The Relationship between Identity and Readiness for Addiction in Women

Drug abuse, which was mostly single-gendered (male), is becoming androgynous. In the past few decades, the rate of drug abuse among Iranian women has increased more than men; and some researches showed it has doubled. The present study investigates the identity disorders and its relationship with tendency of drugs abuse among girls and women. This study was a field detector and predictor survey consisted of a random sample of 384 subjects among female students of Tehran's Islamic Azad University and public universities. Research instrument consisted of identity-based approach in the framework of Anderson and assessing readiness for addiction via the scale of the global standardized Iranian Addiction Potential Scale (IAPS). F-test and regression analysis were used for data analysis. Approximately 40% of students had moderate to high level of readiness for addiction and about 80% of them suffered from damage of identity (distressed identity and loss of identity control) due to chronic social exclusion and discrimination. Advanced statistical analysis and experimental results confirmed the effectiveness of the major variables in the theoretical model in predicting the trends of addiction in high-risk groups in Iranian society, including women.