Beliefs and opinions about drugs and their users as predictors of drug-user status of adolescents in post-revolutionary Iran

Abstract

In a sample survey of 712 Iranian male adolescents, aged 14-18, it was found that drugs users differed in only some of theirs beliefs about drug substances and their use from their non-drug-using contemporaries; and that both sub-samples had, in their agreement about the drug problem in post-revolutionary Iran, been equally influenced by the information presented in the media. Similarly, there was general agreement about the characteristics of regular drug users. The major factor predictive of drug-user status in this sample was the extent of the individual's exposure to models of drug use; such models being more likely to be adult family members than the adolescent's age-peers, a reversal of the situation usually found in Europe and America.