The Assessment of Self-Esteemin AddictedWomen

Self-esteemis the level of respect which an individual pays to himself and his identity. Having healthy self-esteemis a fundamental need for human beings and lack of itmay have some consequences.

The aimof this studywas to determine and compare the level of self-esteemamong female addictswith normal control group.

The study is an analytical cross-sectional study. The present study was conducted on three groups: impris- oned addicted women, addicted women in the society visiting welfare associations who did not have a background of imprison- ment, and a control group including non-addictswho did not have the records of imprisonment and visiting health care centers to receive consultation services. Validated Persian version of the Rosenbergs self-esteem scale was used in this study. The Chi-square test, ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used.

The mean age of participants was not statistically different in three groups (P = 0.75) but the other variables (i.e. level of education, job, location of living, andmarital status) showsignificant statistical difference (P = 0.001).Themean score of self-esteem in the group of imprisoned addicts, addicts and control groups were respectively 14.87  4.70, 15.16  4.71, and 22.90  5.06. The mean score in the control group is significantly higher than addict group (Chi-square = 74.97, P < 0.001).

Lower level of self-steemshould be considered as an important factor for tendency for drug abuse.