Application of Planned Behavior Theory to Predict Drug Abuse Related Behaviors

Introduction: Drug abuse among adolescents potentially holds several negativeconsequences for the health and well-being of the youth. This theoretically basedstudy explained predictability of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) on drugabuse related behaviors among adolescents.Methods: This descriptive study was conducted in Yazd City, Iran, in 2015among 125 male adolescents in the age range of 11 - 29 years, recruitedrandomly. All data gathered by using self-report written questionnaires includedattitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, intention not to usedrugs as theoretical constructs of TPB, and drug abuse related behaviors.Results: The results showed that 18 % of participants were smoker, 97 % ofthem did not have history of synthetic drug abuse by parents, and 6 % ofparticipants reported synthetic drug abuse by friends. Results of Chi-square testshowed that there was a significant relationship between smoking and father seducation, family size, history of synthetic drugs in parents, history of syntheticdrugs in friends, and participants job (P ˃ 0.000). However, maternal education(P = 682) and living with parents (P = 729) did not have any significantrelationship.Conclusions: The low prevalence of Drug abuse in this study in comparison withthe existing statistics can attribute to lack of participants reports.

Application of Planned Behavior Theory to Predict Drug Abuse Related Behaviors Keywords:

Theory of Planned Behavior , Drug Abuse , Adolescents