Protective and Preventative Factors in Struggling with Addiction: The Role of Life Skills*

Drug addiction plays an important role in the problems experienced by children and adolescents in developmental risk groups. The programs developed to prevent drug addiction seem to be more on knowledge level. The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between drug addiction and life skills in adolescents. In this context, a qualitative research has been conducted in order to demonstrate the attitudes of young people and their families towards substance use/dependence, the motivations of considering and starting narratives, the reasons of starting to drug, the consequences of drug use and the importance of life skills in preventing drug addiction. The data were gathered from 10 separate interviews with a total of 87 people, consisting of parents (45) and young people (42) with the focus group interviews. The data were analyzed with qualitative data analysis technique using MAXQDA program. As a result of the research, it is found that young people who use drugs have problems with their families, do not have good relations with their families and friends, and they have low school achievement and school loyalty. Among the life skills that young people believe to be effective in preventing drug use are social skills, communication and nurturing relationships in affective domain; , problem solving, resistance to substance and goal setting, health in the field of managing emotions and self-discipline are the most important ones in cognitive domain.

To cite this article: Özbay, Y., Büyüköztürk, Ş., Tomar, İ. H., Eşici, H., Aliyev, R. Yancar, C., & Kurnaz, Z. (2019). Protective and preventative factors in struggling with addiction: The role of life skills. Addicta: The Turkish Journal on Addictions 6, 907−961. http://dx.doi.org/10.15805/addicta.2019.6.3.0083