Jentashapir J Health Res. 2014 October; 5(5): e23223.

DOI: 10.5812/jjhr.23223
Published online 2014 October 13. Research Article

Effectiveness of Social Skills Training on Tendency to Addiction in High

School Female Students
1 2,*
Yousef Dehghani ; Mostafa Dehghani
1Department of Psychology, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Persian Gulf University, Bushehr, IR Iran
2Young Researchers and Elite Club, Bushehr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bushehr, IR Iran

*Corresponding author: Mostafa Dehghani, Young Researchers and Elite Club, Bushehr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bushehr, IR Iran. Tel: +98-9177702710, Fax: +98-7714544575,
E-mail: dehghani001@gmail.com

Received: February 2, 2014; Revised: February 27, 2014; Accepted: July 28, 2014

Background: Drug dependence is one of the major problems in today’s world which has turned into a serious, concerning threat due to
its destructive and preventive effects on the development and prosperity of the society.
Objectives: The study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of social skills training on tendency to addiction among high school female
students of Ahvaz city.
Patients and Methods: The population of this study consisted of all female students in Ahvaz city high schools, who scored one standard
deviation higher than the mean in the zargar addiction potential questionnaire. Out of them, 40 students were selected by random
sampling method and classified into two experimental and control groups (20 persons in each group). Eight treatment sessions were
scheduled for the experimental group. In these sessions, social skills such as assertiveness, anger management, and communication with
others were instructed to the group whereas, the control group received no training. Evaluation device wasscattere zargar addiction
potential questionnaire.
Results: The results of the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) test showed that there was a significant difference between the tendency to
addiction reduction scores in control and experimental groups (P < 0.01). The results indicated that training the social skills were effective
to reduce the tendency to addiction reduction in high school female students of Ahvaz.
Conclusions: Teaching the appropriate social skills is effective in reducing the tendency to addiction among the students.

Keywords:Social Work; Addictive Behaviors; Narcotic; Drugs

1. Background
Addiction is seen among all socioeconomic classes and Nowadays, addiction is one of the main problems of
does not belong to a special social class. With regard to human societies and continually takes more new dimen-
the high rate of drug dependence and difficulties in its sions. Now the addiction of adolescents is an alarm for
treatment, it is necessary to identify the factors contrib- the government. The United Nations has designated the
uting to this problem in societies. Addiction is one of the 26th of June as the International Day against Drug. Fail-
problems that have been threatening the human society. ing to establish an emotional relationship with their
Drug abuse is a phenomenon that has been spread with- parents, adolescents bridge this gap by drugs (4). Drug
in different communities during recent years. Investigat- use by poor adolescents compared with the rich ones is
ing and finding the underlying causes of this problem gradually increasing in the coming years (5). Nineteen
require a time-consuming research in various fields (1). percent of the junior high school students are reported
Drugs addiction is a result of using the calming and to use cigarette, alcoholic drinks or drugs at least once in
hallucinatory substances so frequently that the addicted their lives (6).
is involved in it severely. The addicted person feels un- According to the results of this study, 14.7% of the stu-
able to quit or reduce its consumption and keeps using dents are reported to use cigarettes, 9.8%, alcoholic drinks,
the drug increasingly. They think that they would be poi- and 0.05% drugs. The strongest predictors of drugs use
soned in case of quitting it. In medical sciences the term among the adolescents were family conflicts, depression,
“dependence” is used for "addiction" interchangeably. anxiety, stress, positive attitudes and beliefs towards the
The addict is the person who mentally and physically drugs (7). In a research, the relationship between the
depends on a drug (2). Today, drug abuse is considered identity status and recreational use of drugs was inves-
one of the important social problems that not only en- tigated among the adolescents in the 7th to 12th grades
dangers the health of the individual and society, but also in Arizona State. The researchers found that in contrast
induces the mental and moral degeneration (3). to the adolescents with imposed identity, the adolescents

Copyright © 2014, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences; Published by Kowsar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits copy and redistribute the mate-
rial just in noncommercial usages, provided the original work is properly cited.
 Dehghani Y et al.

