Comparison of Family Functioning, Social Support and Irrational Beliefs in Addicted Addicts Undergoing Compulsory Treatment and Self-Reported Addicts in Treatment Centers

Addiction is one of the most important deviations and social harms and is considered a social disease whose physical and mental effects have negative consequences on the individual, family members, and society. This research was conducted to compare family functioning, social support, and irrational beliefs in open addicts undergoing compulsory treatment and self-reported addicts in treatment centers.

The research design is a comparative causal one, with the statistical population consisting of all open addicts undergoing compulsory treatment and self-identified drug addicts from private drug addiction treatment camps in Ahvaz. A total of 170 individuals (80 open addicts and 90 self-identified drug addicts) volunteered to participate in the study. The data was collected through the family functioning questionnaire of Cong et al. (2022), social support by Zimet et al. (1988), and unreasonable beliefs of the researcher (1402). The data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance.

The findings showed that family functioning, social support, and irrational beliefs of self-identified addicts and open addicts are different.

It is suggested that to improve the quality of the functioning of the families of self-identified drug addicts and open addicts, it is necessary to prepare a familiarization course with the optimal functioning of the family; attention to social support, and reduction of irrational thinking is recommended.