The frequency of substance abuse tendency and its related factors among high school students in Divandarreh City, Iran, in year 2018

BACKGROUND: Adolescence is the most risky part of life for beginning of substance abuse. Substance use in adolescence can affect the rest of the person's life in addition to his youth. The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of substance abuse and its related factors among high school students in the city of Divandarreh, Kurdistan Province, Iran, in 2018. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study. The statistical population consisted of all high school students (16-18 years old) in Divandarreh City in 2018. The sample size was 386. The instruments of this study were demographic information and Zargar et al. addiction questionnaires. Data were entered into SPSS software and chi-square test was used to evaluate the analytical data. RESULTS: According to the results, 279 (75%) of students had low addiction tendency, 66 (17%) had moderate addiction tendency, and 25 (6%) tended to severe addiction. 117 students (31%) had at least one experience of using alcohol, smoking, drugs, and other substances and 53 (15%) claimed daily consumption of substances and drugs. There was a significant relationship between sex (P = 0.001), father's education (P = 0.028), mother's education (P = 0.011), father's job (P = 0.001), educational grade (P = 0.002), economic status (P < 0.001), and average of study (P = 0.019) with substance abuse tendency. CONCLUSION: According to the results of this study, providing a quiet and full of confidence environment for adolescents should be one of the fundamental priorities of each family. In addition to this result, parents' educational growth leads to less willingness of children to addiction.