with scattered identity were involved in smoking, using in the control group (23).
alcohol, and inhaling drugs (like cocaine), two, three, Teaching the social skills to the adolescents have had a
and five times more than the imposed ones, respectively. significant impact on keeping them out of using drugs
These researchers reported the high rate of drug abuse as well as individual risky factors such as self-concept,
among the adolescents in successful status and deferred self-control skills, and social skills, loss of control and at-
identity rather than those with imposed and sporadic titude towards the drugs (24). Nazari and Thoma in their
identities (8). research have suggested that there is a relationship be-
In the United States, primary prevention has been main- tween the poor performances of the social skills during
ly associated with the educational approach about the childhood and posing the psychological problems such
consequences of drug use. However, the empirical find- as delinquency, academic, and cognitive dysfunction,
ings suggest that using this method alone is ineffective truancy and later during the adulthood problems like
and even with the adolescents who are curious in this alcoholism, antisocial behaviors, and mental disorders
case it may increase the probability of abuse. The present (25, 26).
research is not pessimistic about the training; however, Nowadays, governments sustain an exorbitant cost for
relying solely on a single factor and ignoring the other fighting against the drugs, because this subject is con-
factors is a simplistic approach (9). Of course, one of the sidered a social and personal problem. The importance
major problems is the difficulty in establishing the train- of establishing the preventive strategies had been un-
ing programs so that they can remove the bias toward doubtedly clear to the public for several years. In spite of
medical relief of the drug and consequently, mitigate the increasing efforts made in line with preventing and treat-
severe desire of addicts (9). In spite of these challenges, ing the drug abuse; however, there is a growing evidence
the recent efforts for making interventions for reducing indicating that the drug use is increasing (27-29). By
the implicit cognitive response of the addicts to the alco- looking at the increasing use of drugs, especially among
hol stimuli are very promising (9-11). the young generation, it seems that they are going to be
One method for preventing the mental and behavioral squandered who should take steps towards the construc-
problems is to promote the individuals’ psychological tion and development of the society as a whole. There-
capacity through training the social skills. Social skills fore, it is necessary to consider programs for preventing
include a series of capabilities that facilitate the ground the addiction.
for adaptation and useful and positive behavior. For life
skills, which is a part of social skills, many definitions 2. Objectives
have been offered. The World Health Organization (WHO)
With regard to the fact that the training social skills,
defines the life skills as the ability to adapt and deal with
including the increased assertiveness has been approved
life challenges properly (12). These abilities can be physi-
in reducing the behavioral disorders in different stud-
cal, behavioral, and cognitive (13). The attempt for teach-
ies, the author in the present study is going to find out
ing life skills should be focused on the middle period of
how training the social skills such as assertiveness, cop-
education in which significant changes occur, including
ing with anger, communication with others could be ef-
puberty, facing the new system of the education, and in-
fective in reducing the tendency to addiction among the
creasing importance of peer groups among the adoles-
female students (adolescents).
cents. This kind of training is practiced exclusively for

3. Patients and Methods

inhibiting the risky behaviors and affecting the conse-
quences of these behaviors (14).
Adolescents who have poor personal and social skills are The research method for this study is the semi-experi-
not only vulnerable to the factors encouraging the use of mental with pretest and posttest. The study population
drugs, but also tend to use the drug as an alternative for consisted of the all-female students in Ahvaz city, using
compromised coping strategies (15). Various studies sug- zargar addiction potential questionnaire (one standard
gested that training the social or life skills has an effective deviation above the mean). Once the necessary coordina-
role in reducing the tendency to addiction among the tion was made and the permission was obtained from Ah-
adolescents (1, 16-21). In a study conducted by Bagheri, the vaz Education Office, the subjects voluntarily enrolled in
impact of training the life skills on attitude and aware- the experiment. Out of them, 40 students were selected
ness towards the drugs, and self-esteem has been exam- and classified randomly into two groups: experimental
ined among junior high school students. The results indi- and control group (20 persons in each group). The inclu-
cated that training the life skills is effective on changing sion criteria for the research were as follows: the persons
the students' attitude toward the drugs (22). Rahmati has selected for participating in the study are satisfied and
evaluated the role of training the coping skills on atti- interested, are able to share their information and experi-
tudes toward the drugs in the students who participated ences, committed to treatment and therapy sessions, and
in collective conversation session. Results showed that their score in the zargar addiction potential question-
training the coping skills changes the students’ attitudes naire be one standard deviation higher than the mean.
in the experimental group more significantly than those Also, the criteria for exiting the research included the fol-

