The Assessment of Self-Esteem in Addicted Women

Self-esteem is the level of respect which an individual pays to himself and his identity. Having healthy self-esteem is a fundamental need for human beings and lack of it may have some consequences. The aim of this study was to determine and compare the level of self-esteem among female addicts with normal control group. The study is an analytical cross-sectional study. The present study was conducted on three groups: imprisoned addicted women, addicted women in the society visiting welfare associations who did not have a background of imprisonment, and a control group including non-addicts who did not have the records of imprisonment and visiting health care centers to receive consultation services. Validated Persian version of the Rosenbergs self-esteem scale was used in this study. The Chi-square test, ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used. The mean age of participants was not statistically different in three groups (P = 0.75) but the other variables (i.e. level of education, job, location of living, and marital status) show significant statistical difference (P = 0.001).The mean score of self-esteem in the group of imprisoned addicts, addicts and control groups were respectively 14.87 ± 4.70, 15.16 ± 4.71, and 22.90 ± 5.06. The mean score in the control group is significantly higher than addict group (Chi-square = 74.97, P < 0.001). Lower level of self-steem should be considered as an important factor for tendency for drug abuse.