A Model for Explaining Quality of Life Based on Maladaptive Schemas and Attachment Styles with the Mediating Role of Self-Differentiation in Students with Substance Abuse

Drug abuse is consuming addictive substances in a harmful manner to self or others, i.e., a type of drug use disorder. Quality of Life (QoL) represents the wellbeing of the individual and its’ life–associated variables. QoL is affected by various characteristics, including early maladaptive schemas and attachment styles. Furthermore, individuals, in the family system, are affected by emotional–cognitive factors. One of these variables is self–differentiation. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate a model explaining the QoL of substance–dependent male students. For this purpose, we considered the scaling and exclusion criteria as well as attachment styles with the mediating role of self–differentiation.

This was a causal–comparative study. The sample individuals were involved with substance abuse in the past; accordingly, their effects were being investigated in the present research. The statistical population of this study included all students of Kharazmi University of Tehran City, Iran, in 2016. The sample size, given the limited number of these individuals, was considered as 171. Moreover, they were selected by a convenience sampling method. The inclusion criteria of the study were as follows: being current university students; not receiving any counseling or psychotherapy services; not having familial problems, such as running away or being rejected by parents; being dependent on at least one known opioid or stimulant drug. The following tools were applied for collecting the required data: the Adult Attachment Scale (Collins and Read, 1990), the Young Schema Questionnaire–Short Form (Young, 1998), the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL–BREF), and the Differentiation of Self Inventory (Skowron & Friedlander, 1998). The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics (by path analysis) in AMOS and SPSS at a significance level of 0.05.

The present research results suggested that explanting QoL by emotional deprivation schema (Beta=0.333, p=0.012), abandonment (Beta=0.309, p=0.023) and distrust (Beta=0.293, p=0.038) was significant. Besides, the pathways of explaining avoidant insecure attachment style (Beta=0.360, p=0.048), ambivalent insecurity (B=0.135, p=0.049), and explaining self–differentiation based on lifestyle (Beta=0.374, p=0.032) were significant.. Moreover, the model of explaining the QoL in students with substance abuse based on the maladaptive schemes and attachment styles was significant (RMSEA=0.075, AGFI=0.925).

Based on the obtained data, maladaptive schemas concerning scaling and exclusion and attachment styles with the mediating role of self–differentiation could provide a desirable model to explain the QoL of male students who abuse drugs.