2 Jentashapir J Health Res. 2014;5(5):e23223

 Dehghani Y et al.

lowing: announcing dissatisfaction to continue the coop- mean of the tendency to addiction among the experi-
eration with the researcher and incomplete response to mental and control groups regarding the pretest and
the questionnaire. posttest. To test the significance of this difference, the
During the experiment, all subjects participated ac- ANCOVA test was used and the results are presented in
tively in the experiment, and no dropout occurred. It Table 2. As it can be seen in Table 2, there is a significant dif-
should also be noted that researchers have PhD in psy- ference between the experimental and control groups in
chology and MSc in family counseling and necessary ex- terms of difference in the tendency to addiction scores in
pertise in the considered field as well as the professional pretest and posttest. Therefore, the research hypothesis
experience in addiction treatment centers to perform was confirmed. In other words, training social skills has
the training sessions. Eight treatment sessions each 1.5 been effective in reducing the tendency to addiction in
hours long were scheduled for the experimental group. high school female students of Ahvaz.
In these sessions, the experimental group was instructed
the social skills such as assertiveness skills, anger man-
agement, and how to communicate with others. In the Table 1. Mean and Standard Deviation of Tendency to Addiction
treatment session, the subjects attempted to exercise of Pre-test and Post-test Scores in Separate Groups a
Group Pre-test Post-test
the skills through playing the role. Meanwhile, in order
to strengthen these skills out of treatment sessions, the
Experimental 70.43 ± 3.075 47.32 ± 6.67
members were instructed to pursue performing the
skills at home or elsewhere. But the control group did not Control 68.23 ± 2.89 67.92 ± 2.08
receive any intervention. a All data are presented as Mean ± SD.

Research tool in this study was zargar addiction poten-

tial questionnaire. This is a customized scale for Iran,
which was designed by Zargar, Najarian, and Naami Table 2. Results of ANCOVA Test for the Tendency to Addiction a
(2008) regarding the psychological social conditions of
Source SS Df MS AC Sig
Iranian community (30). This questionnaire consists of
two sections; 36 articles; and 5 lie-detector articles. Each Post-test 0.71 1 0.71 0.21 0.653
question was scored on a scale ranging from 0 (fully dis- Group 440.95 1 440.95 127.50 0.000
agree) to 3 (fully agree). Two methods were used to de- Error 93.37 27 3.46
termine the validity of this scale. The validity of the scale a Abbreviations: SS: Some of Squares; Df: Degree of freedom; MS: Mean
construct was calculated by correlating it with a 25 item of Square; AC: Analysis of Covariance; Sig: Significant.
scale of a clinical symptoms list (0.45 SCL-25) that was sig-
nificant at 0.0001 level. Scale reliability was calculated by

