Family Functioning and Substance-use Tendency in Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Identity Coherence and Confusion

The increasing trend of substance-use tendency among the adolescents has attracted the psychologists' attention for many years. Literature has focused on the person- family interaction as the main cause of the tendency toward substance use and this interaction has been considered an important factor.
Accordingly, the present research aimed to investigate the relationship between family functioning and substance-use tendency among adolescents and study the mediating role of identity. 208 adolescents between 15 to 18 years old, answered the research tools including family adaptability and cohesion scale (FACES-I), Ericsson's social psychological stages inve -ntory, and the addiction potential scale (APS). The findings revealed an inverse relationship between balance, satisfaction and family interactions dimensions with addiction tendency. It was also showed that the imbalance in dimensions of family function had a significantly direct relation to addiction tendency, expect for the rigid dimension. In line with this, an inverse relation concerning identity cohesion and a direct relation concerning identity confusion were found with substance use tendency. The effect of the family unbalanced function on substance use tendency was significant through the mediation of identity confusion. The results indicated that the evaluation and the interventions which concentrate on both the family itself and its context are probably more efficient in substance use prevention or reduction among adolescents.