Comparison of Risky Behavior, Process Emotion Regulation Strategies, and Prospective & Retrospective Memory in School Students with and without Drug Use Tendency

The present aimed at comparing risky behaviors, process emotion regulation strategies, and prospective & retrospective memory between students with and without addiction tendency.
A causal-comparative research method was used for the conduct of this study. The statistical population of this study consisted of all high school male students of Tabriz in the academic year 2016-17. The study sample consisted of 60 students with addiction tendency and 60 students without addiction tendency who were selected among the whole group of students. For data collection purposes, high-risk behavior scale, Emotion Regulation Strategies Questionnaire, Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire, and Addiction Acknowledgment Scale were used.
The results of this study showed that there is a significant difference between the two groups in terms of retrospective memory, situation selection, sitiuation modification, attention deployment, behavioral modification, experiential modification, violence, smoking, and alcohol consumption. In fact, students with a tendency to addiction were revealed to have a higher degree of retrospective memory and risk behaviors and a lower degree of emotion regulation strategies.
It can be argued that risky behaviors, emotion regulation strategies, and retrospective memory affect the severity of addiction in students.