The Effects of Drug Abuse Prevention Methods on Sensation Seeking, Mental Security and Attitude toward Substance Abuse among Adolescents

this study aimed to compare the effectivenesses of three methods of drug abuse prevention: a) cognitive-behavioral social, b) lecture, and c) short message system on sensation seeking, mental security and attitude toward substance abuse among high school students. One hundred and ninety two high school students were assigned randomly to four groups (three ex- perimental groups, one control group). Participants completed the Attitude toward Drug Abuse Inventory (Ghorbani, 2001), Sensation Seeking Scale (Zukerman, 1969) and Mental Security Inventory (Maslo, 1952) during pretest, posttest, and follow up phases. The first experimental group received 10 sessions of cognitive-behavioral social group training (2 hours a week), the second experimental group attended 10 lecture sessions and the third experimental group received preventive short messages for 75 days. The results of MANCOVA indicated that the effects of all three preventive methods on sensation seeking, mental security and attitude toward drug were significant. It was also found that the cognitive-behavioral social method was significantly more effective than the other two methods. The follow-up results indicated that the effects of the preventive methods continued after 100 days.