5. Discussion
using Cronbach α as 0.90, which is desirable (30, 31).

4. Results
The purpose of the present study was to investigate
the effectiveness of training social skills in reducing the
In this section, after presenting the descriptive results level of the tendency to addiction. Nowadays, despite the
pertaining to pretest and posttest of both experimental substantial cultural changes and alteration in lifestyles,
and control groups, they were compared. The tests were many people are unable to cope with life's challenges,
examined based on the results obtained from implemen- which made them vulnerable to life problems and dif-
tation of zargari addiction potential questionnaire. As ficulties. To deal with these problems, it is necessary to
Table 1 shows, the difference between pretest and posttest master the life skills. Learning life skills prepares the indi-
scores in the experimental group is significant, and indi- vidual for dealing with everyday life problems effectively
cates an increase in the mean of posttest score over the and enables him or her to overcome challenges and ten-
pretest score, while the difference between pretest and sions. The importance of life skills is such that it has been
posttest scores in the control group is negligible. defined as the ability to cope with and manage the life
As seen in Table 1, the mean and standard deviation of challenges (30).
the tendency to addiction score were 70.43, and 3.075, The results in Table 2 show that this kind of education
respectively in the pretest phase for the experimental has been effective in reducing the tendency to addiction.
group. These figures were 68.23 and 2.89 for the control Therefore, the hypothesis of this research is confirmed.
group, respectively. In the posttest phase, they were 47.32 These findings are consistent with other researches (6, 22,
and 6.67, respectively for the experimental group and for 23, 32). Similarly, these findings can be partly consistent
the control group, 67.92 and 2.08, respectively. It means with some other studies (33-36). These researchers believe
that the mean of the tendency to addiction in the experi- that training the life skills are effective on reducing anxi-
mental group in posttest has been decreased compared ety and its components among the students. To interpret
with the pretest in the control group. these findings, it is suggested that the susceptible peo-
Table 1 shows that there is a difference between the ple to drug use have low assertiveness and self-esteem.

Jentashapir J Health Res. 2014;5(5):e23223 3

 Dehghani Y et al.

