Structural relations of brain- behavioral systems and emotion regulation difficulties with craving of marijuana in students

Drug addiction is a recurrent and chronic mental illness that is associated with severe motivational disorders and loss of behavioral control, leading to personality disorder.

Present study aims to evaluation of Structural relations of brain-behavioral systems and Emotion regulation difficulties with craving of marijuana in students.

This research was a correlation, study 200 individuals (102 male and 98 female) of School students of Tehran selected by clustering sampling and answered to following questionnaires: Carver and White's Behavioral Inhibition & Activation Scale, Difficulties in emotion regulation scale and craving of marijuana in students’ questionnaire. For data analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling technique was used.

The evaluation of hypothetical model with fit indexes demonstrated that the hypothetical model fits the measurement model (CFI=0.96, NFI=0.96, and RMSEA=0.045). Structural relations analysis also showed brain-behavioral systems indirectly affect through emotional dysregulation over craving of marijuana and also the results showed that the emotional dysregulation has a direct relation to craving of marijuana.

Thus, based on current research findings, it can be concluded that Emotion regulation difficulties has a mediating role in relationship Structural relations of brain-behavioral systems and craving of marijuana. Considering these dimensions and the effectiveness of the employed mechanisms can be useful in developing efficacious preventive and therapeutic interventions for craving of marijuana.