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.

Keywords:

Theory of Planned Behavior , Drug Abuse , Adolescents