Structural relations of brain- behavioral systems and emotion regulation difficulties with craving of marijuana in students

Introduction: Drug addiction is a recurrent and chronic mental illness that is associated with severe motivational disorders and loss of behavioral control, leading to personality disorder. Aim: Present study aims to evaluation of Structural relations of brain-behavioral systems and Emotion regulation difficulties with craving of marijuana in students. Method: This research was a correlation, study 200 individuals (102 male and 98 female) of School students of Tehran selected by clustering sampling and answered to following questionnaires: Carver and White's Behavioral Inhibition & Activation Scale, Difficulties in emotion regulation scale and craving of marijuana in students' questionnaire. For data analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling technique was used. Results: The evaluation of hypothetical model with fit indexes demonstrated that the hypothetical model fits the measurement model (CFI=0.96, NFI=0.96, and RMSEA=0.045). Structural relations analysis also showed brain-behavioral systems indirectly affect through emotional dysregulation over craving of marijuana and also the results showed that the emotional dysregulation has a direct relation to craving of marijuana. Conclusion: Thus, based on current research findings, it can be concluded that Emotion regulation difficulties has a mediating role in relationship Structural relations of brain-behavioral systems and craving of marijuana. Considering these dimensions and the effectiveness of the employed mechanisms can be useful in developing efficacious preventive and therapeutic interventions for craving of marijuana.