Thus, training the social skills enables them to increase was conducted among female high school students, re-
self-esteem and assertiveness, and accordingly, the ten- sults can only be generalized to this group. In addition,
dency to addiction is dramatically decreased as a result due to the time constraints, performing the follow-up
of having such characteristics. The people who have low to evaluate the effectiveness of social skills training over
self-esteem and self-concept are unable to reject the un- time was not possible. Therefore, the present study and
reasonable requests of others and need to be approved by the studies in this field suggest that the life skills train-
others, especially their peer groups. ing can reduce the tendency to addiction and applying
They may choose the addiction as a tool for being ap- the effective educational preventive methods is recom-
proved by others. mended. Students as the persons, who will form the fu-
One of the most important influences of life skills is ture of our society, learn the social skills. Enjoying these
to improve the individual's behavioral and motivational skills, they can have the opportunity to live with greater
problems. By solving the behavioral problems, the nega- productivity and more effectiveness as they appear in the
tive feedback received from the environment is reduced community. Finally, we suggest that future researches in-
significantly, promoting the individual's mental health vestigate the role of personality characteristics, such as
(37). Because the addicts are constantly exposed to nega- psychological hardiness and self-expression (that seem
tive attitudes and even ostracized by their peer and soci- to be significant) in tendency to addiction.
ety, after regaining their health through life skills train-
ing, they will establish effective communication with Acknowledgements
others. Then the negative feedback they received from
others will subside and as a result, the individual's men- The authors sincerely thank all the subjects who con-
tal health is guaranteed. tributed to this study.
Some researchers have shown that the negative self-
concept is a factor that plays a role in the tendency to ad- References
diction (38). In this study, the results showed that train- 1. Russell C, Davies JB, Hunter SC. Predictors of addiction treatment
ing the social skills can also improve the mental health providers' beliefs in the disease and choice models of addiction. J
and create a valuable sense in people in terms of reduc- Subst Abuse Treat. 2011;40(2):150–64.
2. Alleva L, Tirelli E, Brabant C. Therapeutic potential of histaminer-
ing their tendency to addiction. This factor was not men- gic compounds in the treatment of addiction and drug-related
tioned clearly in the previous studies, and it is completely cognitive disorders. Behav Brain Res. 2013;237:357–68.
new. Studies which have already been conducted in this 3. Douglas KS, Dutton DG. Assessing the link between stalking and
domestic violence. Aggr and Viol Behav. 2001;6(6):519–46.
field approve this notion (17-21).
4. Pearson FS, Prendergast ML, Podus D, Vazan P, Greenwell L, Ham-
Today, drug dependence and abuse is a personal, so- ilton Z. Meta-analyses of seven of the National Institute on Drug
cial, and health problem, which is considered a threat Abuse's principles of drug addiction treatment. J Subst Abuse
for national human resources and social capital in dif- Treat. 2012;43(1):1–11.
5. McCuller WJ, Sussman S, Dent CW, Teran L. Concurrent prediction
ferent countries. In recent years, the addiction problem of drug use among high-risk youth. Addict Behav. 2001;26(1):137–
has shown an upward trend. Unfortunately, instead of 42.
focusing on long-term policy based on the practical ap- 6. Mohammadkhani S. . [Assessing the impact training of life skills on
structural model of factors in youth at risk for substance].. Tehran:
proach, no serious attention has been paid to addiction
Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences Univ; 2006.
and social responses so far, which is not consistent with 7. Zarrinkalak HR. [Effectiveness of training resiliency component
the objectives of health promotion and prevention. How- on addiction potential reduction and attitude change about
ever, no active policy is taken in this regard. Nevertheless, substance in students]. J res addic . 2009;11:3–11.
8. Wiers RW, Schoenmakers T, Houben K, Thush C, Fadardi JS, Cox
the real target should be to reduce the number of victims WM. Can problematic alcohol use be trained away? New behavioral
and perpetrators of abuse. This requires the intervention treatments aimed at changing and moderating implicit cognitive
of governments, local communities, judicial system, and processes in alcohol abuse.United Kingdom: M & K Publishing;
researchers. Studies conducted on the adolescent behav- 2008.
9. Fadardi JS, Cox WM. Reversing the sequence: reducing alcohol
ioral problems manifested as delinquency (and some- consumption by overcoming alcohol attentional bias. Drug Alco-
times lead to their arrest), suggesting that educational hol Depend. 2009;101(3):137–45.
problems, lack of self-control skills and efficient prob- 10. Schoenmakers T, Wiers RW, Jones BT, Bruce G, Jansen AT. Atten-
tional re-training decreases attentional bias in heavy drinkers
lem-solving skills, and failure to control the emotions,
without generalization. Addiction. 2007;102(3):399–405.
make a person 9living in difficult situations) to do the 11. Salehi J, Zarrinbar E, Amin yazdi A. [The effect of attention con-
wrong behaviors that will separate them from the path trol teaching on reduce bias due to the substance and improved
of healthy living. therapeutic index drug detoxification treatment]. Stud Edu Psy-
chol. 2010;11(2):29–6.
If the students are given a proper education, the occur- 12. Jones MI, Lavallee D. Exploring the life skills needs of British ado-
rence of such cases can be reduced. Students as individu- lescent athletes. Psychol Spor Exer J. 2009;10(1):159–67.
als who will shape the community's future, should they 13. Helfrich CA, Fogg LF. Outcomes of a life skills intervention for
homeless adults with mental illness. J Prim Prev. 2007;28(3-4):313–
learn social skills, have the opportunity to benefit from
26.
the life with better productivity and become a more effec- 14. Babakhani N. The effects of social skills training on self- es-
tive member in their community (16). Because the study teem and aggression male adolescents. Proce - Soci Behav Scien.

4 Jentashapir J Health Res. 2014;5(5):e23223

 Dehghani Y et al.

2011;30:1565–70. ate students’ levels of assertiveness and problem-solving skills.

