Effectiveness of Stress Management and Resiliency Training (SMART) on Perceived Stress and Attitude toward Drug Use among Addicted Men Prisoners

Perceived stress among prisoners can cause some psychological and physical problems, and cause positive attitudes toward drugs and tendency to drug use among them. This study aimed to decline perceived stress among drug-dependent prisoners and change their attitude toward drugs. This was a semi-experimental study conducted in a pretest-posttest and follow-up design with a control group. Statistical population of this study was prisoners of Rafsanjan prison that were treating with Methadone maintenance. 30 prisoners were randomly selected and assigned for experimental and control groups randomly. For collecting data, Perceived Stress Questionnaire (Cohen, et al, 1983) and Attitude toward Drugs Questionnaire (Nazari, 2000) were used. Training program included 10 sessions and each session was 90 minutes. After sessions finished, post-test, and follow-up test were done after 2 months. The average of scores significantly decreased both post-test and follow-up in experimental group but no differences in control group. Accordingly, this study concluded that the recent intervention could effectively decrease perceived stress both in short- and long-term and also cause negative attitude toward drugs among them.