Prediction of substance abuse tendency and Internet addiction based on perceived social support and stress coping styles by mediating emotional intelligence

This study aimed Prediction of substance abuse tendency and Internet addiction based on perceived social support and stress coping styles by mediating emotional intelligence.

The current study method was a correlation with a structural equation design. The study population included secondary school students in Tehran in the academic year 2018-2019. The sample size consisted of four hundred (400) students that based on the proposed method of Schumacher and Lomax (2004) was considered. Participants were selected by an accessible sampling method. Yung internet addiction questionnaire (1998), drug abuse (Farchad et al., 2006), emotional intelligence questionnaire based on Bradbury - Graves (2004), perceived social support developed by Zimet and colleagues (1988), The Lazarus and Folkman’ ways of coping questionnaire (1985) were completed by sample subjects. To test the hypothesis, the structural equations were used.

Findings suggest predictive variables of social support, stress coping strategies and emotional intelligence predict directly the tendency to drug abuse and internet addiction. Also, coping strategies and social support through emotional intelligence have a little meditative effect on the tendency to drug abuse but through the mediation have no significant effect on internet addiction.