Risk Factors for Drug Addiction: A Review

Description

Page: 383-387

Sunita Devi and Sandeep Singh (Department of Applied Psychology, G.J.U.S.T., Hisar, Haryana)

Drug addiction has become a serious and complex problem. It affects all aspects of a person’s life including social, physical, and psychological. As a result of addiction, students’ academic performance gets affected, a person’s job performance and relationships at workplace are affected, there is an atmosphere of unrest and tension at home, and financial difficulties are faced. Many factors affect drug addiction. The main objective of the present study is to highlight the factors affecting drug or substance use/addiction. After reviewing, all the factors are mainly divided into four types: (1) Family, (2) Peers, (3) Psychological factors, and (4) Social and Environmental factors. Family factors mainly include heritability, family violence and conflicts, parent’s education, parental monitoring etc. Peer pressure or influence, antisocial peer groups, and peer rejection etc. are peer related risk factors. Psychological problems such as individual personality, PTSD, depression, anxiety, conduct disorder, and ADHD, etc. have been found to have an association with drug addiction. Similarly, poverty, unemployment, lower level of SES, and victimization are social factors which increase the probability of drug addiction. Hence drug addiction is a multidimensional problem which is affected by many factors.