Original scientific paper
FAMILIAL RISK FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO DRUG ADDICTION ONSET - SUBGROUPS CONSTITUTING THE DRUG ADDICTS’ SAMPLE
Jadranka Ivandić Zimić
; Ured za suzbijanje zlouporabe droga Vlade Republike Hrvatske
Abstract
To the end of completing a PhD thesis, the research aimed at establishing familial risk factors contributing to drug addiction onset was carried out throughout 2008 and 2009. The research included 146 drug addicts, out of which 92 men, 51 women and three persons who neglected to specify their gender, as well as 134 control examinees, out of which 88 men, 45 women and one person who neglected to specify his/her gender. Since the results showed the drug addicts’ families to be significantly more burdened with familial risk factors present during the addict’s childhood and adolescence as compared to the controls, the addicted group was subjected to cluster analysis, to the primary effect of identifying possible constituting subgroups. By virtue of K-means method, 146 addicted examinees were grouped into five different groups (clusters) in which the presence of familial risk factors ranged from 10 to 90 percent.
The results of the cluster analysis confirmed the hypothesis that, when it comes to familial risk profile and psychosocial development, drug addicts do not pose as a homogenous group; in some addicts, familial risk factors did not play a crucial role in drug addiction onset which was facilitated by other bio-psychological and sociological factors.
Keywords
drug addicts; family; risk factors; cluster analysis; subgroups
Hrčak ID:
67790
URI
Publication date:
12.5.2011.
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