The Effectiveness of Dialectical Behavior Therapy on the Addiction-prone Male Junior High School Students

Introduction: Adolescence is a sensitive stage, in which people tend to use narcotic drugs and exacerbate the dependence in adulthood. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) on the addiction-prone male high school students. Materials and Methods: The present quasi-experimental study used a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The sample consisted of 60 10th-grade male students of Tonekabon, Iran, in the academic year 2015-2016. They were selected by multistage random sampling (random cluster sampling) and assigned to the experimental and control groups. The experimental group was subjected to DBT for 12 sessions of 60 minutes. To collect the data, the Addiction-Prone Questionnaire in Iranian adolescents was used. The data were analyzed, using the analysis of repeated measures in pretest, posttest, and follow-up stages with a significant level of P<0.05. Results: DBT significantly affected the indicators of internal dissatisfaction, risk behaviors, self-view, deviation from the norms, self-centeredness, and relationships with friends during the posttest period (P<0.05). Only 3 factors were unreliable; there was no significant difference between the positive thoughts and the family dissatisfaction (P>0.05). Insecurity, positive thoughts, and family dissatisfaction were not significant (P>0.05). Conclusion: DBT is effective in the components of addiction-prone male junior high school students.