The Relationship Between Tendency to Substance Abuse and Resilience and Academic Procrastination in Secondary School Students

Adolescent students are at high risk for substance abuse. The tendency to substance abuse in students is of significant importance. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between the tendency to substance abuse based on resilience and procrastination in high school students.

This was a cross-sectional and correlational study. The statistical population consisted of high-school male students in district 12 of Tehran City, Iran, in the academic year of 2017-2018. The statistical sample consisted of 149 individuals who were selected using a multistage cluster sampling technique. The data collection instruments were Conner and Davidson’s Persistence Questionnaire (2003), Solomon and Roth Blum (1984), and Golparvar Substance Abuse Tendency Questionnaire (2003). Pearson’s correlation coefficient and regression analysis were used for data analysis.

This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Kharazmi University (Code: IR.KHU.REC1397.29).

 The current study results suggested a significant relationship between resilience and the tendency to substance abuse (P<0.05). There was a significant and positive relationship between academic procrastination and the tendency to substance abuse (P<0.05) in the study samples. Academic resilience and procrastination could explain 54% of the variance in substance abuse tendency in the investigated adolescents. Resiliency (-0.556) and academic procrastination (-0.436) played a significant role in predicting the tendency of substance abuse in adolescents.

 Academic resilience and procrastination predicted a tendency for substance abuse in secondary school students. Therefore, these risk factors need to be considered in preventive measures and interventions for this age group.