15. Sperry DM, Widom CS. Child abuse and neglect, social support, Proce- Soci Behav Scien. 2010;2(2):2064–70.
and psychopathology in adulthood: a prospective investigation. 28. Naderi F, Pasha G, Makvandi F. [The impact of social skills train-
Child Abuse Negl. 2013;37(6):415–25. ing on the adjustment of the individual–social, aggression, as-
16. Frouoddin A, Sadrossadat SJ. The relationship between self-con- sertiveness in female students at risk]. Know Res Appl Psychol.
cept and trends drug addiction in youth. Med Purif . 2002;46:74– 2007;33:37–42.
6. 29. Kalebka RR, Bruijns SR, van Hoving DJ. A survey of attitudes to-
17. Xu TR, Yang Y, Ward R, Gao L, Liu Y. Orexin receptors: multi-func- wards patient substance abuse and addiction in the Emergency
tional therapeutic targets for sleeping disorders, eating disor- Centre. Afric J Emer Med. 2013;3(1):10–7.
ders, drug addiction, cancers and other physiological disorders. 30. Zargar Y, Najarian B, Naami. A. . [The relationship between per-
Cell Signal. 2013;25(12):2413–23. sonality (sensation seeking, assertiveness and resiliency) reli-
18. Kalantarkousheh SM, Rasouli M, Abolfathi R, Nouri N. Effective- gious attitudes and marital satisfaction to addiction potential]. J
ness of communication skills in decreasing addiction tenden- edu psychol. 2008;1(3):99–120.
cies among male students from cities within Tehran province. 31. Suparp J, Boonyathan W, Kittipichai W, Chamroonsawasdi K. Life
Euro J Experiment Bio. 2014;4(1):64–70. school development program to reduce bullying and to pro-
19. Moshki M, Hassanzade T, Taymoori P. Effect of Life Skills Training mote good practices among primaryschool students. J Pub Heal.
on Drug Abuse Preventive Behaviors among University Students. 2010;40:7–16.
Int J Prev Med. 2014;5(5):577–83. 32. Cartwright-Hatton S, Tschernitz N, Gomersall H. Social anxiety in
20. Daemi HR, Sohrabi F, Moghimibarforoosh SF. Investigation of children: social skills deficit, or cognitive distortion? Behav Res
the effect of assertive skills training on attitude toward drug Ther. 2005;43(1):131–41.
abuse in Tehran and Allame Tabatabaeeuniversity students. Q J 33. Smith R. The effect of life skills Training on anxiety and aggres-
Drug Abuse. 2009;9(2):67–96. sion in group of third- grade guidance school. J men Heal care.
21. Barati M, Allahverdipour H, Moeini B, Farhadi Nasab A, Mahjub 2004;41(3):212–20.
H, Jalilian F. [Assertiveness skills training efficiency on college 34. Dietz LJ, Jennings KD, Abrew AJ. Social skill in self-assertive strat-
students’ persuasive subjective norms against substance abuse]. egies of toddlers with depressed and nondepressed mothers. J
J Hamadan Univ Med Sci. 2011;18(3):40–9. Genet Psychol. 2005;166(1):94–116.
22. Bagheri M. . [The rule of Teaching life skills on knowledge and atti- 35. Shin HC, Marsh JC, Cao D, Andrews CM. Client-Provider relation-
tudes towards drugs and self-esteem of students].. Tehran: Tehran ship in comprehensive substance abuse treatment: differences
Univ; 2002. in residential and nonresidential settings. J Subst Abuse Treat.
23. Rahmati A. . [Coping skills training in changing attitudes towards 2011;41(4):335–46.
drug abuse among students of Kerman]. [dissertation].. Theran: Al- 36. Guydish J, Tajima B, Chan M, Delucchi KL, Ziedonis D. Measur-
lameh Tabatabai Univ; 2004. ing smoking knowledge, attitudes and services (S-KAS) among
24. Khademi Ashkzari M, Khademi Ashkezari E. 577 The Effect of clients in addiction treatment. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2011;114(2-
Life Skills Training on Reducing Individual Risk Factors of Drug 3):237–41.
Abuse. Asia J Psychi . 2011;4:61–7. 37. Buwalda B, Geerdink M, Vidal J, Koolhaas JM. Social behavior and
25. Nazari I, Hosseinpour M. [Effectiveness social skills on anxiety social stress in adolescence: a focus on animal models. Neurosci
and self-esteem girl students]. New res psychol . 2009;2(6):95–116. Biobehav Rev. 2011;35(8):1713–21.
26. Thoma P, Friedmann C, Suchan B. Empathy and social problem 38. Kiluk BD, Nich C, Carroll KM. Relationship of cognitive func-
solving in alcohol dependence, mood disorders and selected tion and the acquisition of coping skills in computer assisted
personality disorders. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2013;37(3):448–70. treatment for substance use disorders. Drug Alcohol Depend.
27. Güven M. An analysis of the vocational education undergradu- 2011;114(2-3):169–76.

Jentashapir J Health Res. 2014;5(5):e23223 5