Social Capital and its Relationship with Drug Use among Southeast Iranian Adolescents

Abstract

<span><strong>Background: </strong><span>Social capital (SC) is one of the most important assets and a vital determinant of sustainable<br /><span>development of any country. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and the relationship<br /><span>between SC and substance use (SU) in Southeast Iranian adolescents.<br /><span><strong>Methods: </strong><span>This cross-sectional study was conducted among high school students in three cities located in south<br /><span>east of Iran. We recruited 600 adolescents (329 girls and 271 boys) through multistage sampling during<br /><span>September to November 2018. The data collection instrument was a self-administered standardized<br /><span>questionnaire that included basic demographic characteristics, SC constructs items, and questions about SU<br /><span>behavior in the participants.<br /><span><strong>Findings: </strong><span>The mean SC score among boys and girls studied was 3.46 and 3.33, respectively (from 5 score).<br /><span>Among the SC constructs, respectively, the lowest and highest score belonged to social trust and [2.84 in girls<br /><span>and 2.98 in boys with 95% confidence interval (CI) of 0.06-0.21, P < 0.001] and bonding to family (3.92 in<br /><span>girls and 4.25 in boys with 95% CI of 0.22-0.44, P < 0.001). The ever use prevalence of at least one substance<br /><span>abuse was 55.9% (n = 181) for boys and 36.6% (n = 68) for girls. Hookah (41.8%) and alcohol (16.9%) were the<br /><span>most substances abused by participants. One-point increase in score of the constructs of social participation,<br /><span>social cohesion, bonding with family, and bonding with schools was associated with a reduce of 17%, 22%, 26%,<br /><span>and 46% in the probability of ever SU, respectively.<br /><span><strong>Conclusion: </strong><span>There was a strong relationship between SU and SC. Thus, rising SC as an effective communitybased and indirect approach can help policy makers and professionals in preventing SU in Iran. However, prior<br /><span>to any intervention, identification of more causality may be required</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></span></span></span></span></span>