Group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on Addiction Susceptibility in Male High School Students

Substance dependence, as a general problem and a widespread condition, increases mortality rates and imposes high economic costs. The American Psychiatric Association, per the Fifth Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, defines substance use disorder as a set of cognitive, behavioral, and physiological symptoms that indicate a person with significant substance-related problems with substance use. This study aimed to investigate the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) on the addiction susceptibility of high school students.

This was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest and a control group design. The statistical population included all tenth-grade male students in Tonekabon City, Iran, who educated in 2017 (1801). Initially, 5 schools were randomly selected from boyschr('39') high schools. Then, all tenth-grade students were evaluated using the Iranian Addiction Scale for Adolescents. Of the students who scored ≥25, 30 were randomly divided into two experimental and control groups (15 per group). Furthermore, and a 12-hour group CBT was administered to the experimental group. However, the control group received no treatment. At the end of the intervention and three months after that, both study groups completed the questionnaire as the posttest and follow-up stages. Descriptive statistics, such as mean, standard deviation, and repeated-measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), were applied to analyze the obtained data at (p<0.05).

Findings revealed significant changes in addiction susceptibility posttest scores in the experimental group; however, at the follow-up stage, the change was not significant. Accordingly, the difference between the scores of the experimental and control groups indicated that CBT effectively reduced studentschr('39') potential for substance dependence. Considering the eta squared, 11.8% of these changes were induced by the CBT course. According to Bonferroni test results, there were significant differences between the scores of pretest and posttest stages (p<0.001). In other words, after the intervention, the study samples’ addiction susceptibility score decreased; however, the difference between the follow-up and pretest stages was not significant, indicating that the decrease was not sustained at the follow-up stage. The difference between the scores of the posttest and follow-up stages was significant, i.e., in the follow-up and pretest stages, addiction susceptibility values were almost the same. However, in the posttest phase, due to the provision of CBT, the susceptibility to addiction was reduced. As a result, the CBT outcomes failed to remain sustainable.

The obtained data revealed that group CBT affected the components of addiction susceptibility in the investigated tenth-grade students and reduced these adolescentschr('39') tendency to addiction. Thus, this intervention is promising in preventing substance use disorders. Group CBT alone does not seem to be effective in reducing studentschr('39') dissatisfaction with parents, and it is best to include concurrent training to improve parenting styles and parent-child relationships and educate parents. To achieve these goals, it is necessary to provide training and interventions prior to conducting the program or simultaneously in the target groups, and at different stages according to the characteristics of each step as well as the studentschr('39') perceptions.