FAMILY-BASED COGNITIVE FACTORS EFFECTIVE ON PREVENTING THE ONSET OF SUBSTANCE USE IN IRANIAN SOCIETY’S CHILDREN: APPLYING THE INTERVENTION MAPPING PROTOCOL

MEHDI MIRZAEI-ALAVIJEH¹, ALIREZAHIDARNIA¹*, GERJO KOK², SHAMSADDIN NIKNAMI¹, MOHAMMAD ESMAIL MOTLAGH³

¹ Department of Health Education, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran - ² Department of Work and Social Psychology School of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands - ³ Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran

Introduction: According to increase prevalence rate of substance abuse and appears a reduction in mean age of onset substance use in Iranian society and importance of developing theory and evidence-based prevention family skills training programs the present study was done aimed to investigate family-based cognitive factors effective in preventing the onset of substance use in Iranian society’s children by applying the intervention mapping protocol.

Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out among 234 Iranian mothers in Tehran who were randomly selected to participate voluntarily in the study. The participants filled out a self-administered questionnaire. Data were analyzed by the SPSS software (ver. 21.0) using Pearson correlations, independent t-test, ANOVA and linear regression at 95% significant level.

Results: Knowledge, attitude, perceived risk, subjective norms, and self-efficacy were cognitive factors that accounted for 48% of the variation in the outcome measure of the behaviors in preventing the onset of substance use among children. Linear regression showed that self-efficacy (ß=0.509 & P=0.001), attitude (ß=0.436 & P=0.009), subjective norms (ß=0.344 & P=0.028) and Behavioural intention (ß=0.222 & P=0.001) were the most influential predictors on preventing the onset of substance use among children.

Conclusion: The findings suggest that to developing a theory and evidence-based prevention family skills training program it will be useful to increase mothers’ self-efficacy, attitude, subjective norms, and Behavioural intentionto preventing the onset of substance use among children.