Effective Factors in Youth Drug Abuse in Iran: Analysis of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps based on Expert Opinion

This study aimed to identify the factors influencing drug abuse from the perspective of people who are involved in addiction treatment.
Due to the complex and ambiguous structure of the effective factors in youth addiction, fuzzy cognitive maps were used for data collection and analysis. The participants consisted of 16 physicians and psychologists working in Urmia medical and psychological treatment centers.
The results showed that the following variables had the highest effect on addiction from the perspective of specialists and experts: addiction of family members with the out degree of 1.54, unemployment with the out degree of 1.32, and deviant peers with the out degree of .88. In addition, these experts believe that addiction reduces one's ability to cope with life's problems and, thereby, inability to solve problems increases the person's sense of isolation. At the end, the whole process results in the severity of addiction.
These results have practical implications.