الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Providing adolescents with credible, accurate, and age-appropriate information about the harm associated with substance abuse is a key component in prevention programs. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of an educational program on secondary school students’ attitudes toward addiction, coping patterns, self assertiveness and prevention of addiction. The study was conducted in four secondary schools for males at Zagazig city using an uncontrolled pre-post quasi- experimental study design on 235 first secondary year students. The data collection tools consisted of a self-administered questionnaire covering socio-demographic data, attitudes, opinions on prevention, and Rathus Assertiveness Scale. The researcher designed and implemented an educational program and assessed its effectiveness. The study revealed that smoking and substance abuse are low among students and their previous participation in preventive programs on addition is low, but the majority is willing to participate. The intervention led to increases in students’ awareness of the factors leading to substance abuse such as excessive spoiling and poverty, and in their opinions about the importance of substance abuse preventive measures and in prevention. There were significant improvements in their attitudes, assertiveness, and problem- focused as well as emotion- focused coping. The study intervent ion was shown to be an independent significant predictor of the scores of attitude, assertiveness, problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping, and opinion about prevention. Therefore, the educational program achieved its objectives in ameliorating students’ awareness, attitudes, assertiveness and coping. It is recommended that the program should be implemented on a wider scale in the study settings and in similar ones. |