser. There was a significant correlation between emotional reappraisal (r = −0.40), expressive suppression (r = −0.38), mindfulness (−0.57), and criticism (r = 0.57) with drug abuse among male adolescents (P < 0.001). Moreover, criticism through the emotional self-regulation had indirect effects on drug abuse. Totally 69% of the variance in drug abuse was explained by the study variables. CONCLUSIONS: In total, the results of this study revealed that high levels of drug abuse among students can be considered as a crucial issue, regarding the significant effects of psychological factors, adaptive emotion-regulation strategies, as well as school and family-based Psycho-social skills, are recommended.